Shadow of the Glen

In the Shadow of the Glen, a one-act play by John Millington Synge from 1903. It was performed in Moleworth Hall and caused a scandal as nationalists claimed the play would besmirch the honour of Irish women. The following article is still in progress. Therefore please consider it as a collection of notes for now.

Characters

Daniel Burke, an elderly farmer

Nora Burke, his young wife

Michael Dara, a youthful shepherd

A Tramp, a tramp

Origin

The play is based on some motives of an Irish folktale. In the folktale a man who pretends to be dead surprises his wife with her lover and reacts very violently. While being on the Aran Islands Synge was told this story by Pat Dirane, a Gaelic storyteller. Synge has left out the effects of the story; he leaves out the enactment of the adultery and the bloodbath at the end.

Themes

In the Shadow of the Glen Synge puts the theme of freedom/vastness into a contrast to the limitedness of the characters. Here the Tramp represents freedom and Nora (at least at the beginning) stands for limitedness. The play conveys that only the vagrants are free to some extent. However, their lifestyle is not presented as a solution here, but as a temporary escape from everyday-life. Nevertheless, in contrast to the materialistic shepherd Michael, the Tramp is presented as a positive figure as he lives in harmony with nature. He is a rather differentiated figure, which is untypical for one-act plays. This differentiation can also be found in the figure of Nora. As the central figure, she is afflicted with her husband and the monotony of the region. Her view of life corresponds to the one of the Tramp. With the figure of Nora Synge explores timeless themes such as the dire straits of an individual in a threatening scenery and the misery of a emotional and sexual dissatisfying marriage. Therewith Synge challenges the stereotype of the Irish woman. Nora is an individual and not a symbol like in many Irish stories. Further Synge thematises the transience of life and beautiful youth as well as phantasy and imagination. In In the Shadow of the Glen Ireland is not presented as a locus amoenus, as an idealized place in nature, rather nature conveys an atmosphere of threat and danger – nature as the “men’s ultimate defeat”.