Purgatory

                                                  Purgatory

Summary

               The play ‘Purgatory’ was written by an Irish poet and dramatist W.B Yeats. In this play, the writer describes the suffering of a soul in purgatory because of its share when alive in the destruction of an honored house.

          Standing at the background of a ruined house and a bare tree, an wandering peddler is revealing the history of the house to his bastard son. It was an honored house in which the peddler himself, his mother and many great people of the nation had been born. The mother of the peddler had married a drunken groom without permission of her parents and had died after giving birth to him. The drunken groom had wasted away the estate and had destroyed the house setting fire on it. The peddler who was 16 years old then, had stabbed his father to death and had left the dead body in the burning house. Then he had escaped away to avoid Trial, had adopted the profession of wandering peddler at the end and had had son having relationship with a Tinker’s daughter.

          The pedlar, now an old man says that it is the anniversary of his parents wedding night when he was conceived. He also believes that his mother is not free from her past sin as she was partially responsible for the destruction of honored house. As a result, she has been suffering in purgatory, she has to reenact the same sinful act again and again. As it is the anniversary of his parents wedding, the ghosts of the pedlar's parents appear in the lighted window of the ruined house in the form of bride and bride groom. The pedlar pleads his mother not to let her husband touch her because otherwise the peddler, the murderer will be conceived. The boy thinks that his father has gone mad because he doesn’t see any ghost there.

           The boy demands for his share of money and complains with his father for not educating him properly. Then they fight over the bag of money. The boy even threatens to kill his father. When the ghost of the peddler’s parents appears for the second time, the boy sees them and gets terrified. As he closes his eyes, the peddler stabs his son to death with the same knife he had used to kill his father.

           The peddler then tries to justify his act of murder. He says that if he left his son alive, he would marry a girl and beget a child. Thus, the polluted blood of his father would pass onto new generation and the consequence of his mother’s sin would also be repeated. As long as the consequence of her sin is repeated, she will not be free from purgatory so the old man's motive in murdering his son is to release the tormented soul of his mother from purgatory by ending the chain of consequence.

           Even after killing his son, the peddler, hears the hoof beating of his father's horse and sadly realizes that his mother soul has not yet been free from purgatory. Finally, he praised to the God to release the tormented soul of his mother from purgatory.

    1.    What is the theme of “Purgatory”?  Explain it.

      Purgatory means the purification of human soul for renewal and new spiritual life. In this play, the old man sees problem everywhere. The man destroys all of his house and killed his own father, son and mother for the purification and cleansing of souls. In this play the old man or peddler kills his father and son for releasing his mother soul from purgatory but he was failed to do so. Also by killing his son, he claims that he stopped the endless cycle of violence. Purgatory is a story of remorseful of a departed soul that committed mistakes on itself while being alive. In order to purify itself, it is undergoing suffering in purgatory. It is also concerned with the living beings who suffer the consequences of the sin committed by the dead people while alive and the help rendered by the living beings to get the soul released from purgatory. So, this play suggests that the self-destruction is necessary for purification of human soul. The main theme of this play is that the crime of a father will be repeated by his son in an endless cycle of violence.

    2.    What is the old man’s motive in murdering the boy?

      The old man being a catholic believed that his mother’s soul still suffered in purgatory because of the sins she committed and because of the polluted blood that flows with in him and his son. He believes that his mother’s soul will never rest in peace until the cycle of polluted blood flowed in his generations. Moreover, his son trying to seize the money from him convinced him that his son would commit more sins later and pollute the blood even more. Thus, in order to help his mother’s soul rest in peace in heaven and to end the cycle of the sins committed by polluted blood, he killed the boy. Above all, the old man’s motive in murdering the boy was to lessen the sufferings in purgatory after death.

    3.    Discuss the kind of relationship between father and son in the play          ‘Purgatory’.

          The paly ‘Purgatory’ has shown the effects of the catholic belief on the living of the humans. The father in this play being an orthodox catholic believes that he has a polluted blood passed on by his mother and his son too, has polluted blood due to him. This makes him believe that his mother’s soul still suffers in purgatory and blames himself and his own son for his mother’s sufferings. Thus, the father and son have a relation of hatred and desire of revenge. The act in which his son tries to steal money from him makes him realize that his son too has a polluted blood and his son will commit more sins due to the same blood. Thus he kills his son to end the cycle of his polluted blood. Hence, the father and son do not have understandings but hatred and selfishness in their relationship.