Trauma in Marina Carr’s Trilogy-The Mai, Portia Coughlan, ‎and By the Bog of Cats: A Psychological Perspective

نوع المستند : بحوث علمية محکمة

المؤلف

معيدة بقسم اللغة الإنجليزية كلية الآداب جامعة الوادي الجديد

المستخلص

This paper aims to proffer a psychological analysis of Marina Carr’s trilogy: The Mai, Portia Coughlan, and By the Bog of Cats. The researcher’s perspective on these plays is focused on trauma theory which lies at the heart of the trilogy, and their consequences that are going to be examined by psychological autopsy technique. This article aims also at defining the nature of the traumatic experience the heroines suffer from throughout the plays. Carr’s tragedy focuses on the psychological aspect of her characters, so the research will involve analysis of the heroines’ suicide. Each heroine is distinguished by “hamartia”, which is a defect or a fatal flaw of the character leading to her self-destruction (Kaufmann 64). According to Clare Wallace, the dramatization of destiny and fate in the plays reveals an engagement with the struggle of self with its own instability and insufficiency (437). The plays share numerous significant thematic and structural similarities, but what changes across the trilogy is the articulation of tragic destiny. The heroines of the trilogy are mature women. They all are mothers and have children whom they are not the center of their attention. Each of them is driven by uncontrolled obsessional hunger. The Mai, Portia Coughlan, and Hester Swane in By the Bog of Cats are also exposed to a conflict between their sense of self and their own reflection which they see in their husbands and their children. Agonized longing for someone missing is a prominent characteristic in her trilogy. The heroines share the inability to ensure their worth and rights along with self-effacement that result in suicide. Through this paper, the researcher is going to present a psychological study based on trauma theory which lies at the heart of the trilogy, and the causes that lead to the protagonists’ suicide by using psychological autopsy technique.
 

الكلمات الرئيسية

الموضوعات الرئيسية