Department
of English
Faculty of Arts,
Chulalongkorn University
The Pillowman
(2003)
Martin
McDonagh
(March 26, 1970 – )
Notes
The Pillowman was written
in 1994 in two and a half weeks. It was first staged at the National
Theatre, London in 2003 starring David Tennant as Katurian and Jim
Broadbent as Tupolski.
Act 1
Scene 1
3 blindfolded: What
is the difference between being blindfolded and being hooded?
4615 Theater Company (2015)
|
Oxford Playhouse (2014) |
|
8 My parents were funny
people: Which meaning(s) of funny do you think McDonagh is
playing with in describing Katurian's parents?
- funny (Oxford
Dictionaries)
1 Causing laughter or amusement; humorous.
‘a funny story’
‘the play is hilariously funny’
1.1 informal [predicative, with negative]
Used to emphasize that something is serious or should be taken
seriously.
‘stealing other people's work isn't funny’
2 Difficult to explain or understand; strange or odd.
‘I had a funny feeling you'd be around’
‘it's a funny old world’
‘I do get some funny looks’
‘the funny thing is I can't remember much about it’
‘that's funny!—that vase of flowers has been moved’
2.1 Unusual, especially in such a way as to arouse suspicion.
‘there was something funny going on’
2.2 informal Slightly but undefinably unwell.
‘suddenly my stomach felt funny’
‘Are you okay? You look a bit funny’
8 Your name is Katurian
Katurian Katurian?: Note that the initials for this name is KKK.
|
- Ku Klux Klan (Oxford
Dictionaries)
(also KKK)
An extremist right-wing secret society in the US
- "Grant,
Reconstruction, and the KKK," American Experience, PBS
At the time of Ulysses S. Grant's election to the presidency,
white supremacists were conducting a reign of terror
throughout the South. In outright defiance of the
Republican-led federal government, Southern Democrats formed
organizations that violently intimidated blacks and
Republicans who tried to win political power.
The most prominent of these, the Ku Klux Klan, was formed in
Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1865. Originally founded as a social
club for former Confederate soldiers, the Klan evolved into a
terrorist organization. It would be responsible for thousands
of deaths, and would help to weaken the political power of
Southern blacks and Republicans.
[...]
In this violent atmosphere, the Ku Klux Klan grew in size and
strength. By 1868, the Klan had evolved into a hooded
terrorist organization that its members called "The Invisible
Empire of the South." The reorganized Klan's first leader, or
"Grand Wizard," was Nathan Bedford Forrest, who had been a
Confederate general during the Civil War.
White Southerners from all classes of society joined the
Klan's ranks. In the name of preserving law and order in a
white-dominated society, Klansmen punished newly freed blacks
for a variety of reasons, including behaving in an "impudent"
manner toward whites. They whipped the teachers of freedmen's
schools and burnt their schoolhouses.
|
9 next of kin: After Katurian answers Tupolski, almost by
reflex, that Michal is his next of kin, he begins to wonder why the police
would need to know this. Usually, one wants information about a person's
next of kin when there is an expectation of death so that this closest
relative could be contacted to take on responsibility if there are any
debts to be settled or any property to pass on. Tupolski brushes this off
as "just formalities" but the ominous suggestion remains hanging now over
the scene: that the police is preparing for Katurian's imminent death.
- next of kin (Oxford
Dictionaries)
[treated as singular or plural] A person's closest living
relative or relatives
‘the police notified the next of kin’
11 I'm the good cop,
he's the bad cop: Tupolski is referring to the good cop bad cop
routine, a common police interrogation technique.
The Heat (2013)
The Pink Panther (2006)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
The Lego Movie (2014)
"The Boy Who Knew Too Much," season 5, episode 20, The
Simpsons (1994)
"Good Cop Bad Cop Interrogation Techniques" (2017)
|
- Esther Inglis-Arkell, "Here's
Why the 'Good Cop, Bad Cop' Routine Actually Works," io9
(2015)
You know the routine. A tough cop berates and browbeats a
suspect until his partner sends him out. The partner is
reassuring, and the suspect spills his guts.
- "Good
Cop/Bad Cop," TV Tropes
A type of Perp Sweating frequently used in Crime and
Punishment Series.
One cop behaves in a very threatening and menacing way towards
the suspect, while the other appears sympathetic, helpful and
protective. The suspect is expected to be cooperative with the
"good cop."
|
17 Hamelin: the town in the well-known folktale The Pied
Piper of Hamelin.
