How does Sean O'Casey present the tenement life in Juno and the Paycock?

O'Casey was not born in the Dublin slums, but he grew up in them and knew them well. The Boyle family in Juno and the Paycock, living a hand-to-mouth existence, subsisting more on dreams than wages, is taken from his direct experience and the lives he saw his neighbors lead.

O'Casey's portrayal of Dublin tenement life seems to have been not merely entertaining and evocative, but accurate as well. Former residents of the slums who knew his plays often refer to them when speaking of tenement life. Patrick O'Leary, for instance, says, "I've absolutely no doubt that Sean O'Casey didn't invent a single thing. All he did was keep his ears open, (Kearns, p. 143). All the key elements of Juno and the Paycock are taken directly from tenement life, at its most infamous and most stereotypical.

Captain Boyle and Joxer, for instance, illustrate one of the most conspicuous social problems of the tenements: excessive drinking. As historian Kevin C. Kearns relates, "most men drank heartily and many over-indulged, leading to deprivation at home and abuse of wife and children" (Kearns, p. 52). Mary Boyle, at the end of the play, is also not an unusual figure. She is unmarried and pregnant, in desperate trouble, and her menfolk want to throw her out of the house, a common reaction among family members to the problem of illegitimate pregnancy. At the end of the play, she is indeed going away, but, happily, with her mother, the strong, enduring Juno. Juno herself represents yet another well-known figure of Dublin tenement life, the mother who holds the impoverished family together. Una Shaw, who lived in the Dublin tenements near the time in which Juno is set, says, "the women were the mainstay, they were everything. They were mother, father, counselor, doctor . . . everything" (Kearns, p. 49).