Irish Cultural Studies

The struggle for Irish independence is the central theme of William Butler Yeats ' Easter , 1916 . Yeats ' view of the revolutionary and national movements before the Easter Rising rebellion reflects his opinion of the need to rethink the ideologies and leadership of the initiatives . Furthermore , Yeats illustrates that there is a need for civil society to break its complacence and acceptance of the English rule of the country . He believed that the independence movements lacked public support and was too mired in politicking of its leaders

Yeats counts himself among the people in

society that practice the exchange of Polite meaningless words ' without having any real interests in other people in Ireland , as suggested by the line lived where motley is worn (Yeats line 8 , 14 . This view of society reflects Yeats ' view that the Irish people have become used to their society and have become apathetic and uninterested with the concerns of their countrymen . He illustrates that social exchanges have become ritualized that neither affords the discussion of real issues whose sole purpose is for entertainment , to a companion , or to impress others (line 11

Yeats ' views are supported by Charles Townshend 's analysis of the events that built up to the rebellion : majority of the debates where limited to a few societies and even if there were affluent patrons of the independence movements , there was a general reluctance from being associated with the initiatives (44-52 . Another difficulty in creating progress is the fact that issues were often tied up in political debate without social reform . At times , the issues were even viewed as concern limited to only a few social circles which in turn had their own particular issues (Easter Rising 1916 : From Home Rule to Independence

To illustrate this , Yeats presents the first of several characters associated with the rebellion . Modeled after Constance Markievicz , a countess advocating for the independence movement , he points out her ignorant good-will , implying a shallow understanding of the independence and its price (line 18 . In the case of his portrayal of Patrick Pearse , referred to as the man had kept a school , And rode our winged horse ' as well as that of his helper and friend , Thomas MacDonagh , Yeats clearly values their writing and educational efforts rather than their initiatives towards a revolution (lines 24-26

Right after the rebellion , Yeats observed that many of the so-called leaders of the independence movement were either shunned , became reserved in their beliefs and even vilified because of the association with Germany who was them at war with England (Townsend 117-129 . He uses this to further develop his thesis of the weakness of independence initiatives . He believes that few of the so-called leaders understood the implications of asserting for independence because they were more concerned in making impassioned speeches that fell on hardened hearts (Yeats , lines 53-59

At this point in the poem , Yeats again returns to the illustration of a society that has remained generally unresponsive to the idea of independence because it has come...