The Playboy of the Western World

About Author
J. M. Synge was born in Rathfarnham, Ireland on April 16, 1871. Synge began his studies in music theory, Irish history and language as well as began to write poetry at Trinity College in Dublin, and he completed a bachelors degree in 1892. Synge left Ireland in 1893 to study music in Germany. A year later, Synge began language and literature studies at the Sorbonne. During his time in Paris, Synge met William Butler Yeats, who would have a dramatic effect on the rest of Synges life. Yeats encouraged him to go to the Aran Island and to live there as if you were one of the people themselves; express a life that has never found expression. For four years, Sygne accessed the Irish life and carefully noted the speech habit, and what he extracted from the Aran Island became important element in his later work including The Playboy of the Western World. At Sygnes time, The Playboy of the Western World became the most controversial production and was deemed to be a degrading portrait of Irish. But now, it is recognized as Sygnes masterwork.

Plot Summary
Act 1 This play is set in County Mayo in a country pub. Pegeen Mike is engaged to Shawn Keogh, but she doesnt love him. Pegeens father, Michael James, owns the pub. At one night arrives a young man who calls himself Christy Mahon and claims that he has killed his father. All people in the pub are fascinated and admire Christys heroic deed. Later on comes the widow Quin whose burning curiosity to the newcomer urges her to come to the pub and try to get Christy to stay with her in her place. Pegeen refuses to let him go and quarrels with the widow Quin. Act 2 The following morning some local girls and the widow Quin visit Christy and beg him to tell them his heroic story. They regard Christy as a hero and ask him to participate in their local sport games. In the meantime, Christys father, Old Mahon, arrives and meets the widow Quinn. Mahon explains to the Widow Quin that Christy hit him but he recovered, and he describes Christy as a coward. Act 3

After Christy having won the game, he proposes to Pageen. When they returns the pub, old Mahon appears and exposes Christys boast. In order to prove himself a hero, Christy gives old Mahon another blow on the head, and it looks as if he is dead. The villagers including Pegeen decide to capture him and hang him. Finally Old Mahon recovers and saves Christy. After they leave, Pegeen laments her loss of the only playboy of the western world.

Viewpoint: What is a hero? How is a hero made?

The reason that Christy can make himself a hero rapidly in the village is based on Christys exaggerated description of killing his father and the villagers desire for hero. When Christys boast is exposed by Old Mahon in the end of this play, Pegeen, who has admitted to marry him, rejects to marry him. However, through the whole play, Christy has conquered his earlier timidity and dare to fight against anyone like the hero the villagers imagines him to be. And its the reason that Pegeen finally laments, Ive lost the only Playboy of the Western World.

Theme
Convention and Rebellion This play reveals a strong contrast between social convention and rebellion. Shawn Keogh, who is the most conservative member of the village, doesnt dare to violate the boundaries set by the Catholic Church and will not marry Pegeen until he receives the marriage permission from the Vatican. On the contrary, his fiance, Pegeen, despises his cowardice and ignores Church doctrine. So Pageen appreciates the violent men who seem to be set against the background, such as Marcus Quinn, Daneen Sullivan, and Christy who dare to fight the law imposed on Irish by the Englands colonial rule. Fantasy and Reality Storytelling is a very important aspect in this play. These villagers are stifled long by the dullness of their lives, so Christys exaggerated and stimulating manner of telling his murder story arouses their imagination which makes them escape the dull reality. Although no one witnesses Christys deed of killing his father, all villagers highly praise Christy and regard him a hero. Especially after Christy wins the championship of the sports, such fantasy would translate into fact if Christys father, Old Mahon, didnt show up. Old Mahons appearance exposes Christys boast, and Christy is changed from a hero to nothing immediately. In order to reprove himself a hero, he killed his father (but not succeed). However, its very ironic that all the villagers cant accept Christys deed this time; they want to hang him in order to avoid involving the crime and being punished.

Pegeen: And what is it I have, Christy Mahon, to make me fitting entertainment for the like of you, that has such poets talking, and such bravery of heart? Michael: If we took pity on you, the Lord God would, maybe, bring us ruin from the law today, so youd best come easy, for hanging is an easy and a speedy end. Michael: It is the will of God that all should guard their little cabins from the treachery of law, and what would my daughter be doing if I was ruined or was hanged itself? (425) Heroism ... heroes are not born but made, in the magic of words and in the deeply human need for excitement. (Extracted from the introduction to The Playboy of the Western World in Masters of Modern Drama) The villages desire for hero explains why Christy could be taken into the village rapidly. However, in this play, its ironic that heroes are made by powerful and exaggerated language instead of heroic deeds. Throughout the play, Christy becomes more and more confident and then makes himself a true hero. Christy: I killed my poor father, Tuesday was a week, for doing the like of that. (408) Christy: I did not then. I just riz the loy and let fall the edge of it on the ridge of his skull, and he went down at my feet like an empty sack, and never let a grunt or groan from him at all. (409) Christy: He gave a drive with the scythe, and I gave a lep to the east. Then I turned around with my back to the north, and I hit a blow on the ridge of his skull, laid him stretched out, and he split to the knob of his gullet. (414)

Style
Reality This matter, I think, is of importance, for in countries where the imagination of he people, and the language they use, is rich and living, it is possible for a writer to be rich and copious in his words, and at the same time to give the reality, which is the root of all poetry, in a comprehensive and natural form.(Extracted from Synges Preface to The Playboy of the Western World) Synge had visited Arans five times between 1898 and 1902. His experience on the island deeply influenced this play. Not only the story he heard from the islander provided him subject to write, but also the islanders language he learned influenced the dialects in this play which combines Irish speech patterns with English Vocabulary.

Tone
Irony Michael: (Turning round, and holding up coat) Well, theres the coat of a Christian man. Oh, theres sainted glory this day in the lonesome west, and by the will of God Ive got you a decent man, (407) Shawn: if I wasnt so God-fearing, Id near have courage to come behind him and run a pike into his side. Oh, its a hard case to be an orphan and not to have your father that youre used to , and youd easy killed and make yourself a hero in the sight of all (416) Mahon: my son and myself will be going our own way, and well have great times from this out telling stories of the villainy of Mayo, and the fools is here. (425)

Study Questions:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Why do the villagers regard Christy as a hero? Do you think Shawn Keogh feels deep respect for religion? In what aspect do you agree Christys patricide a courageous behavior? Does Christy change in his attitude between Act 2 and Act 3? Why does Christy heat his father in Act 3? Since Christy is regarded as a hero because he killed his father, why do the villagers try to hang him after he hits his father in Act 3? 7. Why does Pegeen lament Ive lost the only Playboy of the Western World in the end of the play? Works Cited and Consulted: J. M. Synge, The Playboy of the Western World. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The 20th Century: Topic 4- Irish Writers. 23 Oct. 2005 <http://www.wwnorton.com/nael/20century/topic_4/synge.htm>. Literary Encyclopedia: The Playboy of the Western World (1907). 23 Oct. 2005 <http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10167>. Synge, J.M. The Playboy of the Western World. Masters of Modern Drama. Eds. Haskell M. Block and Robert G. Shedd. New York: Random House, 1962. 403-26.