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:
“The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“This is the house that Jack built.
This is the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.”
—Mother Goose (fl. 17th–18th century. The House That Jack Built (l. 1–3)
“For women the wage gap sets up an infuriating Catch-22 situation. They do the housework because they earn less, and they earn less because they do the housework.”
—Sylvia Ann Hewitt (20th century)