Marxist Strain in John Ardens Collected Plays

Introduction:
John Arden was born on Oct. 26, 1930 in Barsley in North Central England. Most of his
works are collaborations with his wife and co-dramatist and actress Margareta DArcy. He has
written plays as well as novels. He presents the social and economic issues of his society. Its his
talent that even his improvisations became popular and severally performed on the stage.
This research is meant to find out particularly John Ardens Marxist and socialist
tendency in his collected plays. Micheal Coveney in his article John Arden Obituary says him a
trained architect, well-read Marxist intellectual and astute art historian. (pag: 3) Lorna Siggins in
her article Playwright and Political Activist John Arden Dies portrayed him as one of the giants
of modern literature who made a monumental contribution to theatre in Britain and Ireland. (pag:
1) His composition draws from, and proceeds with, an extraordinary rebellious and
discriminating convention. He considers that administrative, legal and political institutions are
some way or another responsible of the social and economic breakdown. His works have carried
a strong social and political relevance and even today some of his early works have enormous
significance. (pag: 1)
Bruce Weber writes in his article John Arden, British Playwright that Arden was particularly
influenced by Bertolt Brecht. He was frequently connected with John Osborne, Arnold Wesker
and Harold Pinter, the leading British Playwrights of 1950s, who were in the front line of a
creative rebellion against the British class framework. (pag: 2)

He has composed several plays among those I have chosen a collection of plays which have
been composed for different stage companies. These are Fridays Hiding, The Little Gray Home
in The West, The Royal Pardon, Ars Longa Vita Brevis and Sergeant Musgraves Dance .
It has been presented in John Ardens plays that the collapse of social and economic
values by the administrative and law enforcing forces can be destructive for the society. Issues of
employment, wages, and ownership of public and private property, social security and collective
welfare have been portrayed fleshly. The rise of the bourgeoisie and the capitalists causes
exploitation of the working and labour classes in diverse fields which is unfortunate for the
dramatist. Lorna Siggins quotes film maker Lelia Doolan in her article Playwright and political
Activist John Arden Dies who has described John Arden as a mighty spirit and genius in his art
who has been committed to the issues of social justice and welfare of the humanity. (pag: 1)
He raised voice against the social and political foul play and misuse. John Arden in his
plays goes up against social and political segregation and inequality, encountering strategic
maneuver and class contrasts. He is against capitalist, imperialist and bourgeoisie classes
therefore he battled for the privileges of the lower classes. His thoughts challenge the unequal,
unjustifiable and exploitative nature of the capitalist framework. He seems searching for
thoughts and a strategy to change the world we live in. He broadens his vision and connects local
issues to the world issues and to the historical processes John Arden reinforces the working
people

to

strive

for

their

fundamental

rights

to

change

their

society.

www.margrettaDArcy.com).
This thesis has been divided into three chapters. All the three chapters cover up the Marxist strain
in John Ardens selected plays. How Marxist ideology affects the Ardenic themes and dramatic
presentation. These chapters deal with the administrative, legal and social issues lying in the

design of all the selected plays. There is clash of wills between the lower and the upper classes.
The basic struggle is for the fundamental rights. The administration does not want to lose its hold
over the poor people seeking for food, social peace and security.
John Arden is a Marxist and socialist dramatist who has also been a political activist. He
himself has suffered the political progress in an exploited environment. His observation is fused
with philanthropic ideals for a developed society. His works are mainly influenced by Marxist
philosophy. Catherine Graham in her thesis Standpoints:The Dramaturgy of Margaretta D'Arcy
and John Arden is of the view that he is the pioneer of modern political theatre. His early
writings have been a part of break through in English Theater in which he followed the
production of John Osbornes Look Back in Anger in 1956. His dramaturgies have been a great
contribution in the period of English political upheavals. Throughout his literary career his basic
concern is to establish human rights universally. He yearns for independence in all fields of
social and cultural life.
One of the plays of this period, Serjeant Musgrave's Dance, is considered
important enough to be included as a set text for English "A" level exams.
But, while he was considered a "political" playwright even at that time,
Arden himself admits that his "concept of political drama was one of plays
written upon political subjects," and that his initial skirmishes with theatre
managements stemmed not from any fundamental questioning of their
social raIe, but from his desire to find "sorne far more 'electrical' method of
putting the stuff across" (pag: 8)

For this purpose where he employs many theatrical devices he also follows Marxist
doctrines of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engeles in his best known plays, dramaturgies and
improvisations for different theatres.
Oxford Dictionary of Advanced Learners defines Marxism as:
The political and economic theories of Karl Marx (1818-83) which explain changes and
developments in society as the result of opposition between the social classes.
Peter Barry in Beginning Theory, An introduction to literary and cultural theory says
about Marxism as;
Marxist model of society sees it as constituted by a base (the material means of
production, distribution, and exchange) and a superstructure, which is the 'cultural' world
of ideas, art, religion, law, and so on. The essential Marxist view is that the latter things
are not 'innocent', but are 'determined' (or shaped) by the nature of the economic base.
This belief about culture, known as economic determinism, is a central part of traditional
Marxist thinking. (pag: 107)
Marxism is a world view and method of societal analysis that focuses on class relations
and societal conflicts, that uses materialist interpretation of historical development, and a
dialectical view of social transformation. (pag: n)
Karl Marx (1818-1883), a German rationalist, and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), a
German social scientist (as he would now be called), were the joint authors of this school of
thought. Marx was the child of a legal advisor however spent most of his life in overwhelming
neediness as a political outcast from Germany living in Britain (he was removed after the 1848
'year of upsets'). Engels had left Germany in 1842 to work in Manchester for his father's

business. They met after Marx had read thoroughly an article by Engels in a diary to which they
both contributed. They themselves called their economic theories "Socialism" (as opposed to
'Marxism'), assigning their confidence in the state for public ownership, as opposed to private
possession. Marx and Engels reported the appearance of Communism in their mutually
composed Communist Manifesto of 1848. The word "Communist" has transformed its
importance since Marx and Engels composed the Communist Manifesto more than 150 years
back. (Beginning Theory: 106)
According to Marxist analysis, class conflict within capitalism arises due to intensifying
contradictions between highly productive mechanized and socialized production performed by
the proletariat, and private ownership and appropriation of the production the form of surplus
value (profit) by a small minority of private owners called the bourgeoisie. As the contradiction
becomes apparent to the proletariat, social unrest between the two antagonistic classes
intensifies, culminating in a social revolution. The eventual long-term outcome of this revolution
would be the establishment of socialism a socioeconomic system based on cooperative
ownership of the means of production, distribution based on one's contribution, and production
organized directly for use. Karl Marx hypothesized that, as the productive forces and technology
continued to advance, socialism would eventually give way to a communist stage of social
development. Communism would be a classless, stateless, humane society erected on common
ownership and the principle of "From each according to his ability, to each according to his
needs. (Manifesto pag:14)
The researcher will utilize the theoretical philosophy of Marx and Engels. As Marxism
expands on a realist conception of societal improvement; it focuses upon the financial exercises

that require fulfilling the material needs of human culture. The type of financial association or
mode of construction is comprehended to offer climb to social relations, political and legal
frameworks, profound quality and belief system. Therefore, the economic framework and social
relations are known as a base and superstructure. As the strengths of creation (most remarkably
innovation) enhance, existing types of social association get to be wasteful and smoother further
advance. These inefficiencies show themselves as social inconsistencies as class battle.
(Beginning Theory pag: 107)
As indicated by Marxist examination, class clash inside free enterprise emerges in John
Ardens plays because of heightening inconsistencies between very profitable motorized and
standardized generation performed by the working class, and private possession in the hold of
bourgeoisie. As the difference gets to be evident to the working class, social agitation between
the two opposing classes increases, climaxing in a social upheaval. Its example can be traced out
in The Little Gray Home in the West. The struggle rose between the native peasants and the
capitalists which ends with the death of the striker. The play depicts the history of capitalist
usurpation and social struggle of the inhabitants for their elementary legal and societal rights.
(The Dramaturgy pag: 56).
Administrative, legal and political issues have also been presented in Ars Longa Vita
Brevis. Catherine Graham comments that Arden seems gambling with his audience by presenting
something thought provoking making them conscious of their automatic responses to the
contemporary hegemony. He strives for making them wary of the blindness to their own inbred
imperialism (The Dramaturgy pag : 50)
Peter Barry denotes in Beginning Theory,
Marxist literary criticism maintains that a writer's social class, and its prevailing

'ideology' (outlook, values, tacit assumptions, half-realized allegiances, etc.) have a major
bearing on what is written by a member of that class. (Beginning Theory pag: 107)
Marxist streak is determined in Ardens art as he deals with society and its problems.
John Arden is a realist. His plays are presented with human sympathy. His characters are lifelike.
They can be seen in any society. Their conflicts are also universal seeking for equality and
brotherhood. They are wrapped in monitorial crises harshly punched by the violence of their
authorities. As Marxism builds on a materialist understanding of societal improvement, taking as
its starting point the necessary economic activities are required to satisfy the material needs of
human society.
Lorna Siggins says in her article, Wake For, teller of tales, Arden about Ardens bestknown play, Sergeant Musgrave's Dance, set in the north of England in the late nineteenth
century, concerns military miscreants, astonished by their own particular venture in an outside
war, who return the carcass of a fallen close friend to his village with the strange plan of
awakening the nearby masses against the war with further violence. The common people are
exploited and massacred financially who were mostly in search of a job. The solution of their all
problems is assumed in economic welfare by appointing them as soldiers that is a common trade
in their country. But they are killed ruthlessly. (pag: 1)
The best example in favour of socialist reform as compared to imperialist and capitalist
exploitation can be seen through The Immediate Rough Theatre. Its a collection of
improvisations that mainly focuses upon the problems of Irish and English proletariats who are
miserably seeking for residence, employment, social security and peace. But they are destined to
face hatred, threats and torture by the English capitalists and legal administrative forces. (pag: n)

