on under which men also cannot be truly free, though they may not realize it. Nora is a woman who has an understanding that extends beyond the limited education she has been allowed to have by her father and husband. Her childish innocence turns to resolve by the end of the play. The play represents the state of relations between men and women in the nineteenth century, with the males clearly in a dominant position and the women serving as adjuncts to their fathers and husbands. The play suggests that the prevailing situation can be changed, and at the end of the play Nora stands as an example to other women. She may be a victim of her society, but she is a victim who now knows she can fight back and change her situation.
Sean O'Casey wanted to be a voice for a new Ireland, but after The Plough and the Stars was rejected by the very audience for which it was written because of its unsympathetic portrayal of those involved in the Easter Rebellion, O'Casey left Ireland for Britain. Interestingly, the play has become one of those most performed in Ireland since that time. The 1916 rebellion is the background for the play, and it was a period of disturbance in Irish history. The play begins in 1915 and prepares for the tragedy to come in 1916. Nora and Clitheroe are introduced by Fluther Good and Mrs. Gogan. This Nora has not been married long, and she and her husband are beginning to quarrel. She is unhappy living in a tenement house and would also like to dress in better clothing than Jack can afford. This marriage is not the false ideal seen in Ibsen, and this Nora is far more outspoken and demanding at the same time than Ibsen's Nora is. Mrs. Gogan describes how the couple started out: "The pair o' them used to be like two turtle doves always billin' an' cooin'" (O'Casey 164). Mrs. Gogan thinks that Clitheroe has become disenchanted with having a woman about.
Nora is actually a woman with higher ambiti
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