Rising of the Moon Term Paper

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Sergeant

In Lady Gregory's The Rising of the Moon, the character of the Sergeant begins the action as an already transformed man. He was once loyal to his home country, Ireland. As he grew older, however, the lure of money and good living brought him to his profession of Sergeant and his loyalty to England. It is with the Sergeant in this position that the play begins. The central conflict then occurs within the Sergeant, who is ultimately transformed to let his former ideals overrule his loyalty to English law.

The ragged man, who is the protagonist of the play, makes his appearance as the Sergeant waits alone to make the arrest. According to Saddlemyer (94) the freedom fighter and criminal represents the Sergeant's "antithetical self." In other words, the ragged man reminds the Sergeant of the importance of all the ideals that he has betrayed. Apparently these ideals are still strongly enough embedded in the policeman to override the alternative loyalties to money and the protection of England. Thus, the Sergeant experiences a transformation once again -- he returns to his former loyalty to Ireland and lets the ragged man escape.

It is clear from the beginning of the play that the Sergeant intends to capture the criminal. However, the transformation towards English loyalty is not sufficiently strong to entirely remove the Sergeant's former patriotism. Listening to the ragged man's arguments therefore easily changes the Sergeant's original intentions and values back to what they had been before.

The moon is then symbolic not only of the new Ireland (Saddlemyer, 88), but also of the "new" Sergeant. The moon that rises is also symbolic of the removal of darkness. The Sergeant in his initial transformation has succumbed to the dark attractions of money and power, which led him to betrayal.

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He remedies this however by means of his final decision to let the freedom fighter go free. He does this regardless of the possible consequences to himself. Obviously the most concrete of these is that he will not receive the reward money for capturing the criminal. Furthermore he is putting his livelihood at risk for the sake of his loyalty to Ireland.

In this way then the Sergeant is twice transformed -- first to the money-loving policeman serving the English cause. Secondly he is transformed back to the patriotic Irishman he used to be by being reminded of the ideals and values that still remain in his heart. The moon serves to both symbolically and actually illuminate these hidden ideals.

The Play according to Aristotle

There are a number of requirements that Aristotle identifies for a work of art to be considered a play in general and a tragedy in particular. Lady Gregory's The Rising of the Moon is considered a tragedy by current critics. Below is a consideration of various Aristotelian aspects of the play and the tragedy, and how these apply to Lady Gregory's work.

According to Aristotle, the play is an imitation of action, and "a plot, since it is an imitation of an action, must be an imitation of an action that is one and whole" (Poetics, 1451a20-22). Furthermore, the philosopher holds that this action must be so unified within the plot that no part of it can be removed without substantially altering the plot. I believe that Lady Gregory has achieved this in her play. The action occurs within a very short space of time, and every action is indicative of the Sergeant's conflict and final resolution.

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