Form and Content
In The Gaol Gate, Isabella Augusta Persse deploys a minimalist writing style to tell the story of two women who travel to a jail for news about their relative. There are only three characters in this very brief one-act play: two are named Mary, and the other is not given a name but is "The Gatekeeper."
Persse provides little context or stage direction, so readers must piece together Denis Cahel's situation as the women converse. Denis's mother and wife presumably know each other intimately; therefore, they speak like two people having a private conversation with no audience. This means the readers must rely on their dialogue to decipher the situation.
As we might expect from two relatives of an imprisoned man, the women express sympathy for Denis and excuse his behavior. Mary Cahel pleads, "he might not have done what they say," and argues that "the boy have no blame on him at all." Because the sergeant claims to have inebriated Denis to withdraw information, the women defend Denis: if his mind were affected by alcohol, his words could not be held against him. The play is full of phrases like "poor Denis" and "my boy that was the best in the world," as the women lean on their own compassion for Denis in the face of the town's hatred and potential "vengeance."
As the play continues, we learn that the women have a letter with them that they have not read. Mary Cahel asks the rhetorical question, "Isn't it a great pity for the two of us to be without learning at all?" These two poor women from the Irish countryside community of Daire-caol are illiterate and thus cannot glean any important information about Denis. Persse establishes sympathy for the women while also demonstrating the sorry state of education in rural Irish communities in the early 20th century.
When the gatekeeper reveals Denis's execution and returns the man's clothes to the women, he tells them, "It is little they are worth … mountainy boys do be poor." Denis had only his one set of clothing in the jail, and the women take it home for Denis's child. The family's illiteracy and poverty both build the rural setting and set up social commentary. As a proponent of the Irish Literary Revival, Persse portrays Irish life realistically in her work. Here, she illustrates the tragedy of the working poor in Ireland in the early 1900s.
Similarly, Persse establishes the community at Daire-caol as tight-knit but exclusive, if they feel someone has wronged the town. Other than the issue of Denis's imprisonment and death, the central conflict of the story is the family's exclusion from their community. Because Denis is said to have given the authorities information damning Terry and Pat, the families of those men have lashed out against the Cahels.
The situation is so dangerous that the women have come to the jail "to give [Denis] a warning," assuming he is released. Sure that Denis will be freed, the women strategize the next steps. Mary Cahel remarks, "It is only among strangers, I am thinking, he could be hiding his story at all." She suggests Mary Cushin, Denis, and their child move to America, "where the people are as thick as grass." This simile indicates that America is more densely populated, so the family could blend in, unlike in their small town, where everyone knows everyone else and likely has for generations.
In America, they could start over, away from the town that now threatens them. Mary Cushin claims that Denis's mother won't be safe in the town,...
(This entire section contains 989 words.)
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even with Denis across the Atlantic. She says, "It is not among the neighbours you would wish to be ending your days." She starts thinking of nearby places she could live or work and "not … give them [her] name." In other words, anyone connected to Denis will have to uproot their entire lives to avoid the wrath of the Daire-caol villagers.
When the women turn their attention to properly mourning, they note that it is a shame he will not be given a true burial: he died alone and was buried alone. Because the reader has no real sense of Denis's character, of his guilt or innocence, we can only be persuaded by the women's opinions of him and his legacy. As his wife and mother, they obviously want to focus on his best traits and make an argument for why he should be mourned and "keened for."
The women's references to "keening" connect to a Gaelic funeral tradition in which people would sing laments at the grave of a lost family member. Here, Persse again highlights the traditional Irish culture that writers of the Irish Literary Revival hoped to reclaim and celebrate. For Mary Cahel and Mary Cushin, the absence of keening is a severe injustice to Denis.
Mary Cahel vows to "Tell it out in the streets" that Denis sacrificed his own life for his neighbor. She says she will "call to the people and the singers at the fairs to make a great praise for Denis!" This action would help the family grieve but would also keep Denis's name and reputation alive. The women need to leave a legacy for Denis's son to remember him by. As Mary Cahel notes, "it is great will be his boast in his father" because if Denis is eulogized as heroic, his son will be proud and take comfort in his memory. However, as the two women leave the stage at the play's conclusion, it's only the two of them, vowing to keen for Denis. Readers wonder how much impact their words will have if no one else joins their song.
Ultimately, Persse's short play creates a realistic but poignant tragedy about life in the Irish countryside through the women's dialogue, references to Irish tradition, and an emphasis on the impoverished, rural, small-town setting.
