Setting

As a regional Irish story, the play's setting is crucial to the plot. The play takes place in Ireland, which has a notably stormy history when it comes to both religious and labor disputes. In addition to these issues, which are explored throughout the play, O'Casey chooses to place the play in a poor tenement house in the Dublin slums. The stage notes describe the Breydons' apartment as "two rather dilapidated rooms in a poor working-class locality." This is important to the plot because the protagonist, Ayamonn, is a working-class hero who martyrs himself for their cause. By placing the play within the slums, then, the audience gets to see life from the perspective of the working class, and thus roots for Ayamonn and his cause.

Language

As in most of O'Casey's works, this play relies on the use of authentic Irish common speech, identified with a thick...