The Countess Cathleen (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: William Butler Yeats
- First Published: 1892
- Type of Work: Play
- Type of Plot: Allegory
- Time of Work: Indeterminate
- Setting: Ireland
- Genres: Drama, Symbolist literature
- Subjects: Folkloric or magical people, Supernatural, Legends, Folklore, Allegory, Disasters, Natural disasters, Devils or demons, Ireland or Irish people, Monsters, Peasantry or peasants, Nobility, Evolution, Celtic Twilight, Celts, Famines
- Locales: Ireland
Characters Discussed
Countess Cathleen, an Irish noblewoman who has been away from home for many years. In a time of famine, she has returned to her castle, seeking shelter within its walls from the evils of the outer world. Her desire to retreat is undermined by repeated encounters with the starving peasantry, whose pleas for assistance cause her to empty her purse before she can rediscover the lost way to her castle. She resists the urging of her poet-lover Aleel to retreat yet further, embracing instead her duty to her dependents. Concluding that no place is safe from the...
[The entire page is 989 words long]
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