Violence in Martin McDonagh's Works

Modern cinema, as well as drama, exhibits a tendency to apply violence and cruelty to the plot; these arts often employ disturbing scenes or language, yet such methods are still attributed to general ferocity of authors. Such approach to the subject appears to be rather superficial and does not do justice neither to authors, nor to the very topic of violence. Martin Mcdonagh is one of the prominent authors, whose works handle this controversial topic. Still, a significant number of his works is yet to receive proper recognition among the researchers; therefore, this paper is to fill the discovered gap. A detailed exploration of the author’s views on violence is executed through highlighting violent scenes in Mcdonagh’s works, analysing the function of the violent act and its impact, and drawing conclusions on the role of violence. A considerable amount of analysed examples is drawn from M. Mcdonagh’s play “The Cripple of Inishmaan” and the film “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”, which were picked as those exhibiting the largest number of violent acts and diverse types of violence. The research concludes that for M. Mcdonagh violence is a reliable method of provoking his readers or viewers, thus engaging them in a dialogue about humanity’s humaneness; there is also a notable tendency of his to deem violence a method of more primitive, reclusive societies. M. Mcdonagh’s peculiar perception and approach to violence might become a solid starting point of violence exploration in other authors’ works and modern society in general.