The Quare Fellow (Masterplots II: Drama, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Brendan Behan
- First Published: 1956
- Type of Plot: Tragicomedy
- Time of Work: The 1950’s
- Setting: Dublin, Ireland
- Principal Characters: Dunlavin, Neighbour, Regan, Crimmin, Holy Healey, The Hangman, The Quare Fellow
- Genres: Drama, Political drama, Tragicomedy
- Subjects: 1950’s, Values, Prisoners, Yards or backyards, Capital punishment, Ethics, Ireland or Irish people, Civil service
- Locales: Dublin, Ireland
The Play
The Quare Fellow begins and ends in song, with a prisoner in solitary confinement plaintively chanting the jailhouse dirge “The Old Triangle.” As a guard rouses prisoners in their cells, various of them begin talking, and one, an older man named Dunlavin, emerges polishing a chamber pot. He is tidying his cell, awaiting the visit of Holy Healey, a Justice Department representative who Dunlavin hopes will help him secure lodgings when he is eventually paroled.
The main topics of conversation are the imminent execution of a man who killed and mutilated...
[The entire page is 2366 words long]
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