This research is going to be a descriptive study of John Ardens collected plays. The
researcher intends to develop a comparative content analysis between the basic philosophy of
Marxism and the socialist and communist elements versus capitalism and imperialism in English
and Irish cultures through his plays. How Marxism reflects through John Ardens collected
plays? How economics are controlling the morality of the society depicted in John Ardens
plays? How super structure is dependent on base of the society? How Ardens plays explore the
exploitative nature of capitalistic society? Objective of the study is to prove that Marxist strains
are inherent in all the collected plays of John Arden. His plays are strong condemnation of
capitalism which is horribly disastrous to the human beings.
Footnotes:
Playwright and political activist John Arden dies, Lorna Siggins,Fri, Mar 30, 2012, 01:00
John Ardens Obituary, Micheal Coveney, Friday 30 March 2012 10.19 BST Last modified on
Monday 2 April 2012 16.06 BST
Beginning theory, An introduction to literary and cultural theory, Second edition Peter Barry,
Peter Barry 1995, 2002
Manifesto of the Communist Party, by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels February, 1848.
John Arden, British Playwright, Dies at 8,By BRUCE WEBER, Published: April 3, 2012, Sam
Falk/The New York Times.
Wake For teller of tales Arden, by Lorna Siggin, First published:Mon, Apr 2, 2012, 01:00

Standpoints:The Dramaturgy of Margaretta D'Arcy and John Arden,Catherine

Graham,Comparative Literature Program,McGill University, Montral,July 1991

CHAPTER: 1
Administrative Exploitation: a clash of wills
While reading John Arden, a keen study based upon socialist view can help in seeking
Marxist streak in John Ardens plays. He talks about people, their society and their problems. His
plays are a presentation of individual and collective suffering. His characters fall representation
of their social set-up as a whole. They speak of the tongue of their people. Economic crises,
misery and pain are prominent themes in his works. Thats resultant by economic injustice,
administrative, legal and political exploitation. John Ardens plays seem an appeal to reform the
devastated state of affairs.
Fridays Hiding is a realistic presentation of capitalist exploitation, usurpation, hide and
seek between the owner and the employees. It reveals the true and deplorable face of the
consumer society. In this type of society problems of the proletariats are common i.e., on time
payment of wages, deduction in labour hours and increment in salary can be dreamt only.
Hypocrisy of the owners represents the nastiness of the capitalist class not only the poor and
helpless labourers but also the blood relations are deprived of their basic rights and selfishly
exploited. Its a truly materialist and selfish society where might is right. The poor is always
repressed so that he may not demand his basic rights. He is less facilitated and mostly deprived
of what he may claim his own.
Balfours, the character of a land lord in Fridays Hiding , sister is unmarried and
overage. Her actions show that she has a pressing urge to be married and has independence but
her unmarried elderly brother denies facilitating her. Her act of wearing her mothers wedding
dress shows her wish to be married. She has a sympathetic heart for others. She wants to enjoy
her life but her brother doesnt allow her to do so because the fulfillment of her desires might

wastage of money. As the narrator of this play she tells about the compelled position of the
labourers on his brothers farms,
Two young men he had, Thats Eddie and Willie Tam , But they are young men nae
langer, Theyve dug and delve- John Balfours land, Seventeen years with never a rise in
wages, And they are lucky to get "what they do get. (Fridays Hiding, pag: 65)
They are paid on every Friday but their lord hides somewhere. He doesnt want to pay them. Karl
Marx comments about the capitalist administration that
The average price of wage-labour is the minimum wage, i.e., that quantum of the means
of subsistence which is absolutely requisite to keep the labourer in bare existence as a
labourer. What, therefore, the wage-labourer appropriates by means of his labour, merely
suffices to prolong and reproduce a bare existence.
(Manifesto, pag: 23)
In this type of society the administrative forces dont allow the proletariats to live
independently. Their earnings are too limited to meet their day to day needs. They are deprived
of their fundamental rights. Marx says, In bourgeois society, living labour is but a means to
increase accumulated labour. In Communist society, accumulated labour is but a means to widen
to enrich, to promote the existence of the labourer. (Manifesto, Pag: 23)
In Fridays Hiding, Arden ironically presents this clash between bourgeoisie and
proletariats who are exploited in the hands of their master. He ironically satirizes the feudal lords
who mistreat their peasants and keep their families away from the blessings of life. they make
their life conjusted and rule over their minds. On Balfours selfish and ruthless attitude, Eddie
says,

EDDIE. Deer goodness he meets us nae place, But he hides awa, fast, like the wee man
he is, in the house or the barn or the yard or the field or under the bank of the bum or awa
yonder on the fell or onywhere I canna think of nor tell, For Friday for Balfour is noem
but the day hes in hiding, And before we get paid we maun find him. Has he been to the
bank yet? (Fridays Hiding, pag: 65).
Friday is the day when Eddie and Tam are paid for their weeks labour but Balfour plays
hide and seek reclining to pay them. There is severe criticism on the capitalist psyche comes
with Miss Balfour s words, she also wants to get her money from her brother because she
canna buy the man meat without it. He will na even gie it to his ain sister, consider it!.
(Fridays Hiding, pag: 66) Her deplorable condition presents the pathetic and poor administrative
state of affairs where the government and law enforcing agencies dont protect the basic rights of
the women. Its the duty of state that creates and then enforces the laws in the society but no
cannon is shown in this play to save the feminine rights. The society is not in favour of women
whether she belongs to the working class or she is from capitalist class. Arden presents
comparison and contrast between Eddie and Miss. Balfour the former is married in her own class
but the later is in great misery that she is deprived of even this right to save money and property
which is inherited by the brother and the sister. Arden sympathizes with the women of his society
and satirizes the cruel attitude of the capitalist establishment. However, he adopts a humorous
and light mood to lash on this system.
Eddie and Tam search him everywhere. They think he has gone to the bank to take
money. After the bank timing they keep a watch into the yard. But, whaen he sees his two
labourers waiting for him he retires. Both of them, weary with waiting, bring their simple food
with them but keep an eye on the gate. Balfour enter into the in disguise of Hacock diverting

their attention by throwing a stone on the wall. Tam observes this but he doesnt tell to Eddie. He
makes them fool and they are knowingly befooled because they have no other option to work and
earn their food. Their livelihood is in the hand of their lord no matter how much and when they
are paid by him. Helplessness of the working class is emphasized by these two characters who
are the representatives of 1970s capitalist and industrialist Irish society who have to struggle for
their livelihood. Their lord is used to play with feelings and emotions.
At last, Balfour is found at his home where Arden presents his capitalist greediness quite
ridiculously. The subtlity of his expression makes the situation quite witty and hilarious.
John Balfour, safe at last where they canna get after him without breach of atiquette
transfers the weekly money, counts out certain banknotes these into a cashbox ( lock it,
put it away, lock the cupboard, carefully replace both keys on the end of his watch chain
into the watch chain pocket) these notes, till now retained under a careful stern thumb,
go in their turn, wrapped in an old fold of dry paper, into his wallet, a worn wallet, tight,
fastened with farmers twine, into the inner breast pocket, button it up. Good. Sit down to
your dinner mean old devil. (Fridays Hiding, pag: 67)
Balfours character shows the pungent face of capitalist thinking for whom money is the
strongest bound to live satisfactory life. He even finds difficult to use money for his own self
whereas the helpless labourers dont have another option to work. They are compelled to be
employed with this lord even on minimum and delayed wages. They are deprived of social
security having no awareness about their social rights. Marx says in Manifesto that bourgeois and
capitalist society is meant for abolition of individuality and freedom! (pag: 23) They are
denied to own property or free selling and free buying. They are not allowed to think except their
living. Their thoughts are usurped and their abilities are disabled. But continuous suppression

and exploitation cause rebellion and violence. Eddie and Willie Tam vainly try to snatch their
wages,
MISS BALFOUR. . . .first to hoe John Balfours head then: to jump upon his body
then: to stamp down upon his vitals and rifle his waistcoat pocket, there is such
exaggeration in the finale of this mime that Willie Tam begins to laugh and John Balfour
hears him laugh, looks rapidly up at him and then up at Eddie who at that moment is
executing her dance of triumph to celebrate his rehearsed rapine and is forthwith
compelled by the cold eye of the master to turn the dance into the pursuit with hoe and
hand of a non- existent wasp, which murders just in time to save John Balfour from a
non-existing sting. John Balfour is not grateful and shows that there are many furrows yet
to hoe. (Fridays Hiding, pag: 71, 72)
There is no end of labour, Balfour makes fun of them and usurp their rights. The
spokesperson, Miss Balfour, who is also called Aunty Letty due her over age, she favours them
quietly. She does not dare to support them openly. She narrates,
AUNT LETTY. Seventeen years of suppressed oppressed hard labour are running after
Balfour and God kens what theyll dae to him supposing they should catch him. For the
first time ever John Balfour is afraid of his men. And yet for Godsake they would never
be so violent as to actually damage him (Fridays Hiding, pag: 73)
These factors give way to revolution in such pressed societies. But the upper classes do
not care of their zealous revolutionary spirit because they know how to snub and crush them and
exploit them for their vested interests. They are befooled for the time being or crushed forever.
They are blinded by their needs. It is hardly thought about the wants.
The true face and practice of the owners has been shown in these lines,

