Writing from the late 1880s to the dawn of modern Ireland in the first two decades of the 20th century Yeats and Synge wrote their work during a period of national liminality; or what critic Seamus Deane calls "the long process of transforming [Ireland] from a British colony into a modern, independent state"[i]. The literature of both writers reflects this context of transition and is manifested in the way they draw on past tradition to forge a distinct literary identity. This can be explored in their use of symbolism, as both draw on myth and folklore – often of Irish origin – to depict a country reclaiming its own voice and autonomy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Nevertheless, the nature of nationalism for which this technique is used is obscured by the contradictory nature of their works, not least because Synge's depiction of nationalist groups saw the Irish peasantry in his plays as perpetuating stereotypes, and Yeats in his poems seems to prioritize the flourishing of the arts over the good of the masses. Additionally, the way they deploy shared symbols differs; the former uses his linguistic knowledge of Irish – a skill Yeats never mastered – to attempt to merge the Gaelic tradition with the predominant English language. On the other hand, the latter blurs the dreamscape with the landscape, challenging naturalism by appealing to an almost Berkeleyan framework to justify the mystical through a literature that reflects not an objective, but a mind-dependent reality. Both Yeats and Synge use symbols often taken from Irish folklore. to create narratives that borrow from the traditions of realism and fantasy, but paradoxically both writers claimed their works to be realistic presentations of Ireland. The language of Synge's Shadow of the Glen is saturated with – sometimes – obscure symbols, as in Tramp's advice to Nora: "perhaps if you used a piece of gray thread as a sharp needle, there would be some safety in a needle”. . The use of the needle to protect oneself from "evil spirits" finds its origin in the wisdom of an old man met by Synge in the Aran Islands[ii], a specificity which testifies to a desire to represent the peasant psyche. Indeed, Synge's inspiration for the piece came from hearing maids in the kitchen of his boarding house declare in his diary that artful performance and observance are "the question, I think, that is important, because in countries where the imagination of the people and the language they use are rich and alive, it is possible for a writer to be rich and abundant in his words, and at the same time to give reality, which is the root of all poetry, in a global way and natural form. »[iii] Thus, despite the fact that his language indulges the mystical, Synge asserts that his works are accurate representations of Ireland itself; a country he sees as inextricably linked to “the imagination of the people”. Yet not all of the play's symbols are so esoteric, for example the Tramp himself acts as an anonymous personification of Synge's wild yet idealized Irish landscape. This is particularly evident in her final piece of dialogue: "Come with me now, mistress of the house, and it is not only my chatter you will hear, but you will hear the herons calling on the lakesblack. » . The Tramp manages to beautify the depths of the "black lakes" by appealing to the autonomy it provides in relation to the constraints of domesticity of Nora's life with Pat: "you shall not sit on a wet ditch as you do. sitting there.” The critique of Irish domestic life through the symbol of a personified and exotic Ireland in the form of the Tramp, provoked reactionary reactions from contemporaries. nationalists, notably Arthur Griffith who declared: "Mr Synge - otherwise his play makes no sense - places Norah [sic] Burke before us as a type - "a personification of an average" - and Norah Burke is a lie. It is not by staging a lie that we can serve Ireland or exalt art”[iv]. The depiction of Nora can be directly contrasted with that of Yeat's 'Cathleen ni Houlihan' who is the symbolic female and peasant embodiment of Ireland's heroism. but also desexualized as she proclaims: “with all the lovers who brought me their love, I never got into bed for any of them”. In contrast, female sexuality is at the heart of Synge's controversy, also illustrated in The Playboy of the Western World, in which peasant women covet Christy despite his supposed parricide. Much of the reaction against Synge arose from the way in which he challenged, in his use of symbolism, the constraints placed on a movement which had to constantly show, in the words of Lady Gregory, WB Yeats and Edward Martyn, "that Ireland is not the country.” the home of buffoonery and facile sentiment, as it has been represented, but the home of an ancient idealism”[v]. Nevertheless, like Synge, Yeats also gives voice to "the imagination of the people" in his play Countess Kathleen, as Teig exclaims in the first scene: "they are the shape and color of an owl." 'America. And I’m half sure they have a human face.” Yet these views are not simply expressed as representations of the peasant psyche, but rather the folklore of the play becomes the basis of the narrative, reflecting Yeats's interest in spiritualism. With the arrival of the merchants, the magical element becomes an integral part of the reality of the diegesis; despite their supernatural nature, the merchants are presented as being just as material or objectively real as any other character in the play. So the symbols contained in the piece are not merely representational, but in this case, they are literal. This is a fact that is explicitly addressed when the first merchant states: "It is strange that she should think that we cast no shadows, for there is nothing on the crest of the world that is more substantial than the merchants who buy and sell you. The “substantial” nature of these beings is emphasized in the fact that they are material enough – or at least as material as any other object – to cast a “shadow”. Their reality may seem at odds with the otherwise naturalistic presentation of the lives of famine-stricken peasants; as the play shows, in the words of critic Michael McAteer, "the kind of seriousness characteristic of Ibsen, hidden in the frivolity of its fairy-tale motif"[vi]. This presents a duality which cannot be justified solely by appealing to a so-called Irish imagination, for one must also refer to Yeats's interest in the occult – a facet of his life which has been well documented by critics . Yeats himself said, following his disillusionment with Victorian neo-religion, “I have created a new religion for myself.” The framework from which he constructs his "religion" can be explored in the poem "Towards Ireland in Times to Come", in which Ireland is personified asfeminine form of “the hem edged with red roses / Of her”. Literal symbols (“elemental beings go / around table two