Unmotherly Figures in the Drama of Marina Carr

This thesis will offer an analysis of the roles played by the mothers The Mai and Hester in Marina Carr’s The Mai and By the Bog of Cats...., two of three plays in Carr’s Midlands trilogy. Firstly, the play The Mai will be analysed with the focus on the maternal experiences of the women in The Mai’s family. Through generations, the women form certain behaviour patterns that are being passed down through the stories they retell each other as they shape the way their perceive their role as a mother, making children secondary. These stories are built upon myths and legends that eventually become real as the women (sub)consciously succumb to its fables. Secondly, the focus will be put on the play By the Bog of Cats... as to examine the longing for the absent mother that Hester is experiencing. Having no parental guidance affected her perception of her motherly identity and eventually propped her to commit filicide. This play also features mythical elements that are used to emphasise repetition of behaviour patterns, as well as predestiny and inevitable fate