Then after him again and he seeks for bush after bush using each one for cover until he
is flushed out of it, dodging hither and thither but never in a panic, using his intelligence,
which, he is ever confident, is more than twice as sharp as theirs. (Fridays Hiding, pag:
74)
Balfour tries to hide himself in the bushes but Eddie and Tam suffering poverty and
exploited by their lord they know the tricky and devilish nature of their master. They follow him
even in the bushes and the narrator says,
MISS BALFOUR. Down into a ditch and pulls a bush over him, they leap the ditch
without noticing find nobody beyond it,.Eddie pulls out tobacco and papers to roll
himself a wee smoke and one for Willie Tam. Willie Tam strikes a match, the wind blows
it out. Willie Tam strikes another match, blown out in like manner. He has but one more
match left to him in the box: he strikes it endeavoring to conceal it from the wind
succeeds with it in burning the tips of his fingers. Curses it. Drops it. Through the leaves
in the ditch on to Mr. Balfours face. Mr. Balfour cries out (not very surprisingly).
(Fridays Hiding, pag: 74)
He is saved by them. Such circumstances motivate the proletariats to revolt against
authorities otherwise they are compelled to live in slums. Great movements of industrial and
labour freedom are established. People like John Arden, lead them and fight for the basic rights
of their miserable masses. Ironically John Arden presents the glimpses of revolutionary thinking
of his age when his own nation is struggling for its indispensible socio-political rights. Lezzek
Kolakowski comments socialist revolution against capitalism in his Main Currents of Marxism,
The advance towards socialism calls for an economic and political struggle on the part
of the proletariate, . . . the proletariate must fight for reforms in the shape of labour lagislation,

democratic institutions and higher wages, . . .capitalism will finally be swept away by revolution,
when economic conditions under capitalism and the class consciousness of the proletariat will
ripe for this. (pag: 7)
However, when Balfour is senseless, his watch chain with the keys is seized by his sister,
she opens the cupboard and then opens the cashbox. She takes out all the money and
there is a fair quantity too she sits down at the table and enjoys her coup d etat. Also in
the cupboard is john Balfours personal whiskey. She fills up a tea-cup and she sits and
she drinksthen she bethinks her of an auld kist that lies behind the door. She pulls it out
and opens it. She takes out of it (wrapped and camphored) what must have been her
mothers original wedding dress long kept in vain for herself. Its a large full skirted
Edwardian garment, far too large for her dried body and it goes on very easily on top of
her ordinary clothes. She holds it up against her. And then she puts it on. Then she sits
down again and broods on possibilities. (Fridays Hiding, pag: 81)
But the hypocrite John Balfour regains his keys by his tricks and raises the salary of the
laborers for the time being to settle the issue. Aunt Letty says, The devil sure had done his
work and put us all in misery. (Fridays Hiding, pag: 83) John Arden ends the play with a
pitiable note about Letty,
She takes off the wedding dress and folds it up as neat as ever it was and lays it back in
the kist and puts the kist back behind the door and sits down again in patience, mopping
up spitted whisky and watching that the cups do not get broken. (Fridays Hiding, pag:
84)

Through the character of Miss Balfour Arden satirizes the materialist thinking of his age
where blood relations have lost their meaning. In this money oriented society he raises the
feminist issue of marriage and property. A woman is left alone to face the society. She has not
been allowed to enjoy her life because her brother does not let her get marry with a man because
it might be the wastage of money and consequently division of inherited property. John Arden
seems condemning such a society which demolishes the heart desires of an individual, especially
women. Like Marx he wishes to build such a developed society where it may not be required to
make separate schemes for women. There should be a society which provide them equal facilities
and liberty to live their life according to their will.
In Fridays Hiding, the entire action is ridiculous and ironic, no change is occurred
actually. They have not practised this first time. It is a matter of routine for them. John Arden
presents the vulnerable state of social order. Chaos resides among the dependent and poverty
stricken masses. A few characters represent the entire society. People are suffering from their
corrupted base and waiting for an established superstructure. Administrative and legal turmoil
has been exposed for some constructive purpose.
Fridays Hiding was produced in 1965. The whole play has been drawn in a light comic
and lucid way. A few characters represent the entire Irish struggle of social freedom. It can be
observed by their language and style of talking that they are uneducated and backward people
living in countryside but doing their best at their farms. At their universal representation, these
are the people who run the machinery of any country but unfortunately neither government nor
authorities nor even the business class think about their rights. They are even not given the status
of human beings. John Arden being a revolutionary spirit of his time shows the reality and try to
establish a need to raise voice against those forces who exploit the proletariats.

Footnotes:
Fridays Hiding, An experiment in the Laconic, 1965, Margaretta D Arcy and John Arden.
Manifesto of the Communist Party, by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels February, 1848.
Main currents of Marxism, The Rise, Growth and Dissolution by Leszek kolakowski, volume 2,
The Golden Age, translated from the Polish by P.S Falla.

CHAPTER: 2

Legal Exploitation: Imperialism vs Capitalism, hypocrisy of the authorities

Marx and Engels were primarily interested in some aspects of imperialism, especially,
It cannot be said that they arrived at anything like a systematic view of imperialism, or
that such a view can be derived in any straightforward way from Marx's dissection of
capitalism. (Marxism and Imperialism, pag: 6)
For him capitalism is emerged from imperialism,
Imperialism had for sub-title 'The Highest Stage of Capitalism', implying also its final
stage. (Marxism and Imperialism, pag: 39) John Ardens another play The Royal Pardon, or
The Soldier who became an Actor, is the presentation of Marxist issues of imperialist crises,
political intrigues, double standards in politics, unemployment, hypocrisy in foreign affairs and
social instability of the art and artists. The major character of this play is Luke he has been a
soldier against the French army but during the action of the play he is without having any proof
in black and white. During the action of the play he faces the problem of unemployment and
joins the group of stage actors as a stage decorator though he has no experience of this work. He
says to the constable,
LUKE. I am on my way to London to obtain my discharge from the army in a
regular fashion.
CONSTABLE. And no doubt to get a pension.
LUKE. I have hopes.
CONSTABLE. Ah. But have you papers? Whats your proof of your identity?

LUKE: Proof? Look, my friend, I am a man of many trials, I have had

experiences, Of course Ive not got papers!
CONSTABLE. Then youre a vagrant. Its not allowed.
(The Royal Pardon, pag: 96, 97)
He is caught by the police and have punched in the stomach with their truncheons in
the gut slapped him with the edge of their hands across the back of his neck, tripped him at the
ankles, twisted his arms behind his back, and generally reduced him to a state of semiconsciousness. (The Royal Pardon, pag: 72) John Arden pinches the legal exploitation and
lawlessness in British social order. He exposes legal discrimination in law and order and
criticizes absence of canon for those soldiers who have served their country without any record.
Who helplessly wait for reward on their national scene. Army defends the state but if state
refuses to own the army men or its heroes and demands proofs to acknowledge their sacrifices
the morale of the army would be decreased and state would be destroyed. Soldiers defend the
country and artists represent the culture of their nation. Ethics and norms are set by the empires
and their monarchs but here they are not enforced equally. Inequality creates the sense of
insecurity among the different ranks of society. Anarchy is backed up when vulgar actions or
expressions are not allowed to perform on the stage whereas police officers are free to cross the
ethical limits. In act one, the clown uses naughty and nasty words while his trousers splits
revealing yet another pair on underneath. The Constable comes forward at this occasion and
proclaims,
CONSTABLE. Right that will do. That is the second occasion in this deplorable
performance that vulgar and indecent behavior has taken place. Ive got it down in me
notebook, it is incontrovertible. Twice, no less, was breeches mentioned and each time

they was removed: to the scandal of the populace. Whatever you might get away with in
London, we do not allow that sort of thing round here. Close your show at once and take
yourselves out of this town. (The Royal Pardon, pag: 91)
However, in the same scene his under constable comes on duty in his underpants, which
is quite ludicrous and mocking. Hypocrisy and double standards on the part of ruling forces
have been exposed. Communal mistakes are exaggerated, police play with their feelings and they
are exploited by the authority. In act one the under constable,
runs after Luke, who finds no exit the way he is going and doubles back only to run
into the CONSTABLE coming in the other side. General confusion and dodging about
the stage. In the course of this, Luke seizes the pie and bottle from the UNDER
CONSTABLE and tackled by the CONSTABLE, fells him with a blow from the bottle
and makes his escape.
UNDER CONSTABLE. Oh my lord, hes hit the Constable!
MRS HIGGINBOTTOM. Who has? Broken of short and the screw lost as well, its
going to need a blacksmith.
UNDER CONSTABLE. A blacksmith more like an undertaker - I think he has killed
him, woman!
MRS HIGGINBOTTOM. Oh! Its Mr. Hopkins! Its Mr. Hopkins whos been bashed!
CONSTABLE. (recovering). Felonious assault would be the correct description For a
blow of this nature, of deliberate infliction.
Indeed I would go furtherSee, I write it down as a case of attempted murder.

