Yeats's Deirdre : Celtic Feminist and Heroine

In composing his play Deirdre (1907), Yeats turned toward a mythical past-a period in Celtic culture filled with fabulous and heroic happenings. By reactualizing for his audiences great historical, philosophical, religious, and psychological truths, Yeats succeeded in integrating bygone days into a present reality. He thereby not only fleshed out energetic patterns of behavior, but also expanded the consciousness of his viewers. The paper explores Deirdre' s autonomous and objective brand of heroism. Although the guiding value and single passion of this solitary woman was to live her life with the young warrior, Naoise, as the incarnation of a collective soul, she represents a woman's will for independence.