(1989, claymation)
(1984 TV episode)
(1957 musical)
|
- Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, "The
Children of Hameln" ["Die Kinder zu Hameln"] (1816)
In the year 1284 a mysterious man appeared in Hameln. He was
wearing a coat of many colored, bright cloth, for which reason
he was called the Pied Piper. He claimed to be a ratcatcher,
and he promised that for a certain sum that he would rid the
city of all mice and rats. The citizens struck a deal,
promising him a certain price. The ratcatcher then took a
small fife from his pocket and began to blow on it. Rats and
mice immediately came from every house and gathered around
him. When he thought that he had them all he led them to the
River Weser where he pulled up his clothes and walked into the
water. The animals all followed him, fell in, and drowned.
Now that the citizens had been freed of their plague, they
regreted having promised so much money, and, using all kinds
of excuses, they refused to pay him. Finally he went away,
bitter and angry. He returned on June 26, Saint John's and
Saint Paul's Day, early in the morning at seven o'clock
(others say it was at noon), now dressed in a hunter's
costume, with a dreadful look on his face and wearing a
strange red hat. He sounded his fife in the streets, but this
time it wasn't rats and mice that came to him, but rather
children: a great number of boys and girls from their fourth
year on. Among them was the mayor's grown daughter. The swarm
followed him, and he led them into a mountain, where he
disappeared with them.
All this was seen by a babysitter who, carrying a child in her
arms, had followed them from a distance, but had then turned
around and carried the news back to the town. The anxious
parents ran in droves to the town gates seeking their
children. The mothers cried out and sobbed pitifully. Within
the hour messengers were sent everywhere by water and by land
inquiring if the children -- or any of them -- had been seen,
but it was all for naught.
In total, one hundred thirty were lost. Two, as some say, had
lagged behind and came back. One of them was blind and the
other mute. The blind one was not able to point out the place,
but was able to tell how they had followed the piper. The mute
one was able to point out the place, although he [or she] had
heard nothing. One little boy in shirtsleeves had gone along
with the others, but had turned back to fetch his jacket and
thus escaped the tragedy, for when he returned, the others had
already disappeared into a cave within a hill. This cave is
still shown.
Until the middle of the eighteenth century, and probably still
today, the street through which the children were led out to
the town gate was called the bunge-lose (drumless, soundless,
quiet) street, because no dancing or music was allowed there.
Indeed, when a bridal procession on its way to church crossed
this street, the musicians would have to stop playing. The
mountain near Hameln where the the children disappeared is
called Poppenberg. Two stone monuments in the form of crosses
have been erected there, one on the left side and one on the
right. Some say that the children were led into a cave, and
that they came out again in Transylvania.
The citizens of Hameln recorded this event in their town
register, and they came to date all their proclamations
according to the years and days since the loss of their
children.
According to Seyfried the 22nd rather than the 26th of June
was entered into the town register.
The following lines were inscribed on the town hall:
In the year 1284 after the birth of Christ
From Hameln were led away
One hundred thirty children, born at this place
Led away by a piper into a mountain.
And on the new gate was inscribed: Centum ter denos cum magus
ab urbe puellos
duxerat ante annos CCLXXII condita porta fuit.
[This gate was built 272 years after the magician led the 130
children from the city.]
In the year 1572 the mayor had the story portrayed in the
church windows. The accompanying inscription has become
largely illegible. In addition, a coin was minted in memory of
the event.
- Robert Browning, "The
Pied Piper of Hamelin: A Child's Story" (1842)
|
22 you execute a writer [...] It sends out the signal
"DON'T...GO...AROUND...KILLING...LITTLE...FUCKING...KIDS.": What, in
fact, would you have said is the message sent if a totalitarian
dictatorship kills a writer? Would it be this same message that Tupolski
says is given? Why is Tupolski so obviously wrong? Why, rather, have a
character who "do[es]n't know what signal it sends out, that's not really
[his] area" give a clearly wrong reading of the meaning of killing a
writer?
Act 2
Scene 1
32 weeping willow:
Photo: Simon Kumm (2011)
|
- "Weeping
Willow," Oxford University Press
A Eurasian willow with trailing branches and foliage reaching
down to the ground, widely grown as an ornamental in waterside
settings.
- "Willow,"
The Continuum Encyclopedia of Symbols, edited by Udo
Becker (2000)
Because of its shape, which is poised toward the ground and
reminiscent of streams of tears, the weeping willow is often a
symbol of mourning.
|
34 Then he stopped
bleeding and went blue:
- blue (Oxford
Dictionaries)
1 Of a colour intermediate between green and violet, as of
the sky or sea on a sunny day.
‘the clear blue sky’
‘a blue silk shirt’
‘deep blue eyes’
1.1 (of a person's skin) having turned blue as a result of cold
or breathing difficulties.
‘Ashley went blue and I panicked’
- go blue (Merriam-Webster)
British
to turn blue from being cold or not breathing ex. The baby stopped
breathing and went blue.