The murder of a badged and buttoned Constable

Is of all crimes of violence by far the most considerable.
The man who would commit it is danger to the State.
The Law has rightly provided him an inexorable fate.
Naught shall prevent him being tracked down and found
Whether upon English ground
Or upon the soil of France or Spain.
I shall not turn again
Till I have caught him and brought him
To the foot of the gallows.
Wherever he may go, remorseless vengeance follows,
In disguise, close behind him, till with chains and ropes I bind him, (The Royal Pardon,
pag: 108, 109)
This scene reflects the true state of affairs. The anarchic situation prevails in the country.
The law enforcement agencies and police are the representatives of the authority. Their duty
should be the enforcement of the law and order. But in John Adens The Royal Pardon they have
become the whole powerful to decide the fate of the common people. It presents the true face of
the English police. Lukes own dialogue shows his real situation. He says,
Luke. Being a man of some initiative and considerable self-respect, I find my situation
particularly irksome. In Flanders, youd expect it. But this is old warm-hearted England

that sent me forth to fight and welcomes me now home again with iron bars and
truncheons and the sort of coarse contempt. (The Royal Pardon, pag: 109)
Being the lover of art and artist John Arden frequently depicts the poor condition of the
theater and stage actors who are not paid in time yet they are sincere to their work and add to the
social and political cause of their country. Imperialist and capitalist governments mostly run
according to the taste and liking of their lords. If the king and ministers or feudal lords are not
interested in fine arts, they would surely not waste their money for the entertainment of their
people rather they would regard it lethargic for the working classes and make it possible to
confine fine arts to their courts. Being a soldier Luke does not know any particular professional
skill; he decides to work in a theater company as stage decorator. Esmeralda, an actress in the
company, says to him,
ESMERALDA. They expect a deal more obsequiousness from an unemployed
handyman.
LUKE. A handyman? On the tramp.
ESMERALDA. On the scrounge.
LUKE. Just like them, so where is the difference? Besides, Im not, am I ? I am doing a
job.
ESMERALDA. You dont expect to get paid?
LUKE. Why not? Its measureable. Time spent and skill laid out. They do pay you, I
suppose?
ESMERALDA. Now and then.
LUKE. But you stay with them?

ESMERALDA. I hve no choice. I was born into the business. And I dont know any
other.
LUKE. None at all?
ESMERALDA. None at all. (The Royal Pardon, pag: 120)
Social and political unrest affects the masses in all fields whether it is theatrical stage or
the arm forces on the frontiers. Empires and their foreign relations with their neighbouring
countries draw the social image of their people. In The Royal Pardon, a theater company is
selected by the English king to entertain the French audience on the marriage ceremony of the
English prince with French princess. They are given a very little amount by the minister of
English king to go to France by ship. They have to represent their country helplessly. John Arden
ironically satirizes the attitude of two rival countries with the common man of each others state
as well as the status of women who is chosen to be sacrificed for the political settlement between
the two enemies. Both kings advise their children not to take this marriage emotionally because
at any time it can be broken on fulfilling the state motives. This is a political marriage proposed
in the play to cease war on the border and resolve the political matters. Where the English actors
have to face hatred and treachery of their rival French actors. They are given poisonous food by
the French actors and deprived to perform in front of the French king. This is an effort to destroy
their image in front of the king and win the prize fixed by the French king. Luke being
experienced in these matters saves himself and Esmeralda from eating this life taking food. Both
of them perform in front of the French king. His speech shows that more or less politicians and
the governments are responsible for the social and moral decay of the public. Lukes words
demonstrate the situation on the front line, in act 2 he proclaims as a soldier in front of the
English King,

Luke. Starving though we were and tired and ill

We never did forget our soldiers skill:
We kept our boots clean and our bayonets bright,
We waved our banners and we marched upright,
We dared the French to meet us and to fight.
And when we met we fought till none could stand
Our bodies now lie in a foreign land,
Defeated, they have said. But we know better:
We obeyed our generals
orders to the better.
If blame there is to be indeed we did not win
Blame not your loyal soldiers, gracious king, but blame those ministers, who sitting warm
at home
Sent us across the seas, unfed, unclothed, alone,
To do our duty the best way that we could.
We did it, sir, by pouring out our blood.
There is no more to say. (The Royal Pardon, pag: 128,29)
Administrative drawbacks cause anarchy in the state. Kings and leaders play their politics
with common people who have to suffer their fate. Imperialist and capitalist thinking do allow
more than one masters in a state to rule over the poor and helpless common man whereas

socialist and Marxist thoughts do not favour such cruelty. It supports brotherhood and
parallelism. Justice and social security is preferred for every human being. Its the corrupted
class system which varies the enforcement of law and order from class to class and compels the
dutiful officers to exploit the common masses. At the end of the play the Constable sings,
CONSTABLE.It is no use to be a policeman
The force of anarchy wins all the time:
I did not like what I saw around me
I did not like it so I called it crime.
With a truncheon and a brace of handcuffs
I did my best for Order and Law! (The Royal Pardon, pag: 185)
Nonetheless, The Royal Pardon depicts some crucial facets of imperialist and capitalist empires.
He seems criticizing the corruption and chaos in socio-political affairs. A clear comparison
between the royal and common classes can show that how political and economic unrest disturbs
the common people though the nobles are not affected as much.
John Ardens concern with the social issues makes him Marxist ideologist who is grieved
for the miseries of the common people and raises voice against the injustice and mistreatment.
He presents public and individual problems realistically. Ardens another play The Little Gray
Home In The West is an authentic appeal to re-examine the institutions of the society. Its a plea
to redefine the pillars of society like law and order, justice and administrative norms. The
problem of the right of public and private property in a capitalist culture has been shown in this
play through the British colonial cruelties on the Irish society. The natives of Ireland suffer the

foreign atrocities to make the dream of a social welfare state true but unfortunately they are
misused and deprived of their fundamental rights. Marx remarks,
In bourgeois society capital is independent and has individuality, while the living person
is dependent and has no individualityand the abolition of this state of things is called
by the bourgeois, abolition of individuality and freedom!...By freedom is meant, under
the present bourgeois conditions of production, free trade, free selling and buying. But if
selling and buying disappears, free selling and buying disappears also. This talk about
free selling and buying, and all the other brave words of our bourgeois about freedom
in general, have a meaning, if any, only in contrast with restricted selling and buying,
( Manifesto, pag: 23)
According to the British colonial law the Irish people has no right of inheritance. They
have no right to own any piece of land, even their homes and acres where they work their whole
life would be legally owned by some English landlord. In act one, in the year nineteen fifty nine,
TERESA and SEAMUS, an Irish couple, are worried about the inheritance of their acres and
house on the death of their British land lord, Lord Ballydehob, in London. They have spent their
whole life at this place and suppose this land as their own property but legally they are only the
care takers. Their dialogues show their hopes as well as helplessness,
SEAMUS. Do you know what I am after thinking? I think the lot of it could belong to
none other than us.
TERESA. Sure it always belongs to us.
SEAMUS. Were there not OLearys set firm on this ground six hundred years ago when
there wasnt an English landlord west of the Shannon?

TERESA. You will never get a lawyer to establish you that. Every corner of every
paragraph of every law in the country was revelled up by some Englishman. Our old Irish
lawyers and their old Irish books all drowned in the ocean by order of Cromwell, or
Queen Elizabeth, or one of em- its all finished, we cant go back to it. (The Little Gray
Home, pag: 199)
The land is officially inherited to an Englishman under the colonial law in Ireland, Baker
Fortescue, who becomes their new landlord and uses their property for his personal interests
making them servants. Being poor and dependent Teresa gets worried for their future and
motivates her husband to go against their lord. They talk,
TERESA. Is you or myself then that will stand up to the Hounorable Baker?
SEAMUS. Stand up to him or do what?
TERESA. Stand up to him and demand that in our farm upon this land he shall pay
money and he shall take pain to protect our lives and produce from the wind and the rain.
Did you say a small silo? He could well afford the cost. And send him that hospital X-ray
of your chest.
SEAMUS. It would be as well first to get hold of a lawyer. Let the lawyer then write to
him a letter that would be strong: he writes in his own letters every line of a lawyer why
should not a lawyer as well do right as do wrong? Upon the matter of right this farm is
our own. (The Little Gray Home, pag: 214, 215)
Seamus dares to claim his right on the encouragement of his wife which is a shock for
Baker Fortescue who knows the words politics. Through his trickery and deceptive words Baker
Fortescue makes Seamus agree to say,

SEAMUS. Oh Mr. Baker, sir, all I want, sir, is to enjoy for the rest of my life the rightful
roof above my house, sir, my own house, sir, my wife and family, my bit of land yet
you tell me youd turn me out to beg my way lie in a ditch to starve and die the same as
my great-grandfather . . . My God I never thought a decent English gentleman would do
me such great hurt. (The Little Gray Home, pag: 230, 231)
In a male dominant and corrupt society Teresa is quite dishearten with this act of Seamus she
also signs this document and says,
TERESA. Oh shame upon Seamus OLeary,
What have you agreed?
Youve handed over your land and your house
Without any need:
You wife and your children,
Your life you have given away
For a portion of paper
Like the pay thats the wage of a slave.
You are weak, you are sick,
A mere wreck of a man on the ground:
Alive you will never rise up if you cannot stand now.
The children who loved you
Must break and forsake you and go

