W.B. Yeats: Searching for a National Identity through the Ritual of Theatre

Abstract

W.B. Yeats was a leading figure in the Irish Literary Revival, a movement which set out to promote Irish literature in an attempt to create a sense of national pride and identity amongst its people. As part of this movement, Yeats and his colleagues established the National Theatre Society, with the aim of raising the awareness of the Irish to their cultural heritage through the medium of theatre. This thesis sets out to show that Yeats’ dramatic works made little impact on the national consciousness, primarily because the plays were more concerned with the expression of his personal views and ideals, and the development of his own dramatic career as an innovator of theatrical experimentation. The dramas presented a Romanticised and “ideal” Ireland that was of little relevance to the everyday lives of its people and did not take into account the prevailing religious beliefs, nor the cultural and social circumstances of the time. Yeats also used his plays as vehicles to express his annoyance and frustration at what he viewed to be the increasingly narrow-minded and petty attitudes of his fellow countrymen. The highly ritualistic and symbolic form of drama that Yeats adopted for his productions culminated in the plays based on the Japanese Noh form of theatre: these works demonstrated ground-breaking theatrical techniques but were set at an intellectual and “otherworldly” level that placed them beyond the reach of the average theatregoer. A selection of plays from the period mid-1890s-1916 will be discussed with particular attention given to subject matter, language style and form, stage setting and method of acting. The aim is to show how Yeats’ use of these elements tended to hinder rather than help his nationalistic endeavours. The discussion will take into account the social conditions of Dublin and the demographic of the typical audience member at the turn of the twentieth century.