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Leaving Certificate Ordinary Level – Excellence in English Language and Literature


Questions up to the point at which the ghost of Joseph leaves and Monica enters, shouting, ‘Hester! Hester! Your house! It’s on fi re!’:


1. Why is it so shocking that Hester killed calves rather than just cattle? 2. Why do you think Hester burned everything? 3. Why did Hester kill Joseph? Writing Task:


Read back through the events so far. What earlier actions or remarks in the play make sense now that you know about the murder of Joseph Swane?


Monica wants to get help, but Hester tells her there is no point; the house might as well burn down. Monica says that burning the house to leave nothing when they are gone is something the tinkers would do. Monica is worried about her association with Hester now because she knows how angry Xavier will be. Hester says Monica is too nice for her own good.


T e women sit on the steps of the caravan and drink together. Monica is a little drunk and she suggests she and Hester go off together in the caravan to fi nd paradise. Hester says she lost any chance of paradise when her mother leſt her forever.


Monica tells Hester that old Josie Swane was a strange, harsh, frightening woman with something ‘cold and dead’ about her. T e only time she came alive was when she sang, and then, Monica says, ‘ya’d fall in love with her’. She was invited to sing her songs at all the local celebrations, partly because people were ‘afraid not to have her’.


Hester remembers going to these events and being paid quickly with food and some money once her mother had fi nished singing. T ey were never invited to join in the celebrations and were ‘walked off the premises, for fear we’d steal somethin’, I suppose’. While Hester’s mother didn’t mind, Hester still remembers how insulting she found this treatment.


Hester still longs for her mother and the memory of her abandonment is as fresh as the day it happened. Monica urges her to grow up and face facts, but Hester says the dream of coming back to the Bog of Cats and waiting for her mother to return was the only thing that kept her going through her years in the Industrial School.


Monica says Hester has ruined her chances of staying by burning the farm to the ground, and says some think her a witch. Hester laughs, saying if she were a witch she would use her ‘black-arts things’ now. However, she believes there is something dangerous inside her that even she does not understand.


Hester asks if Carthage is still at the wedding and what sort of mood he is in. Monica advises her to forget him, and goes back to the reception to get more wine and check on Josie.


Questions up to the point where Monica exits and ‘Hester looks around at the winter sky of stars, shivers’:


1. Do you know what an Industrial School is? Research it online if you need to check. Why would Hester have been sent there and what sort of experience do you think she had?


2. Do you think Monica is a good neighbour to Hester? Explain your answer. 136


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