Far over the ocean from the home that their father has sold.
It is not as though
The police and the bailiffs arrived
With bludgeons and rifles
To drive us all out in the night
Wed have then had our pride
We could fight them and maybe wed win:
What pride in a man
With one smile and one threat he gives in?
SEAMUS. (Struggling to his knees). Oh God forgive me,
Teresa, dear God, what should we do? For a start, we do this
He strikes a match and burns the document. It never happened, so. It is forgot. TERESA.
It is remembered: at the time when we least shall want it. (The little Gray Home, pag:
232, 33)
He signs the document without considering the future of his family after his death.
However, the time comes and affliction causes Seamus death. Miserable plight is that when a
man lives a place of his own he has hope for life and progress but right after losing his own home
a sense of loss and disappointment overlaps him. Seamus widow and young children are also
deprived of their house because law does not allow them to own their own house. However, time
has changed and the new generation is well aware with the new revolutionary spirit. They know
the difference between right and wrong. They also know how to get their rights. This poor and

vulnerable family represents the innumerable Irish families who remain unable to save their land
and spend their life in this dream to claim the land where they live or work, their own
In nineteen sixty eight, Padraic says,
PADRAIC. Seamus OLeary my father so suddenly dead in the Regional Hospital for
nine years now he was bent and bowed over like the limb of a mountain thorn: alternate
breath he coughed up blood: (The Little Gray Home, pag: 234)
Seamus miserable life ends in despair. After his death Padraic wants to sell his house
and acres to get his mother and sister with him to Manchester where he does job for many years.
But his sister Soibhan reminds him,
SOIBHAN. you cant sell the farm so long as the ownership is in dispute. PADRAIC.
Dispute? Who disputes it?
SIOBHAN. Harrogate the Honourable Baker, who do you think?
PADRAIC. Ah no, he owns the Chalet, the Tintawndub was always ours. And Baker
Fortescue never had a leg to stand on in that matter sure, if he owned it, wouldn't we
always have paid him rent?
SIOBHAN. I dont know: but I do know he claims it, all fifteen acres. So we cant sell.
And whats more we cant leave. As long as we stay put we are we are asserting our own
claim, and there is nothing he can do except he has always done let us live here and
work the farm. Anyway, mammy wont leave under any circumstances. I may tell you: so
thats that. (The Little Gray Home, pag. 236, 37)
.Seamus son Padraic and daughter Siobhan are determined to fight for their home. John
Arden criticizes the Britains imperialist lagislative system which has deprived its colonies of

their basic rights. He satirizes the capitalist bourgeoisie who is responsible for the pitiable plight
of the proletariats who are exploited and degraded in their hands. In The Little Gray Home In
The West, Baker Fortescue an English landlord claims his legal right and sends a court letter to
this Irish family to leave their house. He has trick fully usurped their inherited property. In
Teresas words he regards it as,
TERESA. Lord Ballydehob always said the historical right, the moral right he always
put it, was our own, and he never insisted we-
The young and enthusiastic Padraic replies,
PADRAIC. Moral historical there is no right in Ireland but the right of English law
carried over from the old days. Yet dammit we do have a constitution in this country,
maintains as a basic principle the integrity of the Irish family and all the children of the
nation. It must prevent a man signing over every right of his own children to some
capitalist across the water-" (The Little Gray Home, Pag: 239)
John Arden seems pleading for a desirable base which may establish a superstructure
for a progressive society. He admires a society which can liberate the individual and protect the
collective interests. Arden uncovers some more aspects of the industrialist classes. Teresa
dialogue exposes another side of upper and feudal classes. She says,
TERESA Oh its apparent. Tis the man with the long purse spreads his feet across this
land his boots that leave no room for the tread of anyone else: he opens uis purse and dips
in his hand, pulls it out again tight- clenched being full to the bend of his thumb: and
those few for whom he opens it are the same few every time. (The Little Gray Home,
pag: 240)

Her all hope is her son who can save her shelter and defend her basic right. The mistake
committed by her husband is determined to be resolved by her son. Padraic seeks for justice and
says,
PADRAIC. Ah for Gods sake a bit of courage comes easy to anyone the bloody
practicalityll finish me before Im started. Have we no legal papers whatever? Do we
know any lawyers? (The Little Gray Home, pag: 241)
Padraics socialist ideals make him Ardens mouthpiece with a desire of social prosperity when
he says in the same scene,
PADRAIC. There must be something in this land
Not to find it out, pick it up,
Just like that, out of hand But never will I credit
That the peoples dream of power
Justice, dignity, at last
Are rising up on every shore
Except the one that we inhabit - !
Parnell, and the delusive past
Manchester talk, oh yes, like withered winter grass:
You laugh at the one and I sneer at the other.
But sister and sister, brother and brother

We are the people and the land belongs to us! (The Little Gray Home, pag: 242)
But they can only talk. They can not pay or do anything. Hagans deceptive sympathy and
Mulhollands trickery involves Padraic in socialist talks and Baker Fortescue takes advantage of
this propaganda against OLearys. He calls to wing Commander Dogsblack and informs,
BAKER FORTESCUE. I am only endeavoring to help! I will continue, if you permit.
A representative of the Stormont Government has already identified the so-called civil rights
campaign as nothing more than a front for the IRA. And the IRA he has identified as a front for
international C-O-M-M-U-N-I-S-M and we all know what that is. At least I do: I hope you do: I
mean, thats what youre paid for. Now: I have no doubt that you will already have considered
the probability of IRA bases of support and supply being established south of the border to
maintain the subversion in the north. The question is where? . . . Dogsblack I am this very
moment giving you the answer! Kilnasleeveen four syllables, and crammed to the brim with a
priest- ridden malignant mob of -- damnable defaulters, evaders of rent, and squatters upon
property to which they have absolutely not a shadow of title! I just thought Id let you know . . I
also thought an officer as highly placed as you are in the occult milieu of military intelligence
would be a little more forthcoming whenan old as you might say associate condescends to
volunteer some information. (The Little Gray Home, pag: 250)
Padraic involves in social welfare of his country with Hagan and Mulholland
unknowingly that are manipulating against him. There is dream of indepedence, peace and
sanctuary in the youthful eyes of Padraic. His character symbolizes the the young irish blood
who can not compromise with the foreign masters, who can not sell their lives and services for
the basic needs. Who wants to compete with the world and walk on the of progress. Jhon Ardens
socialist ideology is pronounced by his mouth answering to the British agent Butler Mcreek. ,

PADRAIC. ( in a sudden outburst). Which outside of the Republican Movement is of no

interest whatever to working- class organizations any where! Internationalism of the
working class as far as we go, it meant nothing but do as you are told by the Brits--because begod didnt they invent it! Tolpaddle and Peterloo . . .1 Good God, we want you
out of here we do not require advice as to how best to retain your influence in the most
painless proletarian form! (The Little Gray Home, pag: 266)
He struggles for the equality and fraternity of the working class to form a social state but
the corrupt and bribed legal system keeps him away from justice and social comfort. His case for
his property is delayed and he has to pay the lawyers by selling his belongings. This time he
decides to sale his ponies. Butler Mcreak advises him to sell his ponies at Enniskillen. Coming
back on his way he is caught by the army men and accused as an agent of IRA. He says,
PADRAIC (sings). In the middle of the bloody week three ponies I had sold to a certain
Orange Officer who filled my purse with gold. I turned my empty van around and for
home I did set forth. My God destroy the day on which I entered in the North. It is
Butler Mcreek who informs the special forces on phone,

thus, Royal Ulster

Constabulary, Enniskillen? Special Operations? Thnk you . . . Inspector? Butler Mcreek

Kilnasleeveen. Mr Limegraves young friend has gone to the fair. A large red horsebox,
Hagan and Son Contractor, number NZM 432. You have that? . . . You will pass it on.
(The Little Gray Home, pag: 270)
Capitalist hypocrisy and words politics is ironically satirized at the end of the
play. Innocent youth has been exploited with conspiracy and demolished consequently.
Feudal lords play even with the dead body of the young man by proving him a traitor
who belongs to the left wing forces and will be a great threat for the colonial government.

His death is considered a great achievement of the army. This is all done only for a piece
of land. Time and again John Arden emphasizes upon the sick imperialist, capitalist and
anarchic thinking which do not allow anyone to enter in its sphere and wants to rule over
land as well as the souls of the innocent and ignorant people.
Law and order is on the stack in Serjeant Musgraves Dance, too. Musgrave is against
anarchy but he himself destroys peace and order of the society. He is snubbed by Mrs Hitchcock
after the final massacre,
MRS HITCHCOCK. All I can see is Crooked Joe Bludgeon having his dance in the
middle of fitfy Dragoons! Its time you learnt your life , you big proud serjeant. Listen:
last evening you told all about this anarchy and where it came from like, scribble all
over with life or love, and that makes anarchy. Right ?
MUSGRAVE. Go on.
MRS HITCHCOCK. Then use your Logic if you can. Look at this road: here we are,
and wed got life and love then you came in and you did your scribbling where nobody
asked you. Aye, its arsy-versey to what you said, but it still an anarchy, isnt it? And its
all your work.
MUSGRAVE. Dont tell me there was life and love in this town.
MRS HITCHCOCK. There was. There was hugery men, too fighting for their food.
But you brought in a different war.
MUSGRAVE. I brought it in to end it.

