A PSYCHOLOGICAL AUTOPSY OF HESTER SWANE IN 1MARINA CARR'S BY THE BOG OF CATS...

Marina Carr (1964- ), a prominent contemporary Irish playwright, draws attention by pointing out the different experiences of women in her plays. Her Midlands trilogy, namely The Mai (1994), Portia Coughlan (1996) and By the Bog of Cats… (1998), is at the heart of her career since her unconventional mother portraits endowed with aggression and violence at different degrees in each play create a tremendous impression on the Irish reader/audience. The last play of Carr's Midlands trilogy, By the Bog of Cats…, is also of success as it reaches more audience, exceeding the borders of Ireland. While this play denies the myth of perfect motherhood in the portrait of Hester Swane, Carr puts forward the individual troubles and desires of her mother character and confounds her reader/audience with Hester's different shades of violence. This mother nds herself in trouble after her daughter's father leaves her and decides to marry another woman. Waiting for her own mother who left her when she was seven and promised her to return to the bog of the Midlands, Hester does not want to depart from her land and separate from her daughter. This leads her to violence in different degrees in that she even murders her daughter and commits suicide. This paper sets out to analyse what lurks behind Hester's violence and particularly her suicide and highlight the protagonist's self-destruction in the context of psychological autopsy which refers to the process of examining one's death in relation to the person's problems, feelings and thoughts before the death.

MARINA CARR'IN “BY THE BOG OF CATS...” ADLI OYUNUNDA HESTER SWANE'IN PSİKOLOJİK OTOPSİSİ

Günümüzde önemli bir İrlandalı oyun yazarı olan Marina Carr (1964), oyunlarında kadınların farklı deneyimlerini göstererek dikkat çeker. The Mai (1994), Portia Coughlan (1996) ve By the Bog of Cats… (1998) adlı oyunlardan oluşan Midlands üçlemesi, farklı derecelerde saldırganlık ve şiddetle donatılmış alışılmadık anne tasvirleriyle İrlandalı okuyucu/izleyici üzerinde büyük bir etki yarattığından yazarın kariyerinin merkezindedir. Midlands üçlemesinin son oyunu olan By the Bog of Cats… İrlanda sınırlarını aşarak daha çok izleyiciye ulaştığından daha da başarılıdır. Bu oyun Hester Swane tasvirinde mükemmel annelik mitini reddederken, Carr anne karakterinin kişisel sorunlarını ve isteklerini öne çıkarır ve okuyucu/izleyicisini Hester'in farklı türdeki şiddetiyle şaşırtır. Bu anne kızının babası onu terk edince ve başka bir kadınla evlenmeye karar verince zorda kalır. Yedi yaşındayken kendisini terk eden ve Midlands bataklığına geri döneceğine söz veren annesini bekleyen Hester toprağından ve kızından ayrılmak istemez. Bu onu farklı türde şiddete sürükler; öyle ki, kızını bile öldürür ve intihar eder. Bu çalışma, Hester'in şiddeti ve özellikle intiharı ardındakini incelemeyi ve başkarakterin intiharını bir kişinin ölümünü, ölmeden önceki sorunları, duyguları ve düşünceleri bağlamında inceleme süreci olan psikolojik otopsi bağlamında vurgulamayı amaçlar.

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