Figuring monstrosity in Martin McDonagh’s the beauty queen of Leenane

Abstract EN

The idea of monstrosity is closely allied with the articulation of monsters in visual culture.

In literature, especially in gothic woks, it implies the spectacles of violence in which real monsters play a pivotal role in setting the events in motion.

This paper investigates monstrosity as a metaphor for human acts of violence both physically and psychologically.

It explores monstrosity in Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane.

McDonagh raises the problem of monstrosity and monstrous identities in his country, Ireland.

He focuses on domestic violence which is incarnated in the characters of two women: Mag and her daughter Maureen who mistakenly think of violence as a meditator of achieving self-realization.

McDonagh emphasizes the fact that monstrosity is a distinctive hallmark of the Irish society because people lose the sense of humanity