W.B.Yeats(1865-1939)

Cathleen Ni Houlihan

By Grace Wen

Nationalism and Symbolism in Yeats's Cathleen Ni Houlihan

What's Yeats's idea of nationalism?
  1. How different are the ideas of society that the old and the youth present in Cathleen Ni Houlihan ?
  2. What does the Poor Old Woman represent?
  3. Why does Patrick Gilane see the Poor Old Woman as a young girl with the walk of a queen in the end of the play?

    Yeats's At the Hawk's Well

  1. Explain the symbolic meanings of the magic well and the withered tree in At the Hawk's Well.
  2. What's the function of the voices of the three musicians in At the Hawk's Well?
  3. What's the meaning of the hawk symbol?
  4. What's the meaning of the mask in Yeats's plays?

Relevant Links

* Critical notes to Cathleen Ni Houlihan

* On-line sources