“Discuss how those in power in society maintain their dominant position in one text in your comparative course. Develop your response with reference to the text. The text I have studied is Sive by John B. Keane. Characters in this text maintain their power and dominant position through manipulation, fear and threats. Mena is a Read More …
Key Quotes
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 Read More …
Mena arrives with her hands full, with Sive following, wearing new clothes and high heels. Mike and Thomasheen go out and bring in the rest of the shopping. They bring in a crate of stout and open a bottle each. Sive is clearly conscious of her new clothes and is happy to swap her high Read More …
Mike quizzes Nanna on why Pats was in the house, but she replies, “Must a mother answer to her only son? Is there no respect for old people?” Mike is exasperated and says that it is hard trying to be a good son and a good husband, showing the difficulty he faces in trying to Read More …
Two weeks have passed since the end of the last scene and we see Nanna alone on stage as there is a knock on the door. Pats enters and says that he has been waiting for the past hour to get Nanna alone in the house. Nanna tells him that Sive has gone to town Read More …
Later that night, Sive is doing her schoolwork in the house, while Mena is washing a shirt and Mike is stitching. There is a knock on the door and we see that Thomasheen and Sean Dota have come to visit. The stage directions tell us that Sean Dota, ‘looks for a moment gloatingly at Sive,’ Read More …
After Mena and Mike leave the stage in a hurry, Nanna is seen on stage alone, smoking her pipe, which she has to hide from Mena. While alone, a man named Liam Scuab enters. He is described as ‘good looking and manly.’ He tells us that he saw Thomasheen running away from the house and Read More …
Mike enters and tells Mena about the good day he had at the fair and we can see that their fortunes have improved in recent times and that business is good. However, when Mike says, ‘money is the best friend a man ever had, ‘ the audience would be aware of the danger of the Read More …
For Leaving Cert English, you will be asked to study three texts as part of your comparative course, under different modes of comparison. Generally, you will study a novel, a play and a film. Your job is to compare the differences and similarities in all three texts under a certain mode, for example, Cultural Context, Read More …