Mena emerges from the room in hysterics, shouting that Sive is gone. “There’s a bundle of clothes under the quilt where she should be lying. She’s after stealing away on us!” She tells them that she has taken nothing, not even shoes for her feet. They go to check Nanna’s room to see if she is there, but she isn’t.
They are all trying to figure out where she could be and Pats tells them that he did see something earlier on his way to the house. “I thought I saw the figure of a girl flashing across the bog near the end of the cutaway where the deep holes do be.” He is criticised by the others for not saying anything. Thomasheen roars at him, “you oul’ dirty twisted bocock! Damn well you knew!
Mena is worried that Sive might fall into one of the holes. Is she concerned about Sive or the money from Sean Dota? Mike and Thomasheen get ready to set off looking for Sive but are stopped by Liam Scuab who enters the scene. The following stage directions show what is happening:
“Enter Liam. He is bareheaded and his clothes are wet. His face is ghastly pale. In his arms he carries Sive. Her hair is plastered to her head and her slight body hangs limp in Liam’s arms. Liam advances without looking left or right…..Reverently Liam lays the motionless body on the table…Liam folds Sive’s hands across her breast.
It is clear that Sive is dead and there is silence in the room. Tension fills the air. Thomasheen and Sean Dota ‘sneak’ out the door. They are the cause of this death, yet do not stay. Liam explains what happened while tears fall from his face. He tells Mike and Mena, “she took her own life. It was a while before I found her. The poor tormented child.” He then turns on Mena, “You killed her! You horrible filthy bitch! That the hand of Jesus may strike you dead where you stand.” Mena cannot speak and simply puts her hand in front of her mouth. Liam is apoplectic and roars, “You are polluting the pure spirit of the child with your nearness. Go away, witch! As he does so, he motions as if to strike Mena. Mena runs off stage.
Mike, who is in a daze speaks idiotically as he says that he must get the priest. He says that she must be buried in holy ground. This is a reference to the fact that those who took their own lives were not deemed to be worthy of burial in consecrated grounds. It may also highlight how he knows that it was not Sive’s fault that she ended her life, she did so because she was forced into a marriage for the financial benefit of others. Mike says he can’t go for the priest alone. Liam says he’ll take him past where she was drowned and that he will find company there. He will not go for the priest with him.
They leave the stage and Sive’s body is alone on stage with Pats and Carthalawn, who sings a a song to finish the play. “Oh! They murdered lovely Sive, she would not be a bride, And they laid her dead, to bury in the clay.”
The final scene is a poignant one as a weeping Nanna bows over Sive’s corpse, bringing the play to a close.
Questions:
- Describe the actions of Sean and Thomasheen in this scene. What does it tell us about them?
- Describe what happened to Sive according to Liam.
- Greed cost Sive her life. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Discuss your answer with reference to the play. (1.5 page answer)
- The letter that Sive never read makes her death even more poignant. Do you agree ot disagree? Explain your answer.
- Imagine you are Mena, write the diary entry you would write after seeing Sive’s dead body.
- Write the text of the conversation between Nanna and Mike later that night.