Betrayal Theme Analysis

“Two Gallants” is full of betrayal and the fear of being betrayed. Corley is exploiting and thus betraying the maid he is dating. At one point in the story, Corley fears Lenehan means to steal the maid and scam him. At another, Lenehan fears that Corley has slipped off with his winnings from the maid and abandoned him. Meanwhile, it seems likely that Corley convinces the maid to betray her employers by stealing from them. That betrayal, real or feared, haunts all of the relationships in the story suggests that the issue of betrayal is not just one that pertains to these specific characters, but rather to Irish society more broadly.

The story has numerous moments of romantic betrayal. Corley, instead of being faithful to the maid, gossips about her to Lenehan. More importantly, his primary goal is to use her interest in him to manipulate her into stealing money for him. The entire story, in fact, leads up to this moment in which Corley uses romance to get the maid to betray her employers by stealing from them for him. Corley makes clear in his conversations with Lenehan that all of his romantic relationships are similarly founded on betrayal. Corley is not interested in the women he sees at all, even for sex. In every case, rather, he is using these women for what he can get them to give him, whether free tram rides or cigars. Yet the men also view the women who they are using as potential betrayers. When Corley mentions that a woman who he was actually once fond of has turned to prostitution, Lenehan at first asks excitedly if it was Corley who turned her to prostitution—the possibility that Corley’s betrayal of her led her to prostitution excites him. But when Corley responds that other men were also “at her,” Lenehan angrily describes the woman as a “base betrayer.” The men think nothing of using women but see women who sleep with others as betraying them.

But fears about betrayal are not limited in the story to romantic relationships—it’s also evident in men’s friendships with each other. For example, Corley and Lenehan’s own relationship is regularly marred by distrust. When Lenehan wants to look at Corley’s maid, Corley immediately thinks that Lenehan means to try to step in and steal her from him. Later in the story the tables are turned: Lenehan begins to fear that Corley won’t meet him as planned after getting the maid to steal the money. Though friends, the possibility of betrayal looms over them, and neither believes the other is above such deception.

That betrayal, actual or feared, defines every relationship in “Two Gallants” implies that this general sense of mistrust is pervasive through Irish society and culture. The bleak atmosphere of the story suggests a kind of circle of political and cultural betrayal, in which Ireland itself is being betrayed by ne’er-do-well citizens such as Lenehan and Corley who are uninterested in helping themselves, their fellow citizens, or Ireland itself. At the same time, through Lenehan’s simultaneous sadness at the state of his life and complete inability to do anything to change it, the story suggests that Ireland has betrayed its citizens by not adequately providing for its citizens, so that their lack of opportunities or reasons for personal or national pride drive their behavior. A further level of political betrayal involves the relationship between England and Ireland, in which England has betrayed Ireland as part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland by effectively treating Ireland as a colony, denied any self-rule and exploited for England’s wealth. And finally, though never mentioned within the story, the pervasive theme of betrayal seems to be a product of the ongoing fallout of a real-world poisonous national scandal of the late 19th century. The Irish national hero and statesmen Charles Parnell seemed poised to lead Ireland to self-rule but was abandoned by both the Irish government and the Catholic Church after his affair with a married woman was exposed. Many Irish people felt that Parnell and Ireland itself had been betrayed by its leaders, leading to vicious recriminations and national anger. 

“Two Gallants” therefore suggests that betrayal is woven into the fabric of early-20th-century Irish society at multiple levels: romantically, interpersonally, and politically. With its ending, in which Corley celebrates getting the coin—the success of his betrayal of the maid, leading to her betrayal of her employers—the story offers no sense that there is a way out of this personal and national cycle of betrayal.