Humour in the Playboy of the Western World

Though Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World ends on a rather tragic note, at least for
Pegeen who bewails the loss of ‘the only playboy of the western world’, the play abounds in
rich and vibrant humour – humour deriving from situations from characters and, of course,
from the racy and hilarious dialogue.

The Playboy remains in many ways a farce, full of exaggerations and improbabilities.
But so is Voltaire’s Candide, pr Titania’s infatuation with Bottom in Shakespeare’s A
Midsummer Night’s Dream or the adventures of Falstaff. Beneath lies the bitter truth that
human romanticism can often become grotesque. To idolize a young man for killing his
father may be fantastic; but it is not certainly any more fantastic than the incorrigible
tendency of the human race through history to lionize men for killing millions of sons and
fathers – like Alexander, or Caesar, Charles XII, Napoleon or Stalin.

One could probably multiply instances of situational humour in The Playboy. In Act I,
Michael Flaherty with his two cronies, is about to leave his shebeen to attend the wake of a
dead woman and watch her corpse while imbibing spirituous glee. He insists that Shawn
Keogh stay with his daughter who is upset about having to tend the pub alone. A lily-livered
poltroon, Shawn begs off, saying he would incur the wrath of Father Reilly for staying alone
with her the whole night. Wringing his hands, he invokes St. Joseph and St. Patrick and St.
Brigid and St. James and makes a rush for the door to flee the shebeen. When Michael
catches him by the coat-tail, Shawn pulls himself out of his coat with a sudden movement and
disappears, leaving his coat in Michael’s hands. The encounter between Pegeen and Dame
Quin both of whom are intent on possessing Christy is the source of much comic fun. Instead
of two men battling it out over a woman, we have here two women fighting over a man. Then
we Christy hiding a mirror behind him when the village girls – Susan, Nelly, and Honor –
come to see him, creates much fun. The situation becomes even more comic when one of the
girls observes that Christy is so vain that he would look at the reflection of his backside in the
mirror, adding that probably parricides like Christy become very conceited. We feel amused
at the sight of the girls peeping through a crack at Christy. They touch his bed with awe and
Susan tries his boots on. They acclaim him with all the superlatives at their command.
Christy’s hiding behind the door when he sees his father – still alive! – approaching the
shebeen is another comic situation as is the situation where Shawn Keogh attempts
desperately but unsuccessfully to bribe Christy into agreeing to leave the place. Widow
Quin’s and Sara’s efforts to fasten a petticoat on Christy in order to disguise him as a woman
to enable him to escape the ire of the crowd are funny and raise a hearty laugh. But the
crowning moments of comic amusement occur towards the close of Act III when Christy, tied
with a noosed rope, hooks his legs fast round the table and bites Shawn in the calf. Pegeen
has blown a peat to redness and burns Christy’s own leg to make him let go. But – wonder of
wonders – Christy’s father comes crawling in once more and the crowd flee in terror from his
ghastly, bleeding spectre.

The absurdities of some of the characters of the play are a rich source of humour.
Shawn, Keogh, Pegeen’s fiancé, is a masterly creation of Synge’s comic genius. His
cowardice is the most amusing trait of his character. He is afraid of incurring Father Reilley’s
wrath when he is asked to keep Pegeen company during the night in her father’s absence.
There is something pathetically comic about him, and about his infructuous attempts at
keeping his rival in love away. He refuses to fight Christy in order to win Pegeen’s hand in
marriage, as suggested by Michael. Space he is plainly afraid ‘to feel jealous of a man who
did slay his da.’ he is afraid that is he strikes Christy with the speed and he dies, he will have
to mount the gallows. Michael and his cronies also provide a lot of comic amusement partly
because of their continual drinking bouts and partly because of their highly diverting
conversations. The interrogation of Christy by these three boon companions is quite amusing.
Michael’s attitude toward Christy, changing from contempt to admiration, certainly amuses
us because of the element of inconsistency involved in conduct. As regards Philly and Jimmy,
they amuse us by their Shawn-like like cowardice when they refuse to go near Christy in
order to secure him with a rope. Old Mahon, the domineering, tyrannical father confronting
his son at the Shebeen, and strutting and fretting and finally crawling on all fours is an
inexhaustible source of comic delight.

Much of the humour of the play derives from dialogue. Christy's description of his
father amuses us to no end. He tells how his father, a confirmed drunkard, snored heavily in
his sleep and course and swore like a military man. There were times when his father, after
drinking for weeks, would get up at dawn and, going out into the yard ‘as naked as an ash-
tree in the noon of May, used to throw lumps of earth towards the stars in the sky. The
speeches of Pegeen and Widow Quin provide delightful instances of ironical and satirical
humour. He describes Shawn as the kind of lover who would make a girl think of a bullock's
liver than of the lily of the rose. The verbal sparring between Pegeen and Dame Quin
whenever they meet is always delectably entertaining. Pegeen describes Widow Quin’s
cottage in a sarcastic manner, saying that the widow had once reared black ram at her own
breast. The manner in which she tries to strike terror into Christy's heart by telling him of a
report in the newspaper that might lead to his arrest and in which she teases Christy is
certainly humorous. Not to be outdone by Pegeen, Dame Quin describes Pegeen as a girl
‘itching and scratching and she with a stale stink of poteen on her from selling in the shop.’
we laugh at her when she first bargains first with Shawn for a red cow, a mountainy ram, and
a load of dung, and then with Christy for similar gifts as a condition for her helping Shan
marry Pegeen and later for helping Christy evade exposure by his father desperately on his
trail. At her second interview with Old Mahon, by her clever and humorous talk, Widow
Quin succeeds in convincing him that the champion in the village sports cannot buy any
means be his son and even that the old man himself has gone stark mad. We have the funniest
bit of humorous dialogue when Christy asks his father if he has to be killed for the third time,
his earlier two attempts at making short work of him having failed.

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