1048 synge, John Millington
The crime of murder gilds Christy with a
romantic aura and fascinates Pegeen and the oth-
ers. Pegeen responds to Christy’s dynamic nature,
which is at odds with that of Shawn’s more cautious
and timid personality. Shawn symbolizes confor-
mity, while Christy suggests life and excitement.
His appeal grows. Pegeen senses in Christy a life
force that runs in opposition to the drab, dark, and
lifeless world of the pub. However, Pegeen is not
the only woman who perceives Christy’s allure. In
act 2, Widow Quin and the women of the village
arrive. Their arrival not only complicates the comic
action, it also reveals Christy as the life force of the
play. The women come upon Christy while he is
polishing Pegeen’s shoes and counting out the pub’s
wealth, which consists of jugs, glasses, and plates.
His unheroic actions only serve to highlight the
absurdity of his charm and to reveal a significant
characteristic of the comic hero—his opportunism.
All the women bring gifts: eggs, butter, cake,
and a hen. While the gifts are a form of tribute
to Christy, they also indicate each woman’s ability
to create a good home—that is, they represent the
women’s fertility and speak deeply to the comic
reaction toward life. This sense of fertility and life
always attend the comic hero: He is the axis around
which life rotates.
Of all the women aside from Pegeen, though,
the Widow Quin is most important. She is the
person who puts Christy’s name in the contest for
the sports, thereby allowing him to claim the title
of Playboy of the Western World when he wins all
the games. Furthermore, the Widow Quin helps
to divert Christy’s father when he arrives, and she
serves as a shield for Christy against the villagers’
anger. Since she has experienced marriage once, the
Widow also functions as the foil to Pegeen. These
two women signify the choices available to Christy
as the comic hero. On the one hand, the Widow
Quin symbolizes a safe haven and protection from
the law and from the anger of Christy’s father. On
the other, Pegeen represents youth and life, thereby
exercising the stronger claim on Christy. Although
he initially chooses Pegeen over the Widow, he must
reject them both in order to escape the village.
Unfortunately for both women, Christy cannot
be tamed because his life force overruns the confines
of the village. Pegeen does not grasp this fact. Her
infatuation endures only until she meets Christy’s
father and until she witness the fight between father
and son. After accusing him of being a liar, she
dismisses Christy, who takes joy in his freedom
and departs. Pegeen is left to mourn losing the true
Playboy of the Western World. Her loss, however,
demonstrates that the comic spirit embodied in
Christy can never be tamed and domesticated. It
always roams freely as does the comic hero.
Synge’s play, The Playboy of the Western World,
revels in its comic power. It expresses the power of
the comic spirit to resist life-defying urges in soci-
ety. Christy as the comic hero exhibits the human
potential to indulge in the high spirits that both
renew life and resist the rigid structures that society
often places on people. This sense of joy illustrates
the human potential to endure hardship and over-
come obstacles.
Arthur RankinvIoLence in The Playboy of the Western World
One of the most intriguing aspects of John Mil-
lington Synge’s comic play The Playboy of the Western
World concerns the characters’ reaction to violence.
When the villagers hear Christy Mahon’s tale of
bludgeoning his father, they react by endowing him
with a heroic quality. It is only when they fear that
the law will condemn them that the townspeople
decide to punish Christy. Additionally, the audience
delights in the violence and the chaos that follows
it. This reaction from both the characters and the
audience tells us that comedy confronts violence
much like tragedy confronts terror and pity. Comedy
disarms violence by its hyperbolic representation
of aggression as well as by allowing the audience a
safe distance for engaging in their own antagonistic
tendencies.
Take the first instance of violence in the play.
After Christy has entered and confessed to a hor-
rific crime, Pegeen, her father, and the others try to
guess what the crime was rather than contact the
local law enforcement. Their guesses include rob-
bery, molestation, and counterfeiting money. All
these speculations tell us more about Pegeen and
the others than Christy because the crimes seem
ordinary and acceptable to them. The tensions that