ENG 342RW Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Maud Gonne, Irish Mythology, Easter Rising
Document Summary
Yeats"s attitude is somewhat harsh, as he compares gonne with the infamously beautiful. And notoriously mischievous helen of troy. Like maud gonne, helen was considered one of the most beautiful women of her age. She was also partly responsible for starting the trojan war, which eventually led to the burning of the great city of troy. Many legends paint her as a romantic who left her husband menelaus for the beautiful but cowardly trojan. Angry husband + massive armies = trojan war: with the comparison to helen, yeats is accusing maud gonne of being partially responsible for the violence in revolutionary ireland, just like helen was partially responsible for the trojan war. In 1916, her husband, john macbride, took part in the violent easter rising against the british. In the wake of the uprising, macbride and many others were executed.
