Stories As Narrative:a Rhetorical And Narrative Study Of Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman

Martin McDonagh is one of the most important young playwrights in Ireland. He has embarked on professional play-writing since1990s. The Pillowman is McDonagh’s most unique and probably most brilliant play. It is dark, violent, humorous, unruly and full of unexpected twists.To analyze this play, this paper will employ an implement of narratology, the "psychical distance". The psychical distance, introduced into literary criticism by Wayne C. Booth, measures the relation between the principle of the implied author and that of the narrator. However, according to James Phelan, it also can refer to the gap between the implied audience and the narratee. Phelan also maintains that the changing process of psychical distance is a key to uncover the real intention of the author.Then this paper applies this concept into the close-reading of this play. By different narratees, narrative in The Pillowman can fall into three categories:stories narrated to the actual audience, stories narrated to the characters in the play and the holistic narrative of the play. This paper examines all the three narratives carefully in order to find why certain narrative method is used in the play and what ethical and aesthetical principle the author has.In conclusion, this paper finds that even though The Pillowman does attempt to engage a discussion about the responsibility of literature and the author, this play refuses to give its preference to either side. Despite the protagonist advocates that a writer only needs to write a good story repeatedly on the stage, McDonagh has reservation about this notion. In this play, McDonagh does not want to solve this dilemma, but rather applies a utilitarian approach, which is to use the audiences’ different opinions on literature, ethics and politics to invite them into an elaborate labyrinth of narrative.