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O’Casey uses repetition effectively and very poignantly when Juno repeats Mrs Tancred’s words, "take away our hearts o’ stone, and give us hearts o’ flesh" after Johnny’s death.

Mrs Tancred utters these words in desperation as she grieves for her son, but they are given added power when Juno repeats them at the play’s climax after her son is shot by his former IRA comrades.

As well as showing the terrible bereavements of women who lost their sons, this phrase seems to be O’Casey’s way of condemning "man’s inhumanity to man" and pleading for more kindness and "hearts o’ flesh".