How does O'Casey create audience sympathy and admiration for Juno in Act 3? You should refer to setting, use of language and plot development.

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Kerri Warnock

How does O’Casey create audience sympathy and admiration for Juno in Act 3? You should refer to setting, use of language and plot development.

With the euphoric ending of Act 1, Juno and The Paycock could have culminated with the rapture and satisfaction of the Boyle family, but instead, O Casey chose to write two more Acts.  In Act Three, O’Casey builds upon Juno’s character through setting, language and plot to ultimately portray her as a courageous heroine.

The start of the Act Three begins, yet again, in the Boyle residence. The atmosphere in the room is dismal; a dark November evening lit by a flickering fire clearly contrasts with the excitement and colourful ending of Act Two to create a sense of foreboding within the scene. Conversation between Mary and Juno reveals that Mr. Bentham has deserted Mary with no ‘imaginable’ reason. It is within this conversation that O’Casey starts to create audience sympathy for Juno. As a mother trying to console her child, the audience immediately favours Juno. Although she seems to say the ‘wrong things’, O’Casey makes it clear to the audience that Juno is trying her best for her daughter:

“But you shouldn’t be frettin’ the way you are; when a woman loses a man, she never knows what she’s afther losin’, to be sure, but, then, she never knows what she’s afther gainin’, either.”

After creating admiration for Juno by making it clear to the audience that she is concerned about her daughter, O’Casey arouses sympathy by using the words of her daughter:        

        “It would have been useless to tell you – you wouldn’t understand.”

This rebuke from Juno’s daughter obviously hurts Juno, and we as an audience sympathise with her as she only tried to comfort her child.

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        Immediately after this conversation, we learn that Boyle has taken “pains in me legs” again. As witnesses to the antics of Boyle for two previous scenes, the audience would understand that Boyle’s “ pains in [his] legs” are only a means of escape, and it is from this point on that the audience would also suspect that there is a chance that no money is coming for Juno, who is heavily in debt. By giving the audience information that Juno does not know, O’Casey prompts them to sympathise for Juno. This is evidence of the timing within the scene that ...

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