Political Success in Gregory's The Rising of the Moon

The playwright Lady Gregory wrote The Rising of the Moon with a conscious view of implanting revolutionary awakening in those Irish readers or audiences who were not stimulated by the fever-pitch of the national liberation movement.

By the time Lady Gregory thought about writing this play, there was a greater degree of the necessity to implant a political awakening in most of the Irish people. More than two thirds of the basic requirements of the Irish people had already been fulfilled by the British government. Most of the physical and the material difficulties of the Irish people had already been fulfilled by the British regime. The Irish people were at serene rest and comfortably well-off. Hence, those comfortably well-off Irish people felt no urgent need to raise a voice against the stable status quo of the British regime. To the category of such Irish people Lady Gregory, intended to impart a decisive message. According to Lady Gregory the fulfillment of the material necessity is one thing and the necessity of the soul and the mind is another. The hunger for the political emancipation is one thing, the fulfillment of the physical necessity is another.

The fulfillment of the bodily needs and necessities does not give an in-depth satisfaction to the hungry soul of human being. Although the Irish people were free from the physical troubles and material discomforts, they were not mentally free, they were not free to understand the importance of national freedom, political independence.

That is why those Irish people who had a rebellious nature decided to launch an underground revolution to liberate their country from the tyranny of the British regime. To gain the national independence the widespread support became a must. Unless and until each and every person in Ireland becomes politically awake the vision of the Irish national liberation could not get materialized. With this purpose in mind, Lady Gregory wrote this play The Rising of the Moon. Hence, the main purpose of the playwright Lady Gregory is political. To spark a revolutionary awakening in everyone who is Irish by nationality is the main goal of the playwright. Since this revolutionary vision of the political independence can't be achieved if there is no national unity, broader Irish unity. The play The Rising of the Moon aims at appealing to the Irish people for the broader concept of the Irish national unity.

This play indirectly hints at the fact that without Irish unity the British regime can't be toppled down. Unity is a weapon against the alien power whose tyranny has mined the political aspirations of the Irish people.