Fire Symbol Analysis

The weak fire that lights the Committee Room symbolizes the waning spirit of Irish Nationalism, since the party has failed to maintain the vision and passion of its former leader Charles Stewart Parnell. The story begins with Old Jack—an elderly Nationalist—unsuccessfully stoking a fire that gives barely any light or heat to the Committee Room, which is the headquarters of Ireland’s Nationalist Party (where Charles Stewart Parnell used to work). It’s significant that this room—the heart of the party—is cold, dark, and cheerless: the fire, in other words, is Nationalism’s life force, and the room seems nearly dead. The flagging energy of the Nationalist canvassers matches their weak fire. Mat O’Connor lazily lounges in an armchair when he’s supposed to be working, Jack’s halfhearted efforts to stoke the fire are so ineffective that they have to light candles, and all of the men’s political convictions and moral principles are as weak as the fire itself. Furthermore, several of the men use the fire for corrupt purposes: O’Connor sticks a campaign flyer (one that he was supposed to distribute to voters) into the fire and uses it to light his cigarette, while Henchy puts bottles of stout in the fire so the heat will pop the corks. For these men to use this fire—a symbol of the burning political passions that once propelled the party towards noble causes—for such dissolute purposes as getting drunk and smoking idly shows that whatever energy is left in the Irish Nationalist movement is being grossly misspent by corrupt politicians and the immoral hacks who support them. Essentially, the fire is so weak that it barely affects the cold, dark room—likewise, the political values that once drove Nationalism are so weakened that the men are no longer touched by passion or vision at all.