The character of Jason Quirk is a curious one. In Castle Rackrent, we are introduced to the narrator’s son, Jason as an afterthought, but with a sense his character will make a return later in the story. By modern day accounts, Jason Quirk is a jack of all trades- landlord, business owner, negotiator, son, attorney, “agent”, and confidant. I find that Jason is neither villain, nor hero but rather a smart, creative; some would say shady and manipulative person who represents good and evil.
On one hand I find it a little disgusting how he conducted himself and did business- “The execution came down; and every thing at Castle Rackrent was seized by the gripers, and my son Jason, to his shame be it spoken amongst them. I wondered, for the life of me, how he could harden himself to do it; but then he had been studying the law, and had made himself attorney Quirk; so he brought down at once a heap of accounts upon my master’s head…” (106) I believe Jason is much like a real estate agent who represents both the buyer and seller. Nothing Jason did was illegal, or wrong, but certainly was un-ethical by most standards. He made business decisions that were in his best interest, and clearly Sir Kit and Sir Condy were ok with the burden of responsibility being lifted.
As shocked and awed as you are over this sudden purchase of properties, buildup of wealth and purchasing of debts and accounts you can’t help but applaud Jason. He’s a person born to a “lower class” of Ireland who had the smarts, determination, wit, and strategy to not only come out of that lower class, but to become a successful and somewhat wealthy businessman. He created his own destiny and that makes him pretty heroic.
As much as you can “villain-ize” Jason, I found myself leaning a more critical eye to the Masters of the house. What person really has no idea what their spending habits are? Okay, I guess in this modern age of Hollywood excess there are quite a few. But that being said, why wouldn’t you take an interest in your estate? Sir Condy is spoiled, indulgent, and un-wise. I hardly feel bad for him and his debts when he is the only one in control of such things.
After finishing Rackrent, I went back through the preface and a passage jumped out at me- “The heroes of history are so decked out by the fine fancy of the professed historian; they talk in such measured prose, and act from sublime or diabolical motives, that few have sufficient taste, wickedness, or heroism, to sympathize in their fate.” (61) I found just about every character un-relatable and somewhat foolish, and even a little one-dimensional. It’s probably no surprise that the character I enjoyed most was Jessica. I understand this is a complex, and multi-faceted novel so maybe my understanding of these characters is only scratching the surface.
One thing about Castle Rackrent I found truly fascinating is the pride and grandeur that go into Irish wakes and funerals. My husband and I have always joked how we want an Irish wake and a New Orleans funeral when it’s our time to expire. After reading about Sir Patrick’s wake and it’s definitions in the glossary I took it upon myself to do some research, and was surprised at how much traditional Irish wakes are seeped in different traditions and rituals reflecting the religious beliefs of a region in Ireland including washing of the body, shaving the body (if a male) and the opening and closing of windows to release spirits from the dead.
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Hey Drea,
ReplyDeleteI found it very interesting how you viewed Jason from both a good and an evil standpoint. To be honest I was leaning more towards the evil in my understanding of the character and his actions. While I do understand Jason’s desire to make a better life for himself and break the social class to which he was born, which can be seen as the subaltern class, the way in which Jason goes about obtaining his success can, in my opinion, only be described as conniving and selfish. Having said that I do believe that Jason is not the true villain of the story. Although Thady does do a good job of making Jason out to be the bad guy in the story, I really do believe Thady to be the true villain in the story. Not only does Thady play a major role in the downfall of the Rackrent family, but he also had a hand in his sons obtaining some of the land belonging to the Rackrent family by manipulating the bids on the land.
I feel like there is not a single character in the entire novel that could be said to be “good.” If you were to go back through every character in the novel and their actions, I believe that you could easily see any one of them as a villain in one light or another, which is why I am not surprised that you saw the Rackrent men as such.
I completely agree with your statement about all the characters of the story being un-relatable and foolish. Their one-dimensional personalities all seemed so extreme and ridiculous that the accounts of the characters could hardly be considered valid through a historical perspective.
After reading through some of the other blogs and really digesting the whole argument that "Rackrent" is really a political tale my position on Jason might be changing. While I still don't believe him to be a true "villain" it's now a little more obvious to me that Jason represents capitalism (not my original idea, but don't remember whose blog I read this on) and that makes me like his character a lot less..
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