The Playboy of the Western World

    "Strangers are taken for saviors" is apparently quite a literal statement. Any patricidal maniac is welcome in Irish homes, as long as they don't lie about it. According to Michael, Jimmy, and Philly, it takes great bravery to kill ones father, and all real heroes are brave. This play again mocks the Irish hospitable tendencies, and their gullible nature to believe the good in all people. Christy Mahon, the heroic stranger in "The Playboy of the Western World," has come from a far away place on the run after killing his evil and abusive father. My first thoughts as I read this play were that it's interesting that a group of men (who are presumably fathers) were proud of a man that willingly killed his own father. Comparing that with the interesting relationship between Father Reilly and Shawn, there father/son dynamics in this play are all over the place.

    Pegeen Mike and her father seem to be on good terms, with just the right amounts of respect and back talk. Father Reilly never makes an appearance in the play, but we still get the sense that he is a force to be reckon with by the way Shawn is "afeared" of him so often. It must be an uneasy relationship if Shawn is too scared to do anything against his wishes, even if he would be doing something for his possible future wife. Lastly, as the second act progresses, we are introduced more and more to the relationship between Christy and his father. This one confused me the most because why did the father keep coming back after nearly being murder two or three times? What would drive Christy to be so angry with his father? It couldn't have just been the wedding to someone he didn't love. It doesn't make sense to me, but maybe it doesn't need to. Every generation goes through a stage when they feel they need to break away from their fathers, and do things in their own way. That's how change occurs. The three relationships highlight we read about are what happens when things get too extreme (Christy), or aren't pushed far enough (Shawn). Pegeen Mike is really the only one that logically voices her opinions to her father and breaks free from the traditional in her own way. It could be nationalistic, if we consider it to be a play about the newer generations fighting against the old to provide a brighter future and protect their posterity.

    Another one of my preliminary thoughts as I began this play were about the strangeness of the language used by the characters. Other than the unordinary syntax, I couldn't quite place my finger on why I found it so jarring, so I took to the internet. Apparently, the language was one of the reasons for the riots at the play's debut. Irish viewers were outraged that a play that claimed to be nationalistic was conforming to the language of the oppressor. Maybe this was Synge's intention, to rile everyone up about how tolerant they have been to the English rule. Maybe he wanted them to get angrier and more violent, even if some of the initial riots were centered around fighting the stigma that the Irish are inherently violent people (ironic, right? Let's riot to prove we aren't violent people). It could be nationalistic in that way, as well, if it we read it as a play meant to anger the Irish about their tolerance, or revert them to violence and anger.
 
     But the plot still confuses me if each play is meant to make a comment on everyday life. I can say  I am certain that Christy is no hero, which all the people in the play agree with at the end. But does Christy's inability to kill his father, and Shawn's inability to fight back against Father Reilly, really equate to the Irish being doomed to fail? If we look at it that way, then no, because we are given the relationship between Pegeen Mike and her father that gives us hope that it could actually happen. Even though she is still obedient to her father, she has a bit of fight and spirit in her that allows to speak her mind. I'm still not quite sure how to get at the meat of this play, because I'm unsure about what part of life it's commenting on.