Plot
In the 1920s, Sean Thornton (John Wayne), an Irish-born American from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, travels to Ireland to reclaim his family's farm in Innisfree. He meets and falls in love with the fiery Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O'Hara), the spinster sister of the bullying, loud-mouthed landowner Squire "Red" Will Danaher (Victor McLaglen). Danaher, angry that Sean outbid him for the Thornton land adjacent to his property, initially refuses to sanction the marriage until several town locals, including the parish priest, conspire to trick him into believing that the wealthy Widow Tillane (Mildred Natwick) wants to marry him, but only if Mary Kate is no longer living in the house. After learning the truth on Sean and Mary Kate's wedding day, an enraged Will refuses to give his sister her full dowry.
Sean, unschooled in Irish customs, cares nothing about the dowry, but Mary Kate is obsessed with obtaining it, the dowry representing her independence, identity, and pride. Angered and shamed by Sean's refusal to confront her brother and demand what is legally hers, she brands him a coward, and, despite living together, they are estranged as husband and wife.
Sean had been a boxer in the United States, a heavyweight challenger known as "Trooper Thorn." After accidentally killing an opponent in the ring, Sean hung up his gloves, vowing never to fight again. This is known to only one other person in the village, the Church of Ireland minister Rev. Playfair (Arthur Shields).
Later, in an attempt to force Sean to confront Will Danaher, Mary Kate leaves him and boards a train departing Castletown and headed to Dublin. Infuriated, Sean arrives and drags her off the train, and, followed by the townspeople, forces her to walk the five miles to Inisfree from Castletown to Will Danaher's farm. Sean demands that Will hand over her dowry and threatens to return Mary Kate to his household if Will refuses. Will finally relents and gives him the cash. Mary Kate and Sean throw it into a furnace, showing that Mary Kate never cared about the money, but only that Sean stand up for his wife. Sean and Will slug it out through the village, stop for a drink, brawl again, then become best friends. Sean regains Mary Kate's love and respect. Will Danaher and the Widow Tillane begin courting, and peace is returned to Innisfree.
Read more about this topic: The Quiet Man
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“Those blessed structures, plot and rhyme—
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I want to make
something imagined, not recalled?”
—Robert Lowell (1917–1977)
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“The plot! The plot! What kind of plot could a poet possibly provide that is not surpassed by the thinking, feeling reader? Form alone is divine.”
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