41 put some limes on them: Michal is using, incorrectly, the
plural form of lime which makes it sound like the citrus fruit when in fact
he is referring to the calcium powder commonly used in disposing bodies.
Photo: Kemcore
|
- lime (Oxford
Dictionaries)
1 [mass noun] A white caustic alkaline substance
consisting of calcium oxide, which is obtained by heating
limestone and which combines with water with the production of
much heat; quicklime.
1.1 A white alkaline substance consisting of calcium
hydroxide, made by adding water to quicklime and used in
traditional building methods to make plaster, mortar, and
limewash.
1.2 (in general use) any of a number of calcium
compounds, especially calcium hydroxide, used as an additive
to soil or water.
2 archaic Birdlime.
1 A rounded citrus fruit similar to a lemon but
greener, smaller, and with a distinctive acid flavour.
‘roughly chop two limes’
[mass noun] ‘wedges of lime’
[as modifier] ‘lime juice’
- Kathryn Meyers Emery, "New
Morbid Terminology: Quicklime," Bones Don't Lie
(2013)
If you’re a fan of murder-mystery novels, you’ve probably run
across quicklime before. It’s commonly cited in detective and
mob stories as a method for quick and anonymous disposal of a
body. Usually, the body is laid out on a tarp or placed in a
burial, and then to prevent it from smelling and speed decay
it is covered with quicklime. In movies and TV shows, the
quicklime effectively destroys the body so that identification
is prevented. [...]
Quicklime does have uses for burials. In the Red
Cross Emergency Relief Items Catalogue, quicklime and
lime are listed as a tool for aiding in proper disposal of
human remains that cannot be afforded a deep burial. However,
the goal of the product is not to destroy the body but rather
to prevent putrefaction that create odor, and attracts flies
and animals. Quicklime was often used over plague or cholera
burials to prevent the spread of disease, thought during this
period to be transferred through noxious bad air known as
miasma (a morbid term for another day).
|
43 what's done is done and can't never be undone: a paraphrase
of Lady Macbeth's lines in act 5 scene 1 of Shakespeare's Macbeth
Macbeth, directed by Philip Casson (1979)
|
- William Shakespeare, Macbeth,
1623, edited by A. R. Braunmuller (Cambridge UP, 1999)
GENTLEWOMAN. [...] Lo you, here she comes! This is her very
guise and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her, stand
close.
DOCTOR. How came she by that light?
GENTLEWOMAN. Why, it stood by her. She has light by her
continually, 'tis her command.
DOCTOR. You see her eyes are open.
GENTLEWOMAN. Ay, but their sense are shut.
DOCTOR. What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her hands.
GENTLEWOMAN. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus
washing her hands; I have known her continue in this a quarter
of an hour.
LADY MACBETH. Yet here's a spot.
DOCTOR. Hark, she speaks; I will set down what comes from her,
to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.
LADY MACBETH. Out, damned spot! Out, I say! One, two. Why
then, 'tis time to do't. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a
soldier, and afeard? What need we fear? Who knows it, when
none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought
the old man to have had so much blood in him?
DOCTOR. Do you mark that?
LADY MACBETH. The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?
What, will these hands ne'er be clean? No more o'that, my
lord, no more o'that. You mar all with this starting.
DOCTOR. Go to, go to; you have known what you should not.
GENTLEWOMAN. She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of
that. Heaven knows what she has known.
LADY MACBETH. Here's the smell of the blood still; all the
perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. O, O, O.
DOCTOR. What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged.
GENTLEWOMAN. I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the
dignity of the whole body.
DOCTOR. Well, well, well—
GENTLEWOMAN. Pray God it be, sir.
DOCTOR. This disease is beyond my practice; yet I have known
those which have walked in their sleep who have died holily in
their beds.
LADY MACBETH. Wash your hands, put on your night-gown, look
not so pale. I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he cannot
come out on's grave.
DOCTOR. Even so?
LADY MACBETH. To bed, to bed; there's knocking at the gate.
Come, come, come, come, give me your hand; what's done cannot
be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed.
Exit
|
44 aggravated:
- aggravate (Oxford
Dictionaries)
[WITH OBJECT]
1 Make (a problem, injury, or offence) worse or more serious.
‘military action would only aggravate the situation’
2 informal Annoy or exasperate.
‘she found him thoroughly aggravating and unprofessional’
- aggravate (Online
Etymology Dictionary)
1520s, "make heavy, burden down," from Latin aggravatus, past
participle of aggravare "to render more troublesome," literally
"to make heavy or heavier, add to the weight of," from ad "to"
(see ad-)
+ gravare "weigh down," from gravis "heavy" (from PIE
root *gwere- (1) "heavy"). The literal sense in English has
become obsolete; meaning "to make a bad thing worse" is from 1590s;
colloquial sense "exasperate, annoy" is from 1610s.
