Damarco Rutlin

Mr. Kearney
Irish Literature
12/2/2016
The Hostage
In The Hostage which is a play within a series of plays written by playwright
Brendan Behan he uses several ironic characters to emphasize his point about the
catholic church. In Act One the play starts with Colette, a whore, kicking a Russian guy
out of Pats house simply because of his ethnicity. This is a recurring theme in the play
where whores and cross-dressers, both looked down upon by the catholic church, show
exemplify chronic prejudice behaviors.
The first example of this is when Colette kicks the Russian sailor out when she
learns of his nationality. The first two people who immediately have something negative
to say about this is Mr. Mulleady and Colette. Mr. Mulleady starts the prejudices by
saying Mr. Pat, Mr. Pat, that man, he-hes a Russian Hes a Communist (1.136).
This is ironic because he is a gay cross-dresser in the 1950s. This means that he was
most likely outcasted and judged for his sexual preferences and yet he judges the
Russian sailor strictly off of his ethnicity. Also, Colette says Oh now Pat, its against my
religion to have anything to do with the likes of him (1.136). This is ironic because the
Catholic Church speaks extensively about prostitution, and the dangers it poses to
everyones human dignity as well as how it breaks certain biblical commandments.
Furthermore, the church teaches that all forms of prejudice are inherently wrong yet,
both Colette and Mr. Mulleady assume that he is communist and poor because he is

Russian. Also, Colette is hypocritical because when she finds out that the sailor does
have money she takes him back into her room and continues her job. This implies that
she doesnt believe what she says and she doesnt care about any religious
ramifications for her actions.
Another example of this is the situation with Mr. Mulleady and Miss Gilchrist.
Upon Miss Gilchrists initial appearance in the play, she is greeted with hostility by
several characters in the play. Miss Gilchrist responds in every situation with a response
involving the church such as I take insults in the name of our blessed savior (1.151).
This is ironic because she is known as a whore and a hypocrite, but she constantly
brings up the Lord and how she will forgive everyone for antagonizing her. By doing this
she is implying that she is better than everyone else and shes taking the high road, but
everyone knows that she is worse than the people shes judging. Furthermore, while
she was praying Mr. Mulleady goosed her and they kept praying as if nothing happened.
This was an extremely disrespectful thing to do because they were in the presence of
the Lord, and Mr. Mulleady decided to sexually assert himself on her. This action breaks
all of the principles on sex set out by the church and to escalate the hypocrisy they are
doing this while talking to God.
In conclusion, Brendan Behan uses several hypocritical characters, who all claim
to have a strong basis in the church, to make a statement about the church. With these
hypocritical characters, Behan is implying that the church spends too much time judging
others as opposed to looking at themselves and trying to improve upon their mistakes.
He is also teaching us that we shouldnt be so quick to judge others, but look at how we
can improve ourselves and our environment.

Bibliography
Brehan Brandon The Hostage 1958 131-171