What picture does O’Casey paint of the life and people of the Dublin tenements in 1920 in his play “The shadow of a gunman”? In your answer you should also comment on the ways in which O’Casey achieves his affect through characterisation and dramatic impact.
Sean O’Casey paints a very dangerous although not totally realistic picture of the life and people of the Dublin tenements in 1920. He is not wrong, but just over exaggerates to make it more interesting. The play is about a man (Donal Davoren) who is ‘the shadow of a gunman’. He actually is just a ‘poet on the run’ but most of the members of the tenements think he’s an ‘IRA gunman on the run’! The reason for not telling people he is not a gunman is the young and beautiful Minnie Powell; she falls in love with not him, BUT his imaginary status of being a runaway gunman. A good example of this is where Seamus says “A Helen of Troy come to live in a tenement! You think a lot about her simply because she thinks a lot about you, an’ she thinks a lot about you because she looks upon you as a hero – a kind o’Paris……she’d give the worl’ and all to be gaddin’ about with a gunman”