This paper is an attempt to examine the political aspects of Yeats'splays, and, for that purpose, four of his major plays are selected andanalyzed: The Countess Cathleen, Cathleen ni Houlihan, The Dreaming ofthe Bones and Purgatory. In the introductory part, the present writerbriefly surveys the ways how Yeats, finding in drama an effective means ofachieving the unity of culture for Ireland, dedicated himself to thedramatic movement and related activities.
The next and main part of the paper examines the selected plays,paying attention to the political themes and the other political elementsspecifically revealed in these plays. The early two plays, The CountessCathleen and Cathleen ni Houlihan, show the rare and sublime cases ofsacrifice and devotion directed toward the cause of Irish independence andwellbeing by creating two characters, an aristocratic lady who sacrificesher life and soul to save the starving peasants and a young man whorushes to the heroic death for Irish independence leaving behind his newbride and home. While The Dreaming of the Bones asks the political andhistorical meaning of the two most important events in Irish history: theDiarmuid and Dervorgilla episode of the 12th century and the EasterRising of 1916, Purgatory deals with the political and social implications ofthe destruction of an honored house caused by mesalliance. To the extentthat both of these middle and late plays end in a tragic note ofunforgiving bitterness and hatred, they can be regarded as the aestheticexpression of the real political and cultural situations of Irish society atthe time of their writing.
What this paper is trying to say as a conclusion is that the four playsdiscussed here reveal the political and ideological positions of Yeats as they developed in his early, middle and late years of life. In other words,they reveal the specific ways in which Yeats as an Anglo-Irish poet andplaywright tried to solve the problems and contradictions he faced in thechanging political and social situations of Ireland.