Soon after Synge met William
Butler Yeats in Paris, Yeats advised Synge to spend time living on the Aran
Islands off the west coast of Ireland, to "live there as if you were one
of the people themselves" and to "express a life that has never found
expression." Synge heeded Yeats's advice, spending a good amount of time
living on the islands and recording his observations of the inhabitants'
behavior and personalities. His observations, eventually collected in a series
of essays, became translated into the central themes, settings, and characters
in his plays, which would be heralded for their lyrical yet realistic portraits
of the Irish spirit. Daniel Corkery, in his Synge and Anglo-Irish
Literature, considered Synge's Aran materials "descriptive of the
consciousness of the people."
One story Synge had heard on
the Islands concerned a young man from Connaught who killed his father with a
spade. The man then fled to Aran, where he begged the inhabitants to shelter
him. This tale would become the plot of Synge's play, The Playboy of the
Western World, which first appeared on the Dublin stage in 1907. In this
play, Synge incorporated his observations of Irish life, uncovering what Robin
Skelton in his The Writings of J. M. Synge, deems the "heroic
values" and the "awareness of universal myth" that characterize
the islanders. Skelton also determines that, through his studies, Synge was
able to create "images and values which point towards the importance of
reviving, and maintaining, a particular sensibility in order to make sense of
the predicament of humanity." The "particular sensibility" that
Synge artistically recreates in The Playboy of the Western World is what
he calls in his preface to the play "popular imagination [in Ireland] that
is fiery, and magnificent, and tender." The Irish penchant for employing
the imagination in the creation of myth becomes the focus of the play as Synge
explores the lure of mythmaking as well as its inevitable clash with reality.
The characters in the play initially appear
unsophisticated and unsentimental. The independent, strong-willed Pegeen
especially is characterized as adept at seeing others clearly. Although she has
agreed to marry Shawn, she has an accurate perception of his drawbacks. She
notes his conservatism and berates him for it. Yet, Shawn does have a touch of
the poet, at least in the opening scene when he declares that as he was standing
outside of her door, "I could hear the cows breathing, and sighing in the
stillness of the air." This lyrical line foreshadows the arrival of the
more verbally talented Christy, who will steal Pegeen's heart with his poetic
overtures. Shawn will become the voice of reality for the villagers, even
though they will pay him little heed.
When Christy arrives, the process of mythmaking
begins. The characters' love of storytelling becomes evident soon after
Christy's arrival, as they quiz the lad about who he is and why he has arrived
in their community. Their interest is immediately piqued when Christy inquires
whether the police often stop at the pub. As Christy is reluctant to tell them
the true reason for his fear of the authorities, all at the pub begin to create
their own versions of his story. Pegeen assumes that "he followed after a
young woman on a lonesome night." The others decide he is either being
chased by bailiffs or landlords, or perhaps he made counterfeit coins or
married more than one wife. Their curiosity about him increases as they
construct one scenario after the other that Christy refutes until Pegeen
reasons that the fearful boy "did nothing at all." She declares him
"a soft lad" who "wouldn't slit the windpipe of a screeching
sow." Her accurate portrait of his weak character prompts Christy's
rebuttal, and he declares that he murdered his father.
Immediately, all are caught up in the drama of the
event; even Pegeen is amazed at this daring feat. They will not let Christy
rest until he has told the entire story, and when he has finished, they all
determine him to be a brave and fearless lad who should be given the job of
watching over Pegeen as she works at night in the pub. Shawn expresses the only
voice of reason at the scene when he warns, "That'd be a queer kind to
bring into a decent quiet household with the like of Pegeen." The others
dismiss him, caught up in their vision of the hero in their midst.
The villagers' shower of praise begins to transform
Christy from a weak and fearful boy into a confident young man who declares
himself "a seemly fellow with great strength in me and bravery." The
transformation, however, is gradual. Often, his confidence is checked by his
fear of the police catching up with him, which causes him on one occasion to
cower in the corner when someone knocks on the door of the pub.
Christy especially blossoms under Pegeen's
attention, becoming the romantic hero all assume him to be. No one can beat him
at games and sports, and by the end of the day, he is heralded as "the
playboy of the western world." Christy's newfound confidence inspires him
to construct lyrical declarations of love for Pegeen, who, completely won over,
declares, "it's the poets are your like, fine fiery fellows with great rages
when their temper's roused." Synge illuminates the seductive power of the
imagination in his depiction of the relationship between Christy and Pegeen.
Christy leads a willing Pegeen into his visions of their future, full of
afternoons when he declares they will be "making mighty kisses with our
wetted mouths, or gaming in a gap of sunshine with yourself stretched back unto
your necklace in the flowers of the earth." Christy's new confidence
allows him to stand up to Michael James's reservations about him marrying his daughter
and to threaten Shawn with bodily harm if he does not leave the two of them
alone.
Reality abruptly shatters the mythmaking, however,
with the appearance of Christy's battered but still breathing father, who
declares that his "dribbling idiot" son is lazy, stupid, and inept
with women. When confronted by his father, Christy teeters on the edge of the
reality and the myth, fearing his father's wrath but unwilling to give up the
adoration of the crowd. Initially, Christy appears to revert back to his
fearful self as he insists, "he's not my father. He's a raving maniac
would scare the world." Eventually, the myth wins out, and Christy
determines to finish the job he started and goes after his father with a club.
The myth, however, has exploded for the villagers, who see Christy's once
"gallous [splendid] story" of murder now as "a dirty deed"
as it is played out in front of them.
Christy's fall from his mythic status infuriates
the villagers who turn into a nasty mob, fueled by their shattered illusions
and bent on revenge. All resort to conventional behavior in their demands for
retribution. Ironically, by the end of the play, Christy has become the man the
others had envisioned him to be. While he is bound and threatened with hanging,
he bravely declares, "if I've to face the gallows I'll have a gay march
down, I tell you, and shed the blood of some of you before I die." His
father recognizes that his son has transformed into a courageous and capable
man and so allows him to take the upper hand. Pegeen also notices the
transformation, but she is too late. As Christy declares that he has become
"a likely gaffer in the end of all" and exits triumphantly to
"go romancing through a romping lifetime from this hour to the dawning to
the judgement day," Pegeen's vision of an escape from her conventional
life evaporates. She understands, after he leaves, that she has truly lost
"the only playboy of the western world."
Elizabeth Coxhead, in her article on Synge for British
Writers, quotes Lady Gregory, one of the founders with Yeats of the Irish
Literary Theatre and a strong supporter of Synge's works, who expresses her
view of the Irish character by recognizing "our incorrigible Irish talent
for myth-making." In The Playboy of the Western World, Synge deftly
illuminates that talent and the subsequent tension it inevitably produces
between imagination and reality. His villagers are ready for a hero to rescue
them from their monotonous and difficult lives and so do not examine Christy
too closely when he appears. The lure of the dream, however, is difficult to
reconcile with reality, at least for those who cannot break free from the bonds
of convention. For others, like Christy, the "Irish talent for
mythmaking" can become the inspiration for the fulfillment of the dream.