Why did the old man kill his father?
The Old Man killed his father because his father had wasted the wealth that belonged to the Old Man’s mother. He also hated his father as his father had never fulfilled the responsibility of the father. As the old man was dissatisfied with his father and when his father set the house on fire, he could not control his rage and killed his father.
In the play, the Old Man tells his sixteen-year-old son that after his mother’s death, his father showed the true color of his character. His father spent the wealth of her estate on horses, women, drink, and cards. His father was an irresponsible man he did not send his son to school. The old man also did not get any property from his father. Once under the effect of alcohol, his father set the house on fire and the son the old man now being unable to control his rage, stabbed his father and threw his dead body into the fire.
Purgatory by W. B. Yeats : Important Question
2. What is the old man’s motive in murdering the boy?
The apparent motive of the old man in murdering the boy is to get back the bag of money but the real motive is the old man’s desire of salvation of the soul of his mother which he thinks is wandering at Purgatory because of her crime of sleeping with a drunkard, being pregnant and delivering a child. The old man fights with his son for the bag of money. The son not only refuses to return the bag but also threatens his father of murder. As a result, the old man kills his son with jackknife.
However, the real motive behind killing the son is the old man’s desire to bring liberation to the soul of his mother which is wandering at Purgatory. The old man himself reveals the real motive towards the end of the play. He states that by killing his son, he has ended the lineage and by doing so he has prevented the passing of the mother’s sin from one generation to another. After killing the son, the bare tree which symbolizes the suffering soul of his mother, turns into white colour. The transformation of the tree implies the purification of the soul of his mother. That means, after the murder of the son by the old man, the mother becomes a purified soul, gets salvation and enters into the heaven.
3. What is the theme of purgatory?
The play Purgatory by W. B. Yeats deals with the religious theme. Yeats works on the Biblical theme in this play. Bible believes in the concept of three kinds of the soul; soul with good deeds that goes to heaven, soul with bad that goes to hell, and the soul with excusable sins that neither goes to heaven nor hell but keeps on wandering at a place called Purgatory. Yeats in this play focuses on this third kind of soul with excusable sin.
In the play, the mother of the old man commits the crime of getting married to a man of lower rank. She not only marries him but also becomes pregnant with her husband when he is drunk. Because of this crime, her soul after her death wanders at Purgatory. The old man kills his son the boy and stops the flow of her sin and she finally gets salvation and goes to heaven.
Reading Suggestion:
Solution of The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
YouTube Video Link:
Travelling Through the Dark by William Stafford