ATTERRCLIFFE. To end it by its own rules: no bloody good. She is right you are wrong
you cant cure the pox by further whoring. (Serjeant Musgrave, pag: 102)
Jhon Arden idealizes complete peace for all classes of society. His characters also yearn
for this dream. Their struggle is collapsed but they still have an urge and hope to live and love
their land. He criticizes the rude and hard attitude of the administration at different places. In the
last act of Serjeant Musgraves Dance, after the massacre the officer says to the Mayor and
Parson,
OFFICER. Law and order is established? . . .
My congratulations, all (Serjeant Musgrave, pag: 98)
Common killing has no meaning and sympathy for them. They are happy on their safety and
enjoy beer at the bar. They dont say even a single word for the poor dead souls. Law and order
is preserved for them only. In Anger and After, John Russel comments,
The plot concerns the arrival of a group of deserters, led by Serjeant Musgrave,
in a northern town in the 1880s, ostensibly recruiting but actually to teach the townfolk a
lesson about war. (pag: 92)
The lesson is taught quiet harshly and the survivers have to join the dance to celebrate the
establishment of law and order. Joh Arden concerns with the attitude towards cruelty and the
need of peace. For him a sense of peace and security is the most important to achieve total justice
and equality for a socialist society. As a Marxist he does not compromise with little justice and
less peace. The base of a developed society depends upon the enforcement of law and order
otherwise common man has to undergo horrible changes as it is presented in Serjeant Musgraves
Dance or in The Little Gray Home in The West.

Footnotes:
Marxism and Imperialism, studies by V. G. Kiernan 1974, First published I071 by
Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd. 25 Hill Street, London W 1 X BLL.
Anger and After by John Russel Taylor, revised edition 1969.
Manifesto of the Communist Party, by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels February, 1848.
The Royal Pardon, or The Soldier Who Became An Actor, 1966, John Arden and Margaretta D
Arcy.
The Little Gray Home in the West, An Anglo-Irish Melodrama, 1972, , John Arden and
Margaretta D Arcy.
Serjeant Musgraves Dance, An Un-historical Parable, with commentry and Notes by GLENDA
LEEMING.

CHAPTER 3:
SOCIAL EXPLOITATION: violence vs violence
The socialist tendency in John Ardens art raises from his communist and Marxist
interests. He always presents society and its problems that he observed through his actual
experience. He shows lifelike people without any exaggeration. Their crises are also original. For
example, In his Ars Longa Vita Brevis, Marxist strain glimpses through the characters socioeconomic predicament. His characters have an urge to improve their living by their work but
mal-settlement in an unsuitable socio-political, corrupt and exploited setting they are no more
puppets in the hands of their leaders and so called capitalists. Economic instability and
unemployment annihilate the general happiness among the relationships and causes broken
family life. Men and women are bound in monetary relations. They are slave to their desires and
wishes. Corruption and trade varies in all departments of social and moral life. Even education is
used for utilitarian aims and propaganda in favour of politicians. Marx comments on this kind of
bourgeois society .

. . education! Is not that also social, and determined by the social

conditions under which you educate, by the intervention direct or indirect, of society, by means
of schools . . . (Manifesto, pag: 24) Human consideration has lost its meaning and mans life is
valued with money. The very first long speech of the school headmaster on the annual school
day, is quite utilitarian, he says,
HEADMASTER. It has been a very good year and we have all made a lot of money and
I think we may safely congratulate ourselves upon that. Very good. (Ars Longa, pag:
47 )

These types of socio-political and capitalist administrations dont pay attention towards art and
artists that is also a prominent fashion in Ardens times. The headmaster proceeds his speech by
raising another issue, he continues,
One point, one point, however, upon which I am not so complacent. The continued
absence of an Art Class in the school. It may be objected that the Art Class is not
necessary. I have heard it said that it would produce a number of would-be Beatniks- as I
believe they are called in my young days we used to say bohemian. Whatever the name
the result is the same- untidy, lazy, dirty, verminous, drunken, drug-addicted, people with
beards, need a haircut, need a wash, need disinfectant, need a good sensible old-fashioned
housewife to scrub them,. . .
The headmaster and the art masters disturbed speeches reflect the social disturbance and
conflict of values. Schools are run by capitalist administration and the common welfare and spirit
of practical learning is avoided. In capitalist and imperialist government education becomes
business, discipline is given more importance than learning, general training and welfare is
ignored, especially fine arts are ignored. Unemployment and lack of career planning disturbs
individual life and breaks matrimonial happiness. As Marx expresses his view, The bourgeoisie
has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere
money relation. (Manifesto, Pag: 16)
The loss of society is augmented by constructing its base on economic grounds where
life is enjoyed only by those who are blessed wealth and gold. Economic insecurity and
unemployment cause divorces in such society. The art masters wife is happy that her husband
has finally got job in a school. She welcomes him at home but her attitude abruptly changes on
hearing his dismissal from job, she says,

WIFE. I would not be given the orders as though I am the servant girl. I would never
have married you if I have known that I was not to share your trials and disappointments,
your crimes and your ineptitudes: what is it you have done wrong today? (Ars Longa,
pag: 54)
He replies,
ART MASTER. I have done nothing wrong. I am hungry, that is all. I am hungry and
thirsty. Had I not married you. I would have enlisted as a soldier. I would have submitted
myself to the glories of discipline and beautiful discomforts of khaki serge. I would have
enjoyed the manly companionship of the barrack room, the glowing brutalities of the
non-commissioned officers, and the rigours and hardihood of the early morning drill
parade. Art has failed me. Marriage has failed me. The world is unlaced, Rowena,
unlaced, unbraced, and falling apart, at every button hole. ( Ars Longa, pag: 54 )
His frustration and illusions find their destination when he joins Territorials army.
Unfortunately, he mistakenly becomes a prey in the hands of the administration. He is killed by a
shot of headmaster during their hunting expedition. On his shot one of the hunters says quietly,
A QUIET VOICE AMONG THE COMPANY. I know they are men, but I do not wish
these others to know that too, because it would be a good joke to see how long it takes
them to tell the difference between a tree, a Territorial, and a deer. (Ars Longa, pag: 57)
His murder is taken for granted and the murderer is not punished. Poor people are as
animals. Human life is of no importance. Sense of equality is absent. Man is valued with money
and ranks. The governors say,

GOVERNORS. Who did this terrible thing? It does not matter, the chief constable is of
our party and the woods are the Lord Lieutenants. Who will comfort the widow?. (Ars
Longa, pag: 58)
His death is treated remorselessly as a puppet. The headmaster says,
He died in the knowledge that he was fulfilling his vocation. He was so still that we
were certain he could only be a stag; had he moved we would have known he was a
man. (Ars Longa, pag: 59)
A quiet voice among the company raises,
I knew all the time he was a man, but I thought it best to keep quiet. Now I think it even
better, though I am the Chief Constable.
HEADMASTER. Here is the money. Mrs Miltiades. You should be proud of your
husband. (Ars Longa, pag: 59)
His dead body is sold by his wife as she is compensated with enough money by the
administrative responsible. No legal examination is comforted to the poor soul of the murderer.
He is announced a martyr and his wife is satisfied with money.
WIFE. Thank you very much. Now I can have all those things that I was unable to enjoy
before because of the poor pay of the teaching profession with the money she buys
clothes, food, wine, a new house and she enjoys herself in fast cars with innumerable
young men, all more handsome and less confused than her late husband. In the middle of
her enjoyment she meets his funeral on the way to the graveyard. (Ars Longa, pag: 59)
John Arden seems lamenting on the hard heartedness of materialistic approach of
capitalist and feudal society where relations are given least importance and money is the base of

all relations. Wealth is the symbol of respect having the magical power to save relations and
engagements. People suffer in the society on the cost of their relations. They are destined to live
in anarchy and sacrifice their lives.
Role of women in a capitalist, imperialist and anarchic society is also emphasized
through the character of school masters wife. She becomes the representative of her social circle
in which she undergoes by a sense of insecurity that is linked with economic safety. Such
societies remain disable to provide protection to their women. They have to lurk from one man to
another. Karl Marx comments that in bourgeois society, status of women is as mere
instruments of production. (Manifesto, pag: 25) As a Marxist idealist Arden condemns women
as prostitutes and favours such a society that secures the rights of women and gives them equal
status to live and earn.
This type of social and moral conflict is also found in Serjeant Musgraves Dance, Annie
who works in a bar as an attendant as well as a whore, she is always in search of a man. In act
two scene one, she is happy on the arrival of four soldiers who will most probably stay in Mrs.
Hitchcocks house where she works, she says to Bargee,
ANNIE ( in a sudden outburst ). Then youd do well to see they stay four nights because
Ill not go with more nor one in one night, no, not for you nor for all of Egypt!( Serjeant
Musgrave, pag: 18)
Sparky tries to impress her, but she prefers the handsome Hurst and agrees to visit his
bedroom that night. In act two scene three when she is refused by Hurst she tries to impress
Attercliffe who refuses her, telling how his own wife took a green grocer as a lover, leaving him
too embittered for love. However,

