Purgatory

-          W. B. Yeats (1865-1939)

           

In this play, there are four characters. Two of them are real. They are: a boy and an old man. Other two, the old man’s father and the old man’s mother, are ghosts.

            The boy is the old man’s son. He is sixteen years old. Walking along a road, they have arrived near to a ruined house and a bare tree. The boy is tired of hearing his father’s continuous talk.

            The old man shows the house and the tree to the boy and asks him to study them. He says that the house was not ruined and the tree was not bare before. He says that all those who were involved into bringing the house in such a pitiful condition suffer for their wrong-doings. Those who have done wrong to others may get purified only after getting the others’ help. Those who have done wrong to themselves will depend upon the mercy of God.

            There is only a stone in the place where once there was the old man’s house. The house belonged to his mother. She was a rich woman. She had a servant for training her horses. Later on, she married the servant. Her mother never spoke to her again.

            The old man’s mother died after she gave birth to him. After his mother’s death, his father spent everything in the house. His father committed a great crime by deceiving his mother. But his mother deceived herself by having a faith upon her treacherous husband. So, she is alone in her remorse even after her death.

            The old man’s father did not send him to a good school. He learnt to read from a gamekeeper’s wife. He learnt Latin from a Catholic curate. He got a lot of information of his country and people by reading many bulky books of history.

            When the old man was sixteen, his father set the house on fire. So, he was enraged and killed his father with a knife. Then, he threw his father’s body into the fire. He ran away and became a street vendor.

            The boy thinks that his father is mad. He doesn’t see anything except the bare walls when the old man sees the picture of his mother and father. The old man hears the sound of hoof-beat but the boy does not hear that, too. The old man says that he was conceived by his parents when both were drunk.

            Meanwhile, the boy tries to steal the old man’s money. He also demands his share of the property. He threatens to kill his father if he is not given his share of the property.

            The old man thinks that his mother’s soul is remorseful because she gave birth to the murderer of her husband. If his son grows older, he will also marry a woman and continue the pollution. So, he decides to finish the cause of the pollution. And he stabs his son with the same knife that he had used to kill his father. Still he realizes that his mother’s soul is not free. So, he prays to God for her release.
Watch the drama: PART I
                           PART II  
                           PART III