and come”), Yeats merges the physical and the spiritual. Likewise, the subjective and the objective are also confused, as in the phrase "from our birthday until we die / It's only the blink of an eye", implying that our reality and our life consist into a mind-dependent perception – closed or closed perception. “blinking” eye representing the death of this reality. This theme is echoed in the “lidless eye” of “Upon a House Shaken by the Land Agitation.” Here, the unwavering eye of the eagle – the ultimate perception – is threatened with artistic annihilation by the reduction of rents, brought about in part by a growing nationalist influence in government policy. While the former poem saw Yeats wishing to place himself among the nationalist icons of 'David,Mangan, Ferguson', in the latter he places artistic fulfillment – ​​which he sees as intrinsically linked to the maintenance of the aristocratic home ('where passion and precision have become one / Time out of mind) – above nationalism, or at least populism, sympathies. Additionally, the fear of artistic stagnation is further expressed in The Fascination of What's Difficult, in which the symbol of Pegasus is used to represent Yeats's poetic impotence – the rhyme pattern itself being undermined by the use of enjambment, especially when compared to strict line-by-line rhyme. diagram of “Towards Ireland in the Times to Come”. The later poem lacks fulfillment, or any structural or narrative climax, except in the ironic aspiration that he (Yeats) will "find the stable and remove the lock" and allow his artistic desires to be released once moreover. Due to the gaps between his earlier and later works, Yeats uses symbolism in his poems to focus on the value of poetry and art itself, as Seamus Deane argues in Celtic Revivals: "Irish literature has tendency to dwell on the medium in which it is written because it is written. difficult not to be embarrassed by a language that has become both native and foreign”[vii]. The importance of establishing identity through language is something that Synge showed a particular fascination with and, unlike Yeats, he spent a lot of time studying and mastering the Irish language, stating in his diary that “the lack of American literary sense [is] due to the absence in America. of any mother tongue having a tradition for the entire population”[viii]. Synge hoped to instill “literary sense” by appealing to the luxury of an old linguistic tradition. Indeed, as Declan Kiberd argues "He [Synge] understood that he could never hope to return to the other side – that an attempt to re-impose Irish would only lead to another barren century for literature – but he resolved to bridge the gap by uniting the divided traditions”[ix]. Synge operated in the paradox of being loved by those who had little knowledge of or interest in the Irish language, and being treated with disdain by many of those who knew it. Yet whatever the critical reception, the way in which he fused his knowledge of English and Irish had a lasting effect on his symbolism. For example, Kiberd notes the striking similarities between Dantá Grá's “Song of the Unlucky Married,” which tells the story of a woman whose husband “is harsh and austere; he beats her. He fails to meet his sexual needs. She is opposed to marriage…she wishes her husband would die – she would run away with a young lover”[x], and Shadow of the Glen. The two plots are similarmuch with the "geaga fuara" (cold limbs) of the song reflected in Nora's description of Dan as "cold every day that I knew him". Not only is the symbolism contained within the play, but after this analysis the play itself can be seen as the symbol of the old Irish tale. As Kiberd concludes: “Each of his plays and poems represents a fusion, in a single work, of the two traditions and an attempt, through the power of his imagination, to make them become one”[xi]. To elaborate on this point, the symbolism inherent in this tradition, in conjunction with an understanding of Irish literary heritage, allows Synge to forge a distinctly Irish identity in the face of an English lexicon "both native and foreign." While Synge attempts a lexical fusion of Irish and English, Yeats opts for a fusion of the mystical and the material hand in hand with the subjective and the objective. In his critique of Maeterlink's essay on mysticism, Yeats proclaimed: “we are in the midst of a great revolution of thought, which affects both literature and speculation; an insurrection against everything which assumes that the exterior and the material are the only fixed things, the only norms of reality”[xii]. Yeats's fluid assessment of reality – one in which the physical and the spiritual coincide – has been compared by some critics to the philosophy of George Berkeley, a proponent of idealism whose principle "esse is percipi" revolved around the idea of ​​the denial of a mind-independent reality. Yeats himself refers to Berkeley in the 1929 poem "The Blood and the Moon": spirit but changing theme.[1]Thus, if we are to take the position that Yeats conforms to the principles of idealism, then his claim that a fantastical dreamscape can provide knowledge of our reality is justified. In Berkeley's conception of reality, all perception, both veridical and that of dreams, depends essentially on the mind. This justifies his realistic presentation of the merchants, elemental beings and “fairies” who engulf his writings – spiritualism and materialism cannot be distinguished from each other. Another crucial facet of Berkeley's philosophy is the way in which it avoids the pitfalls of solipsism by appealing to the omniscient mind of God to hold all ideas, those of self and others, in existence. The need for structure within a philosophy whose conception of reality revolves around subjective experience resembles the search for structure in Yeats's literature, such as "To Ireland in Coming Times", where liminality is reflected in externally in the growing power of Irish nationalism and for a period Yeats himself thought it was a "great revolution of thought". The symbol of the “hem bordered with red roses”, itself being the part of the dress which structures its edges, can be seen as an attempt to structure through poetry, in a period of liminality. Both writers appear to use symbolism in an attempt to connect binaries. In the depiction of peasant folklore, Synge uses symbols to attempt to accurately represent what he sees as a linked nation in "the imagination of the people". Nonetheless, his symbolic use of the peasantry was in conflict with many contemporary nationalists who viewed his treatment of their characters as immoral and not consistent with the framework established by other writers, including Yeats. As a result of this critical reaction, much of his valuable linguistic advances were neglected until Kiberd rightly reassessed his ability to accurately combine symbolism derived from] 1995