Cultural Context - Comparative Flashcards
Why significant social change does not occur,
How Setting and social class affects the characters in Sive
In Sive by John B Keane, life in 1950s Ireland was full of poverty and high levels of emigration.
Over half a million people emigrated in the 50s and 60s.
This is referenced in the play. We hear that Sive’s dad went to Britain to find work in hopes to make enough money to make a home for Sive’s mother.
Because of so many young people moving abroad, there was a tendency for society to remain conservative and unwilling to accept now ways of thinking.
Life in the Galvin household is primitive. The house is poorly furnished and there is no running water.
However the tide is turning in the play.
Pats Bocock tells Mena “there is money-making everywhere”. Mena is starting to make good money. However the change is too slow to make a real difference to Sive’s life.
The fact that society has a more conservative influence means that Mena is critical of Sives Second level education. She said she “worked from dawn to dusk to put aside her fortune”.
This shows how the setting and social class effects every character, not just the main one.
Gender roles and how they effect characters in the play Sive
The world of Sive is a mainly Patriarchal Society.
Men are in control and women are generally confined to the home.
The older generation of men will only marry a woman if she brings money to the table.
Mike is shocked when Mena tells him a wealthy farmer wants to marry Sive.
“What farmer of that size would want to take her without money”.
Became of this patriarchy, Mena criticises Sive for her second level education saying she had to “work from Dawn to dusk to put aside my fortune”.
Women were treated as second class citizens.
Mena tries to convince Sive that Seán Dóta will allow her to have liberty she will not have otherwise.
“You will have no enemy when you have the Name of Money”
Love and Marraige in the Play Sive
The play considers love in relation to its social implications rather than a private emotional issue.
Mena and Thomasheen represent a cynical view of love.
Mena grew up in poverty and her only escape was Marraige.
Because of her upbringing, she thinks Sive should consider herself lucky to have the opportunity to marry a wealthy man like Seán Dóta.
Thomasheen regards love as a sort of business transaction.
He arranges the match between Sive and Seán Dóta because he gets paid if the union goes well. Sives happines and love for Liam meant nothing to him.
Religion in the Play Sive
Religion shapes the attitudes and views of the characters in the play.
Ireland was a heavily Catholic Society at the time which influenced Mena’s and Seán Dóta’s harsh treatment of Sive due to her illegitimacy.
She is shamed for it and it is used as a tool to make her accept the match with Seán Dóta.
Thomasheen tells Sive that she will humiliate her publicly for being a bye-child is she doesn’t agree to their proposal.
Mena does the same thing.
“The child was born out of wedlock……who will take the slur and doubt hanging over her?”
Family in the Play Sive
In Sive, there is little tolerance for any version of family life that doesn’t conform to societal norms.
Sive is constantly reminded that her parents were unmarried and therefore is less respected than those born in wedlock.
Mena constantly calls Sive a “common bye-child - a bastard” who should consider herself lucky that a man like Seán Dóta is willing to marry her.
The older generation feel that traditional views of older men marrying young girls is better than finding love.
This is why Liam’s love for Sive is so looked down on.
People are also looked down on for their family situation as well.
Nanna won’t allow Mena to forget her poor upbringing and Mena and Mike distrust Liam because Sive’s father was a relation of his.
Mike is convinced that Liam is like “his snake of a cousin” and he will not treat Sive honourably.
Hard work and labour + expectations that survival is based off of the hard work you do in the Play Sive
In Sive, Mena expected Sive to “play her part” instead of going to school and getting an education.
Your place in society and your economic background are based off the work you put in and the Marraige proposals you will get.
Setting and social class in the Cove
The cove by Ron Rash was set in Marshill, Appalachian Mountains, North Carolina in 1918 during WW1.
For many people in the text, life is difficult, but life is exceptionally difficult as they live outside f Marshill in the Cove.
Life in the cove is dark and desolate.
Laurel and Hank were left orphaned as both of their parents died whilst Hank was conscripted.
Laurel and her Brother Hank at regarded as the bottom of the social class system because of where they
Gender roles in The Cove
Predominantly patriarchal society.
Women did mostly housework and men’s worked on farms if they were not drafted into the war. However life is different in the Cove.
When Hank returned from war, he lost both of his arms and work on the farm had to be shared betwee the siblings and Slidell.
Love and Marraige in the Cove
Religion in the Cove
Family in the Cove
Hard work and labour + expectations that survival is based off of the hard work you do in The Cove
