Writings from the late 1880s to the dawn of modern Ireland in the first two decades of the 20th century , Yeats and Synge wrote their work during a period of national liminality; or what the critic Seamus Deane calls “the long process of transforming his [Ireland] from a British colony into a modern and independent state”[i]. The literature of both writers reflects this transitional context and manifests itself in the way they draw from past tradition to forge a distinct literary identity. This can be explored in their use of symbolism, as both rely on myth and folklore – often of Irish origin – to portray a country in the process of reclaiming its own voice and autonomy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay However, what kind of nationalism this technique is used for is occluded by the contradictory nature of their works, not least because Synge's depiction of Irish peasants in his works were seen by nationalist groups as perpetuating stereotypes, and Yeats in his poems he seems to give priority to the flourishing of the arts over the good of the masses. Furthermore, the way they use shared symbols is different; the former uses his linguistic knowledge of Irish – a skill Yeats never mastered – in an attempt to fuse together the Gaelic tradition with the predominant English language. In contrast, the latter confuses dreamscape with landscape, challenging naturalism by appealing to the quasi-Berkelean structure to justify the mystical through a literature that reflects not an objective reality, but a mind-dependent reality. Both Yeats and Synge use symbols that are often drawn from Irish folklore. to create narratives that borrow from the traditions of realism and the fantastic, but paradoxically both writers claimed their works to be realistic presentations of Ireland. The language of Synge's The Shadow of the Glen is saturated with – at times – dark symbols, as in the Wanderer's advice to Nora: “perhaps if I had a piece of gray thread for a sharp needle – there is safety in a needle” . The use of the needle for protection from "evil spirits" originates from the wisdom of an old Synge encountered in the Aran Islands[ii], a specificity that is indicative of the determination to represent the peasant psyche. Indeed, Synge's inspiration for the play came from overhearing maids in the kitchen of his boarding house, stating in his diary that astute representation and observance is the "matter, I think, which is important, because in countries where the imagination of the people, and the language they use, is rich and alive, it is possible for a writer to be rich and copious in his words, and at the same time convey the reality, which is the root of all poetry, in a comprehensive vision and natural form.”[iii] Thus, despite the fact that his language indulges the mystical, Synge claims that his works are accurate representations of Ireland itself which he sees as inextricably linked to the “imagination of the people”. Yet not all symbols within the play are so esoteric, for example the Tramp himself acts as an anonymous personification of Synge's simultaneously wild yet idealized Irish landscape This is most evident in his final dialogue: “come with me now, hostess, and you will not only hear my babbling, but you will hear the cry of the herons on the black lakes." The Wanderer manages to embellish the depths of the “black lakes” by appealing to the autonomy they offer from the constraints of lifeNora's maid with Pat: “you won't be sitting in a wet ditch like you are sitting in this place.” The critique of Irish domestic life through the symbol of an exotic and personified Ireland in the form of the Tramp provoked reactionary responses from contemporary nationalists, the famous Arthur Griffith declaring “Mr. Synge - otherwise his work has no meaning - places Norah [sic] Burke before us as a type - "a personification of the average" - and Norah Burke is a lie. It is not by staging a lie that we can serve Ireland or exalt art”[iv]. Nora's depiction can be directly contrasted with that of Yeat's 'Cathleen ni Houlihan', whose feminine and symbolic peasant embodiment of Ireland's heroism but is also desexualized because she declares: "with all the lovers who have brought me their love, I've never turned down the bed for anyone." In contrast, female sexuality is at the heart of Synge's controversy, also shown in The Playboy of the Western World in which peasant women lust after Christy despite her alleged parricide. Much of the reaction against Synge stemmed from the way in which he questioned, in his use of symbolism, the constraints placed on a movement which had to constantly show, in the words of Lady Gregory, WB Yeats and Edward Martyn, “that Ireland does not it is the homeland of buffoonery and easy sentiment, as has been represented, but the homeland of an ancient idealism"[v]. However, similar to Synge, Yeats also gives voice to the “people's fancy” in his play Countess Kathleen, as Teig exclaims in the very first scene “they have the shape and color of horned owls. And I'm almost certain they have a human face." Yet these views are not simply expressed as representations of the peasant psyche, rather the folklore of the play becomes the basis of the narrative, reflecting Yeats's interest in spiritualism. With the arrival of the merchants the fairy element becomes part of the reality of the diegesis; despite their supernatural nature, the merchants are presented as material or objectively real like any other character in the play. Therefore, the symbols within the work are not simply representational, but in this case are literalized. This is a fact that is explicitly addressed when the first merchant states: “It is strange that you should think that we cast no shadow, for there is nothing on the crest of the world that is more substantial than the merchants who buy and sell you.” . The substantial nature” of these beings is emphasized by the fact that they are sufficiently material – or at least as material as any other object – to cast “shadows”. Their reality may seem at odds with the otherwise naturalistic presentation of the lives of famine-stricken peasants; for the piece displays in the words of critic Michael McAteer “the kind of seriousness characteristic of Ibsen, hidden in the frivolity of his fairy-tale motif”[vi]. This presents a duality that cannot be justified solely by appealing to a supposed Irish imagination, since reference must also be made to Yeats's interest in occultism, an aspect of his life that has been well documented by critics. Yeats himself stated, following his disillusionment with Victorian neo-religion, “I have made myself a new religion”. The framework from which he builds his "religion" can be explored in the poem "To Ireland in the Coming Times", in which Ireland is personified in the feminine form of "the red rose-lined hem / Of her". literalized symbols (“the elemental beings go / round the table two and back”), Yeats blends the physical and the spiritual. Likewise, the subjective and objective are also merged as in the phrase "from our birthday, until death / It'sjust the blink of an eye,” with the implication that our reality and life consists of mind-dependent perception – the closed perception or “winking” eye that represents the death of this reality. This theme is echoed in the “eye without eyelids” of 'Upon a House Shaken by the Land Agitation', here the fixed eagle eye – the ultimate perception – is threatened with artistic annihilation at the hands of rent reductions, partly brought about by a growing nationalist influence in government policy While the former poem saw Yeats wishing to place himself among the nationalist icons of “David, Mangan, Ferguson”, in the latter he places artistic flourishing – which he sees intrinsically linked to the maintenance of the aristocratic home (“where passion and precision have been one thing alone / Time out of mind”) – above nationalism, or at least populism, sympathies Furthermore, the fear of artistic stagnation is further expressed in The Fascination of What's Difficult in which the symbol of Pegasus is used to represent impotence. Yeats' poetics – with the rhyme scheme itself undermined by the use of enjambement, especially when contrasted with strict line-by-line rhyme. outline of "To Ireland in Coming Times". The subsequent poem is devoid of fulfillment, or of any structural or narrative climax, except in the ironic aspiration that he (Yeats) will "find the stable and take out the latch" and allow his artistic desires to break free once again. differences between his earlier and later works, Yeats uses symbolism in his poems to focus on the value of poetry and art itself, as Seamus Deane argues in Celtic Revivals, "Irish literature tends to dwell on the medium in which it is written for it is difficult not to feel aware of a language that has become at once native and foreign”[vii]. spent much time studying and mastering the Irish language, stating in his diary “The American want of literary sense [is] due to the absence in America of any native language with a tradition for the whole population”[viii]. Synge hoped to instill the “literary sense” by appealing to the luxury of having an ancient linguistic tradition. Indeed, as Declan Kiberd argues “He [Synge] saw that he could never hope to get back to the other side – that an attempt to re-impose Irish would only lead to another barren century for literature – but he decided to bridge the rift by uniting the divided traditions”[ix]. Synge operated under the paradox of being loved by those who had little knowledge of or interest in the Irish language and being treated with contempt by many of those who did. However, regardless of critical reception, the way he blends his knowledge of English and Irish has a lasting effect on his symbolism. Kiberd, for example, notes the striking similarities between Dantá Grá's 'Chanson de la malmariée', which tells the story of a woman whose husband “is harsh and austere; he beats her. He is unable to satisfy his sexual needs. She opposes the marriage… she would like her husband to die – she would run away with a young lover”[x], and Shadow of the Valley. Both plots are very similar with the “géaga fuara” (cold limbs) of the chanson reflected in Nora's description of Dan as “cold every day I knew him”. Not only is symbolism contained in the work, but following this analysis the work itself can be seen as the symbol of the ancient Irish fairy tale. As Kiberd concludes: “Each of his plays and poems represents a fusion, in a single work, of both traditions and an attempt with the power ofhis imagination to make them one”[xi]. To extend this point, the symbolism inherent in this tradition, coupled with an understanding of Ireland's literary heritage, allows Synge to forge a distinctly Irish identity in the face of an English lexicon “at once native and foreign.” While Synge attempts a fusion lexicon of Irish and English, Yeats opts for a fusion of the mystical and material alongside the subjective and objective. In his review of Maeterlink's essay on mysticism, Yeats stated that “we are in the midst of a great revolution of thought, which is touching literature and speculation alike; an insurrection against everything that presupposes that the external and the material are the only fixed things, the only criteria of reality”[xii]. Some have compared Yeats's fluid assessment of reality, one in which the physical and the spiritual coincide, to critics of the philosophy of George Berkeley, a proponent of idealism whose principle “esse is percipi” revolved around the idea of ​​the denial of an independent reality from the mind. Yeats himself references Berkeley in the 1929 poem "The Blood and the Moon": And God-appointed Berkeley who proved that all things are a dream, That this pragmatic and absurd pig of a world, his birth that seems so solid , It must vanish instantly if the mind, but let's change the topic.[1] Therefore, if we are to take the position that Yeats conforms to the principles of idealism, then his claim that the fantastic dreamscape can provide knowledge of our reality is justified. In Berkeley's conception of reality, all perceptions, whether veridical or dream, are essentially mind-dependent. This justifies his realistic presentation of the merchants, elemental beings and "fairies" that overwhelm his writing: spiritualism and materialism cannot be distinguished from each other. Another crucial aspect of Berkeley's philosophy is the way it avoids the pitfalls of solipsism by appealing to the omniscient mind of God in keeping all ideas alive, those of oneself and others. The need for structure within a philosophy whose conception of reality revolves around subjective experience resembles the search for structure within Yeats's literature, such as "To Ireland in Coming Times", where liminality is reflected externally in growing power of Irish nationalism and during a period Yeats himself believed it was a “great revolution of thought”. The "red rose-edged hem" symbol, itself being the part of the dress that provides structure around its edges, can be seen as an attempt to form structure through poetry, in a time of liminality. Both writers seem to use symbolism in an attempt to join the binaries together. In his depiction of peasant folklore, Synge uses symbols in an attempt to accurately represent what he sees as a nation bound “in the imagination of the people.” However, his symbolic use of the peasants conflicted with many contemporary nationalists who saw his treatment of their characters as immoral and not in line with the framework established by other writers, including Yeats. Because of this critical backlash, many of his valuable linguistic advances were overlooked until Kiberd's proper reevaluation of his ability to accurately combine Irish-derived symbolism with an English lexicon. While Yeats was also committed to portraying the imagination of peasants, his use of symbolism is also deeply rooted in his fascination with the supernatural and occult. Although it displays mixed views on nationalism, partly due to the priority given to the value of] 1995