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The Beauty Queen Of Leenane Analysis

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The differing, yet troubled, representations of mental illness in Patrick McCabe’s The Holy City and Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane

Eoghan Scott
Student Number: 112352236
Irish Writing & The Comic; Maureen O’Connor

Mental illness plays a significant role in both Patrick McCabe’s The Holy City and Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane. Both texts are imbued with a bleak outlook on life, an outlook which is only enhanced by the rural trappings in which the characters find themselves confined; however, in each text, the darkness and austerity present is undercut by frequent lashings of black comedy. In this essay, I will discuss the authors’ representations of mental illness in their respective texts and the black …show more content…

Though one could maybe point to this as a rather short-sighted manner of approaching mental illness, it is interesting to note that neither McDonagh nor McCabe at any point actually diagnose their creations as mentally ill. Rather, this essential character trait is simply alluded to throughout both texts. The lack of a concrete diagnosis of the characters, that might give the reader a full insight into the motive behind their actions, allows the writers to play with their afflictions as more of a plot device than it otherwise could have been were they to be restricted to medical accuracy and fact; rather, mental illness in both texts is implied and alluded to, through references to past stays at psychiatric hospitals or even simply the actions of the characters themselves. Nonetheless, in both texts, the depiction of mental illness can be seen as problematic so far as it concerns the simplification of the characters’ psychological disorders for seemingly the sole purpose of dramatic …show more content…

In most cases, people who are portrayed with mental illnesses are commonly exhibited as being violent and/or aggressive, but are also frequently depicted as eccentrics, seductresses (in the case of women), self-obsessives, objects for scientific observation, simpletons and/or failures. One or more of these such labels can reasonably be applied to the characters examined in both The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Holy City... As such, a skewed, and ultimately rather unsavoury, picture of mental illness is often presented to the public. There is plenty of evidence that these pervasive negative portrayals can have harmful effects, particularly effects they might incur through perpetuating the stigma associated with mental illness as well as potentially reducing the likelihood that those with mental illness will seek out the appropriate help. In April 2005, a psychological review put together by Jane Pirkis, R Warwick Blood, Catherine Francis and Kerry McCallum examined the effect of fictional portrayals of mental illness. They made reference to studies that have employed surveys and focus groups to examine the sources of community attitudes towards mental illness, having found that the media in general are perceived as the root of such

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