Yeats Honesty In The Celtic Twilight

Not only does she develop a liking for Biddy Early, Lady Gregory also records a powerful testimony to the honesty and authenticity of her reports and the people she is reporting from. Before she even begins relating the narratives, Lady Gregory relates the frustration of a family member of Biddy. The woman explains that she has spent the past 20 years deferring guests; she goes further to relate that the priests had deemed her foolish for not pretending to be Biddy and “[make] something out of them” (Lady Gregory, 21). This simple statement made by Early’s relative sheds light on two vital issues: the corruption that is associated with the church, and her own honesty. It is clear from this statement that the Early family does not want any …show more content…
In The Celtic Twilight, Yeats attributes much of his work to Paddy Flynn. Yeats’ initially description of Paddy Flynn is not a negative one, however it gives a sense of the “Other”. He is first seen “bent over a can of mushrooms” and then “asleep under a hedge” (Yeats, The Celtic Twilight, 5). These are signs of a domesticity that are foreign to that of the English audience reading Yeats’ collection. The man seems primitive in nature, and Yeats’ description of his eyes as that of a rabbit’s and his cheerful demeanor masking a melancholy “of purely instinctive natures and of all animals” is of no help (Yeats, The Celtic Twilight, 5). Flynn is not depicted as a monster, but he is not depicted as a human either; he is strange, wild, and embedded in nature. He speaks of unfamiliar and unseen worlds, does not relate to children, and sleeps under a shrub even though he owns a “leaky and one-roomed cabin” (Yeats, The Celtic Twilight, 5). Afterwards, in his autobiography, Yeats admits that he has acquired many stories in The Celtic Twilight from another woman: Mary Battle. Once again, Yeats’ portrays the storyteller as different. Mary Battle is not directly likened to an animal or other source of nature; rather, Yeats describes “her mind… [as one] rammed with every sort of old history and strange belief” (Yeats, Autobiographies, 84). Again, the description of Battle is not necessarily a negative one. On the contrary, she is associated with Yeats’ childhood and even his own mother, who related stories like hers in the past. However, the “ceremonial magic” that she engages in is still labeled as a “strange belief” (Yeats, Autobiographies, 83). In other words, Yeats sees a difference between himself and the storytellers. He sees them as