Jack Mary Ann is a folk hero whose legendary exploits in the Wrexham area of Wales in the 1920s and 1930s are celebrated in a series of jokes and tales transmitted in local oral tradition. Jack was a coal miner. Jack's nickname comes from the common practice of distinguishing local men (in an area known for its poverty of surnames) by the use of the wife's Christian or given name. Jack may be considered an archetypal trickster figure and the tales involve his various intrigues with hostile authority figures such as landlords, bailiffs and employers. His legendary activities celebrate his fecklessness and irresponsibility. Jack's quick tongue does not generally save him from the consequences of his actions but provides an ironic commentary on his plight and on the values of more respectable citizens. The popularity of the Jack Mary Ann tales may suggest an undercurrent of local opposition to the respectable and supposedly dominant norms of non-conformist Christianity generally held to be an expression of Welsh identity in this period.
Read more about Jack Mary Ann: The Tales
Famous quotes containing the words mary ann, jack and/or ann:
“We hand folks over to God’s mercy, and show none ourselves.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“This is the cow with the crumpled horn
That tossed the dog”
—Mother Goose (fl. 17th–18th century. The House That Jack Built (l. 16–17)
“Of a truth, Knowledge is power, but it is a power reined by scruple, having a conscience of what must be and what may be; whereas Ignorance is a blind giant who, let him but wax unbound, would make it a sport to seize the pillars that hold up the long- wrought fabric of human good, and turn all the places of joy as dark as a buried Babylon.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)