Performativity, unruly bodies and gender in Brian Friel’s drama

Representations of Madness in Irish Society in the Drama of BrianFriel

“…The fact that she plans to tell these stories at her own welcome home party frightens and angers her family, as they fear being associated with the subversive force that Cass represents. 13 Tessa, the maid in Eden House, attempts to use religion and Cass's apparent lack of piety to make her feel ashamed for not being the quintessentially good Catholic woman. When Cass refuses to give Tessa a Christmas present bought for another resident, Tessa responds angrily, stating : "You dirty, mean aul' pagan!…”

“…As such it is an ideal setting through which to study the way in which the Repressive and Ideological State Apparatus of psychiatry, institutionalisation and guilt combine to both publicly and privately isolate and silence a particular section of society who do not conform to normative societal values. Friel's drama certainly critiques post-independence Ireland as a society stifled by a reified patriarchal authority and an economic, class and gender system reinforced and reproduced through the performative injunctions of "respectability" and status 13 . 10 Cass, in The Loves of Cass McGuire, is a character who encounters the Repressive and Ideological State Apparatuses of the institution and guilt, and both rails against and ultimately submits to these overbearing forces.…”