"The Countess Cathleen" by W. B. Yeats is a play written by the famed Irish writer. The tale is set ahistorically in Ireland during a famine. The idealistic Countess of the title sells her soul to the devil so that she can save her tenants from starvation and from damnation for having sold their own souls. After her death, she is redeemed as her motives were altruistic and she ascends to Heaven.