Post by hibernicus on Feb 10, 2010 17:06:32 GMT
In relation to the last point; having a cleric in the family would not only guarantee their well-being but raise the status of the rest of the family as well. Part of the conflict involved in the struggle of James Joyce/Stephen Dedalus over a possible religious vocation is that his family - certainly his father, who is otherwise pretty irreligious, is that as a Jesuit he will be a "gentleman" and will have various avenues of influence which he can exercise on behalf of his younger siblings, who have not received his educational opportunities. This is why there are references to a possible vocation as "simoniacal" in PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST.
The Cork dramatist TC Murray wrote about 1914 a play with a related theme in a West Cork rural setting called MAURICE HARTE. Maurice is a seminarian at Maynooth who comes from a small farming family but when he comeshome on holiday he announces that he has realised he has no vocation. His mother is horrified because of the consequences for the family (a sister has been married in a match partly based on appreciation of the prospective benefits of a priest in the family, shopkeepers have been more willing to extend credit than might otherwise be the case) and pressurises him into returning to maynooth; she insists this is only a passing fancy and refuses to accept he has any right to decide this forhimself at all. Maurice has a breakdown and goes mad.
Incidentally, Murray's last play written about 1950 and never published, is based on the opposite situation - a young solicitor horrifies his socially ambitious family by deciding he wants to become a Cistercian. It's supposed to have been inspired by Murray's own reluctance to accept his daughter's decision to become a Poor Clare. I can think of other 1940s/50s Irish plays which feature middle-class families opposing vocations for their children, so it wasn't unknown even then.
The Cork dramatist TC Murray wrote about 1914 a play with a related theme in a West Cork rural setting called MAURICE HARTE. Maurice is a seminarian at Maynooth who comes from a small farming family but when he comeshome on holiday he announces that he has realised he has no vocation. His mother is horrified because of the consequences for the family (a sister has been married in a match partly based on appreciation of the prospective benefits of a priest in the family, shopkeepers have been more willing to extend credit than might otherwise be the case) and pressurises him into returning to maynooth; she insists this is only a passing fancy and refuses to accept he has any right to decide this forhimself at all. Maurice has a breakdown and goes mad.
Incidentally, Murray's last play written about 1950 and never published, is based on the opposite situation - a young solicitor horrifies his socially ambitious family by deciding he wants to become a Cistercian. It's supposed to have been inspired by Murray's own reluctance to accept his daughter's decision to become a Poor Clare. I can think of other 1940s/50s Irish plays which feature middle-class families opposing vocations for their children, so it wasn't unknown even then.