Annie is too upset to respond to Sparky, but eventually they confide in each other, and
Sparky decides that each has been hurt enough by senseless deaths, and that these can be
better atoned for by living, not further suffering. ( Serjeant Musgrave, pag: 10)
Socio-economic conditions are responsible for the pitiable emotional and social
circumstances of the women. Society is not favourable for them. They are not provided by social
rights and security. They have to seek their way in the social stream to secure themselves. They
are the victim of military violence. They are preyed by their circumstances Annie herself asserts
when Bargee insists her to tell about the nature of the soldiers, she says,
ANNIE. Ill tell you for what a soldiers good:
To march behind his roaring drum,
Shout to us all: Her I come
Ive killed as many as I couldI am stamping into your fat town
From the war and to the war
And every girl can be my whore
Just watch me lay them squealing down,
And thats what he does and so do we,
Because we know hell soon be dead
We strap our arms round the scarlet red
Then send him weeping over the sea.
Oh he will go and a long long way.
Before he goes well make him pay

Between the night and the next cold dayBy God theres a whole lot more I could say- (Serjeant Musgrave, pag: 18)
Being a Marxist humanist John Arden is also very much concerned with the military
issues, their present and future. Militant exploitation and violence among the army has been
exposed. Social exploitation is fused and interlinked with political, religious and militants sexual
harassment. People are persecuted on all possible grounds as though they have no right to live
without the will of their lords. In the start of act two, scene one, Sparky proclaims by singing that
he was grieved on his recruitment in the army as he had to leave his beloved but with the passage
of time,
SPARKY. They made us drill and muster
And stand our sentries round
And I never thought Id lay again
A girl upon the ground
But soon we were paraded
And marching to the war
And in every town the girls lay down
And cried out for more.
And when wed lodge in billets
Wed beer in every can
And the landlords wife and daughters learnt
Just how to love a man. (Serjeant Musgrave, pag: 39)

The hard heartedness and brutality of army is exposed in the sense of wider choice when Annie
offers Hurst to visit him at night he brags.
HURST. (boastfully). Ah, the last I had was a majors daughter. Ive got standards.
Lovely. (Serjeant Musgrave, pag: 45)
Arden seems to say that war is the most miserable for the weak classes of society
especially for women and children who raped who left to suffer pain after the death of their male
partners. Nobody supports or protects them. Consequently, the society develops whores like the
character of Annie or widows like the character of Mrs. Hitchhock. In act two scene three, when
Hurst refuses Annie as he is influenced by the religious speech of Musgrave. She says,
ANNIE. . . . you are just the same as the rest of em the Hungry Army! You eat and
you drink and you go (Serjeant Musgrave, pag: 59)
A militant violence verses woman is mainly presented in Serjeant Musgraves Dance.
Only serjeants character represents the true military spirit. His stone heartedness and strictness
to his cause, whether its good or bad, suits to his job. Others are spiritually weak and less
committed to their cause. Arden has been a keen observer in presenting different ranks of army.
How they exploit innocent civilians and how they themselves have been exploited by their
authorities. The whole act two, scene three is dedicated to the physical lust of soldiers. And the
scene ends on Sparkys murder.
In The Royal Pardon, the character of Luke presents the militant exploitation by the state.
He is mistreated by the police. His identity as an army man is threatened without having proof of
his services. Such an example can be seen in Serjeant Musgraves Dance, in act one scene one,
tired and irritated Sparky proclaims,

SPARKY. One day I was drunk, boys, on the Queens Highway

When a recruiting party come beating that way
I was enlisted and attested before I did know
And to the Royal Barracks they forced me to go. (Serjeant Musgrave, pag: 9)
Arden criticizes the British recruitment system of his time which doesnt check the
willingness and capabilities of a person before recruiting in army. Militant anarchism causes an
air of hatred among the masses. In the same act Bargee, who carries them with their weapons on
his van, calls the soldiers, blood red bloody roses . They are the roses that smell foul. Those
are used for funerals only. John Russel Taylor quotes John Ardens words about colours, he says,
As Arden once wrote the colours are primary. Black is for death, and for the coalmines. Red
is for murder, and for the soldiers coat the collier puts on to escape from his black.... (Anger
and After, pag: 93)
The use of red and scarlet, black and white colours is frequent as symbols in the play. They
symbolize the fortune of the natives. Themes of violence and pacifism are also presented through
them.
In Ardens plays society is presented as a whole. Authoritarians and administration is
somehow responsible for the economic and social collapse of values which has ditched the
common man in misery and frustration. Religion has played its equal part in this deteriorated
development of society as the administration and legislative forces are influenced by the church.
In act two of Serjeant Musgraves Dance, Mrs. Hitchcock, who is running a bar. She is sitting
with Parson and worried about her business which has been disturbed due to the industrial crisis
in their mining village. People have stopped visiting her bar as they are short of money after their

clash with the mine owner who reclines to increase their daily wages. She requests for the
acceptance of public demands so that her business may also run but he says,
PARSON. The church is not a speculative bank, you know, to subsidise pot-houses.
MRS HITCHCOCK ( sulkily ) . Always a respectable house, reverend.
PARSON. What?
MRS HITCHCOCK. Always a respectable house, reverend.
Aye. If not, why renew the licence? You are a magistrate, you know, you could have
spoke agen me on me application. But you didnt. (Serjeant Musgrave, pag: 14, 15)
Nevertheless, he says that its quite good that people should not drink in a regrettable
industrial conflict because then there is less likelihood of their being inflamed to acts of
violence. She laughs and says,
MRS HITCHCOCK. Eh, if we cant have a laugh, well starve!
He shortens their discussion by saying,
PARSON. You are impertinent. I have nothing more to say.
She finally fills his ear with these words,
MRS HITCHCOCK. Ah, but I come to you because youre church, youre charity. Go
on, reverend, tell the Mayor to agree with his men and give them a good price, then they
will buy and sell in the town and theyll drink in this taproom, and ho-hop- who knows,
they might even come to church! Thatll be the day. (Serjeant Musgrave, pag: 15 )

The church is also responsible for the final massacre of the play. The parson is the
representative of the administration but he shows negligence towards the arrival of army in the
town when Bargee informs him about them. He says,
PARSON. . . . You are wasting my time, man,
Come on, get out of my way . . .
BARGEE. ( still detaining him ). Eh, but, Parson, youre a magistrate.
PARSON. Of course Im a magistrate.
BARGEE. Youre a power, you are : in a town of trouble, in a place of danger.
Yes. You are the word and the book, arent you? Well then : soldiers. Recruiting. Useful?
PARSON. Hm. I do not think the bench is in any real need of your suggestions. But I am
obliged to you for the news. Thank you.
He gives the BARGEE a coin and leaves. (Serjeant Musgrave, pag: 17)
The Parson informs the Mayor about their coming in the town and the Mayor decides to
use them for his own interest. He himself visits the serjeant and offers him money in reward of
his help to retreat the colliers from protest against his low wages policy for coal miners. He says
to the Serjeant,
MAYOR. Serjeant we are very glad to have you. I speak for the Council, I speak for the
magistrate. Now listen: theres loyal hearts and true here, and were every man-jack of us
keen to see our best lads flock to the colours. Isnt that so, Parson?
PARSON. ( taken a little by surprise ). Ha-hm- with great pride, yes.

MAYOR . Right. For every Queens shilling you give out, I give out a golden sovereign
no, two. One for the recruit, and one to be divided among you and your three good lads.
What do you say to that?
MUSGRAVE. Thats most handsome, sir. (Serjeant Musgrave, pag: 23)
The religious exploitation has been presented quite ridiculously. Its got one of the forms
of religious dogmatism when Musgrave names his violent actions as religious and proclaims . . .
my power is the power of God, and thats what brought me here. . .our message without God is a
bad belch and a hiccup (Serjeant Musgrave, pag: 30, 31). Before doing massacre in the town he
sets a meeting with his comrades and formally prays for the success of his noble cause which he
has planned as a revenge of his old companion who is murdered in war. In act one scene three he
gives it the name of Gods dance on this earth: (Serjeant Musgrave, pag: 36)
John Russel Taylor argues well in Anger and After, He is right when he says that God is with
him; that he really is the representative of divine and by definition inhuman justice that he
believes himself to be. (pag: 94) He wants to diminish violence through violence. He believes
that the revenge for one dead body should be five dead bodies and five dead bodies demand
twenty five corpses.
In a selfish and hypocrite society man suffers pain and misery due to man. Violence
results brutality. Pessimistic outlook causes butchery. Revolutionary spirits are crushed. John
Arden presents the socio-political and socio-economic issues side by side because they are
basically inter-linked. Peoples development is based upon these two grounds. The small town in
Serjeant Musgraves Dance represents the English and Irish society of his times. People are like
play cards in the hands of the land owners. They dont have the to speak for their fundamental
rights. They even dont know who is their enemy and why he is going to kill them. They are

almost sieged in their own homes due their circumstances. Their wretched condition is witnessed
by the soldiers mouth in act three, who are assigned the duty to patrol in the town and denounce
the colliers on the spot wherever they have been watched. They one by one report to Musgrave,
MUSGRAVE. Coldest town I ever was in. What did you see?
HURST. Hardly a thing. Street empty, windows shut, tow old wives on a doorstep go
indoors minute I come, there men on one corner, two men on another, dirty looks and
words from any on, em. Theres one man swears accurse at me just now. Thats all.
MUSGRAVE. Hm . . .
ATTERCLIFFE enters.
What did you see?
ATTERCLIFFE. Hardly a thing. Street empty, doors locked windows blind, shops cold
and empty. A young lass calls her kids in from playing in the dirt

-- she sees me

coming, so she callsem. Theres someone throws a stone -MUSGRAVE. A stone?

