Chapter - 16

Purgatory

William Butler Yeats

Summary of the play

In this play, there are only two characters a boy and an old man. The relation between them is of father and son. However, the boy doesn’t like his father. They are in front of an old house that has been burnt down. The house had belonged to the old man’s parents-his rich mother and money wasting father. The mother had died giving birth to the old man and the father had been murdered by the old man when the house had burnt down.

The old man believes that his mothers sole is suffering in purgatory he believes she is constantly reliving her wedding night. He tells this to the boy. After the old man and boy fight over the old man's money, he kills the boy. He does this to stop the boy having a son of his own. He believes this will break the cycle of violence and release his mother’s soul from purgatory.

The old man thinks that the boy will respect the same act as his father when will be grown up. He thinks that the tradition of murdering might go on generation to generation. So the old man wanted to end the tradition and killed the boy. Another explanation for murdering his own boy is that old man thinks that when he will be grown up, he would also be a drunkard and would hurt a lady.