Patricia Burke Brogan's Eclipsed Summary

Eclipsed by Patricia Burke Brogan is hailed as a pillar of the contemporary Irish drama, and brought about a new awareness of the atrocities committed all over Ireland in the Magdalene Laundries. The experiences detailed within are made all the more real by the author’s own experiences; brought to life in Sister Virginia as she struggles to fulfill her Christian duty of blind obedience while indulging her consciences’ need to help these women. The walls that kept that kept the penitent women captive from even a glimpse of the sunlight outside functioned in two ways, also working to keep those on the outside from the knowledge or attention to the cruelty of an institution that they so heavily believed in. However, A figure inside the walls can represent the Irish Public; the “mannikin” is on the outskirts of most every scene, but is highly representative in it’s positioning relative to the …show more content…
The entire mannikin is then stuffed up to the neck in quite literally the churches dirty laundry, providing a comical outlook on an extremely relevant moment. This event also comes at a crucial time in the play, because the reader soon finds out that Sister Virginia has secretly written, sealed and sent a letter to the bishop in the hopes of changing things at the laundry, even going so far as asking him to delay his trip to Rome. Correspondingly this threat of exposure to even a small portion of the outside world justifies the head being screwed on to the mannikin, in addition to Sister Virginias symbolic leaving of the church mindset and joining of the publics. Since this character represents the author, this could also be the beginnings of the idea for Eclipsed, which shook up Irish Catholic foundations when it brought the Magdalene Laundries to