To aggravate has properly only one meaning—to make (an evil)
worse or more serious. [Fowler]
The earlier English verb was aggrege "make heavier or more
burdensome; make more oppressive; increase, intensify" (late 14c.), from
Old French agreger.
44 got on their nerves:
- get on someone's nerves (Oxford
Dictionaries)
informal
Irritate someone
‘The wind howling was really getting on her nerves, and if she
didn't drown it out soon, she was going to start yelling at it.’
Comprehension Check
Act 1
- Where is Michal while Katurian
is being interrogated the first time? (14)
Act
2
- How many of the three kids did
Michal kill? (38, 48–49) When he tells Katurian "I was kind
of playing a trick on ya" with his swearing on his life that
he "didn't kill those three kids" (48), what trick was he
playing?
Act
3
- Who killed Katurian's parents?
(76)
- What is a wishing well for? What
is the implied wish fulfilled that makes the well an "apt"
burial place for the parents? (77)
- What does Katurian's "not again"
reveal about his electric torture? (78)
|
Study Questions
- In the Chula production, the play opens with Katurian
sitting hooded at the interrogation table. The playscript
merely indicates "blindfolded" (3). What different meanings
are suggested by the hood versus the blindfold?
- Why is there a delay in revealing what Katurian does that
causes him to be brought to the interrogation?
- What is the difference or similarities between the police
and the suspects?
- At what points are expectations (readers' and characters')
foiled in the play? What do these twists reveal?
- What crimes are committed in the play? Which crimes are
punished and which are not?
- Why does the play allude to Shakespeare's Macbeth
through Michal slightly misquoting Lady Macbeth's lines? What
parallels or differences do you see between these two plays
about murder? Compare, for example, Lady Macbeth's
sleepwalking, Michal's "love [of] sleeping" (63), and
Katurian's "long, desperate, sleepless night[s]" listening to
noises of torture (23).
- What responsibility does an artist have for his or her work?
- Does this play have a happy ending? Why or why not?
|
Review Sheet
Characters
Katurian, Kat
–
"'Your name is Katurian Katurian Katurian?'" (8); "clear[s] stuff" at
the "Kamenice abattoir" (9)
Michal
Katurian –
Katurian's older brother (9); "'He's not backward, no. He's slow to
get things sometimes'" (9)
Tupolski –
a police detective (3); "I am a high-ranking police officer in a
totalitarian fucking dictatorship" (23)
Ariel –
a police detective (3)
Vocabulary
set
props
story
fable
parable
fairy tale
allegory; allegorical
origin story
bedtime story
deconstruction, deconstructive
self-reflexivity, self-reflexive
meta-text, meta-textual, meta-textuality, meta-narrative
plot
frame
framed
narrative; layered narrative
foreshadowing;
warnings; omens
suspense
denouement
narrator(s)
point
of view
characters
stereotypes
plausibility
diction
voice
tone
mood
imagery
metaphor
simile
symbol,
symbolic, symbolism
irony
understatement
contrast
repetition
theme(s)
literature;
art; live theater
the
connection between art and life
stories;
storytelling; storyteller(s)
nostalgia, nostalgic
revision
truth
lies;
lying; fiction
trust
doubt;
suspicion
censorship
freedom
crime(s); criminal(s)
punishment
responsibility, artistic, legal, federal, filial, parental
right and wrong
fear
guilt; conscience
happy
ending; unhappy ending; indeterminate ending
metafiction; metatheater; metanarrative; metatext
allusion
prior
texts
Sample
Student Responses to Martin McDonagh's The
Pillowman
Response 1:
Reference
McDonagh, Martin. The
Pillowman. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003.
Links |
Productions
- National
Theatre, Cottesloe (now Dorfman; 2003)
- Oxford
Playhouse (2014)
- Gaiety
Theatre (2015)
|
Media
|
|
- "Opening Night,"
Broadway (2005; 2:40 min.)
|
|
- "First Read and
Introduction," The Pillowman, directed by Tracie Pang,
Victoria Theatre (2007; 1:32 min.)
|
|
- The
Pillowman, directed by C. Y. Wang, Emory Chinese
Theater Club (2015; 2 hr. 15:39 min.)
|
|
- Act
1, The Pillowman, Vassar (2011; 21:13 min.)
|
|
- Ben Pearson, "Interview:
Martin McDonagh" (2014; 16:09 min.)
|
Martin McDonagh
|
Interviews
|
Home |
Last updated March 4, 2019