Means to an End

Maria Edgeworth wrote Castle Rackrent at just about the same time that Ireland joined Great Britain in the Act of Union of 1801. As an Irish writer insulting the English, the novel was inevitably read as a political work. Edgeworth uses Thady Quirk’s position as an allegory for how Ireland should respond to union. In the beginning, “Honest” Thady’s loyalty to the Rackrent family is unwavering. He is perhaps even more disgustingly sycophantic than Polonius in Hamlet. At the same time, though, he never truly approves of everything the Rackrents do, particularly the women they marry. By the end of the novel, the Rackrents have gone bankrupt, Thady’s son runs the estate, and Thady quickly drops all pretense of loyalty. Edgeworth seems to be prescribing a similar path for Ireland. She argues that like Thady, Ireland should pretend to be loyal to Britain through union, even if it silently opposes Britain’s alliances with the Protestant German principalities (who were all relatives of the Hanover line). Once part of the Union, Ireland can reap the rewards of empire once England inevitably ruins the country.