Enter SPARKY.
SPARKY. Hardly a thing. Street empty, no chimneys smoking, no horses, yesterdays
horse dung frozen on the road. Three men at a corner post, four men leaning on a wall.
No words: but some chalked up on closed door -- they said: soldiers go home,
(Serjeant Musgrave, pag: 28, 29)
The dialogues of these three soldiers present a comparison of the situation prevailing in
the town. The town is dead even before the massacre. It is this social destruction that is cursed by

Marx and his followers. The individuals are deprived of basic rights and deserted in their own
environment. The issue of increment in wages is raised in Fridays Hiding as well as in Serjeant
Musgraves Dance. Misery and death are prevailing everywhere. Human struggle against his
circumstances is futile. Acknowledgement of individuals identity and his rights is lacked. The
character of Attercliffe also represents women stricken class of society who has been
disappointed in matrimonial love.
In the introduction of Serjeant Musgraves Dance John Arden himself says,
. . . however that a study of the roles of the women, and of Private Attercliffe, should
be sufficient to remove any doubts as to where the moral of the play lies. (Serjeant
Musgrave, pag: 7)
Its Attercliffe who says no for shooting the common people when Hurst gets ready for fire. He
also condemns Musgrave at the end of the play for his cruelty and harsh treatment with the
people.
Nevertheless, variant social issues including militant violence, anarchy, role of women in
society, religious hypocrisy, unemployment, increment in wages, socio-political unrest and moral
chaos are elaborated in Serjeant Musgraves Dance. John Arden is a Marxist humanist. His
realism in the presentation of all the above subjects in Serjeant Musgraves Dance shows his
apprehensions for humanity. He seems seeking reforms in society and the end of violence and
chaos.
Footnotes:
Anger and After by John Russel Taylor, revised edition 1969.
The Royal Pardon, or The Soldier Who Became An Actor, 1966, John Arden and Margaretta D
Arcy.

Serjeant Musgraves Dance, An Un-historical Parable, with commentry and Notes by GLENDA
LEEMING.
Manifesto of the Communist Party, by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels February, 1848

CHAPTER 4:
CONCLUSION:
To conclude this research work I may examine how much I have been successful to prove
that John Arden is a Marxist playwright. Which strategies and practices I have adopted to prove
my research statement. For this I have to quote Althussers words used by Peter Barry in the
Beginning Theory, he answers the question, what do Marxist critics do.
They make a division between the 'overt' (manifest or surface) and 'covert' (latent or
hidden) content of a literary work (much as psychoanalytic critics do) and then relate the
covert subject matter of the literary work to basic Marxist themes, such as class struggle,
or the progression of society through various historical stages, such as, the transition from
feudalism to industrial capitalism. . . relate the context of a work to the social-class status
of the author. . . explain the nature of a whole literary genre in terms of the social period
which 'produced' it. . . relate the literary work to the social assumptions of the time in
which it is 'consumed', . . . the 'politicisation of literary form', that is, the claim that
literary forms are themselves determined by political circumstance. (pag: 112)
All the collected plays in this research work have been examined keenly with reference to
the socio-political, socio-economic and post war scenario of 1950s. All the plots of the selected
five plays are based upon social problems. Political influences, religious hypocrisy, capitalist,
imperialist and feudal interferences in administrative,

legal and social matters are mainly

described in these plays. Themes of social, moral, legal and economic chaos, women
emancipation, class struggle, violence, injustice, unemployment, ownership of property are
prominent in these plays.

Karl Marx talks about the basic rights of the people. He is concerned about a strong
base of society upon which a superstructure may be constructed. By base Marx and Engels
means the material resources and revenue of production. They advocate equal distribution and
exchange of these resources. Equal distribution of land and money according to the faculties and
skills of the people is desirable for them. This base helps in the establishment of a superstructure
which relates to the idea of culture in a society that deals with the social institutes of art, religion,
law, education, arm forces and so on. As all these institutes are not naturally formed they are the
result of an evolution in human civilization. Somehow, they are linked with the nature of the
economic base of a society. However, a developed society is established with a progressive
economy. Marxist streaks in John Ardens collected plays seem to recommend that all the
institutes and state economy should be in the control of a socialist government which will run the
machinery systematically. We are able to say that Karl Marx ideals find their dramatic
implication in John Ardens plays.
As John Arden illustrates the fundamental human rights of people. He talks about the
socio-economic conflict of the lower and upper classes. Most of the time, in his plays, this
conflict ends with the victory of upper class. The lower classes are exploited, intrigued or
compensated at the end of each story. People have to struggle at their work and to get their wages
as well. Their land lords do not want to pay them. In Fridays Hiding, characters of Eddie and
Tam are shown fighting for their wages and seek for an increment. In The Royal Pardon,
Esmeralda complains for not paying regularly by the stage company. Annie of Serjeant
Musgraves Dance being a whore claims that soldiers do not pay her. The coal miners are also on
strike with the Mayor for the increment of their wages.

Problem of unemployment is exposed in The Royal Pardon through the character of Luke
and the actors of the stage company. The character of the school master in the Ars Longa Vita
Brevis is also the representation of those unemployed people whose families are disturbed due to
economic crisis.
Feminist issues are also presented in the collected plays Arden favours the freedom and
equality for women who have to suffer after losing their men in war. He also talks about their
morals and seems raising question about those factors which compel them to go astray, cross
their limits and adopt illegal means to develop their earn their living. In Fridays Hiding, female
characters of Eddie and Miss. Balfour are comparatively drawn to focus the social and emotional
condition of the women of upper and lower classes. Pain is destined in the life of the women of
both classes whether she belongs to bourgeoisie or proletariats. The female characters in The
Royal Pardon, the stage actresses and the character of the princess do reveal the sacrificing spirit
of women at all levels. Another type of woman is displayed in the Ars Longa Vita Brevis through
the character of school masters wife who finds comfort after the murder of her husband. She is
compensated with money for his murder. Two female characters are prominent in Serjeant
Musgraves Dance Annie, who does job at a bar as well as sexually entertains the bar customers,
Mrs. Hitchcock, she is a self made woman who is the owner of the bar, runs her business and
deals the customers. Characters of Teresa and Soibhan in The Little Gray Home In The West, are
also the victim of circumstances. All the female characters are shown socially dependent and
legally insecure in John Ardens settings. They are seemed at war with their circumstances.
Ironically, he seems to condemn the crime of war which is indirectly responsible for the social
evils. His plays are written in the post war scenario, when the world has faced two great wars, a

number of civil wars, various colonial and post colonial disputes of colonized and decolonized
nations and especially John Ardens colonial background with reference to the Irish nation.
Militant violence and anarchy have been the most striking themes in his collected plays.
The central character of Serjeant Musgraves Dance, sergeant Musgrave comes in a mining town
to recruit the native people in army but he actually plans to kill the inhabitants in revenge of his
old companion. John Russel Taylor quotes
In an interview Arden has said himself that at the end law and order have been reestablished by force; which, if you like, is the natural result of Musgrave trying to
establish the opposite by force.(Anger and After, pag: 95)
He teaches the lesson of violence in revenge of violence and proves that anarchy is snubbed by
force. Theme of lawlessness and chaos is presented in Ars Longa Vita Brevis, The Royal Pardon
and The Little Gray Home In The West. Padraic and the school master both are murdered by the
soldiers. But law does not awake to provide them justice.
Religious hypocrisy is another theme in the collected plays that is glimpsed by John
Arden. In Serjeant Musgraves Dance, Parsons character is the true representation of religious
double standards. He is a magistrate appointed by the church but he does not favour the rights of
the common people.
Educational exploitation is presented in Ars Longa Vita Brevis, where discipline is given
more importance than education. It has become business and used for propaganda. Art classes are
given least importance and art teacher is considered unnecessary. At the advance level the social
position of the stage artists is also very weak in The Royal Pardon who perform on low wages
and are not respected publically.

Arden presents the reality for social reforms. His plays are sympathetically drawn for
constructive purpose. He follows Marxist ideology to depict the deplorable social condition of
his people. His plays are rendered universal relevance due to his anxiety for humanity and desire
for social revolution. After a keen study of John Ardens collected plays his reader can observe a
Marxist strain in all of them.

Citation:
Arden,john: selected plays.publisher,Co & Wyman Ltd. Berkshire. 1990.print.
Playwright and political activist John Arden dies, Lorna Siggins,Fri, Mar 30, 2012, 01:00
John Arden: Playwright whose political ideas infused his epic, eloquent and flamboyant work,
John Calder ,Monday 02 April 2012

John Ardens Obituary, Micheal Coveney, Friday 30 March 2012 10.19 BST Last modified on
Monday 2 April 2012 16.06 BST
Beginning theory,An introduction to literary and cultural theory,Second edition Peter Barry,
Peter Barry 1995, 2002
Manifesto of the Communist Party, by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels February, 1848.

Main Currents of Marxism, Its Rise, Growth and Dissolution, by Leszek kolakowski, VOLUME
2, The Golden Age, Translated from the polish, F.S.Falla
John Arden, British Playwright, Dies at 8,By BRUCE WEBER, Published: April 3, 2012, Sam
Falk/The New York Times
Standpoints:The Dramaturgy of Margaretta D'Arcy and John Arden,Catherine
Graham,Comparative Literature Program,McGill University, Montral,July 1991
Anger and After by John Russel Taylor, revised edition 1969.