The Playboy of the Western World

Old Mahon is Christy’s father, who survives not one, but two strikes to the head with a loy. Like his son, he is an expert storyteller. He tells Widow Quin, “I’m after walking hundreds and long scores of miles, winning clean beds and the fill of my belly four times in the day, and I doing nothing but telling stories of that naked truth” (56). Just as Christy earned a bed and a job by telling a story of killing his father, Old Mahon has found lodging and food along his journey by telling the story of surviving the blow to the head. However, Old Mahon discovers that the people of County Mayo have more respect for the strapping young Christy, whom they regard as the village hero, than for “old, annoying” fathers.

This age-old power dynamic between father and son drives much of Old Mahon’s character. He resents his son for his laziness as well as his attempted murder, and he feels that Christy is ungrateful to him. He tells Widow Quin that growing older has been difficult, saying, “[I]t’s a terror to live that length […] and to have your sons going to the dogs against you, and you wore out scolding them, and skelping them, and God knows what” (58). Christy turned against the man who raised him, and this is seen as the worst kind of betrayal. In an ironic twist, Old Mahon is loyal to his son and saves Christy from the angry mob. The proud father now submits to his maturing son’s dominance.

Michael James, a publican, is the owner of the bar in County Mayo and father to the protagonist’s love interest, Pegeen Mike. The bar is the setting for the entire play. More often than not, Michael James is drunk on stage, either coming from a wake or drinking more to go back to the wake. He is close friends with Jimmy and Philly and is described as being “jovial” (11). He is initially taken with Christy’s story and hires him to be the pot-boy at the bar and to keep Pegeen Mike from being so lonesome.

While Michael James is quick to hire Christy and to tease Shawn for his flighty religious ways, he still values that Shawn is a good Christian man and a more suitable match for his daughter. When Pegeen Mike rebels against him and refuses to marry Shawn, he says to Christy, “It’ll be a poor thing for the household man when you go sniffing for a female wife; and (pointing to Shawn) look beyond at that shy and decent Christian I have chosen for my daughter’s hand” (67). Michael James values religious morals and traditional social mores until Shawn runs out of the bar after being asked to fight Christy. Shawn’s reaction stuns Michael James, and he bestows his blessing for Pegeen Mike and Christy to wed. By the end of the play, Michael James’s values shift, and masculine bravery supersedes devout obedience.

Pegeen Mike is the daughter of Michael James and the love interest of Christy. She is “a wild looking but fine girl, of about twenty” (7), who has just as much fire in her as any of the men in the show. She doesn’t always recognize this about herself, and the men in her life are often the ones to point out her own bravery. When Pegeen Mike expresses that she is afraid to stay at the bar by herself, her father’s friend Jimmy replies, “What is there to hurt you, and you a fine, hardy girl would knock the head of any two men in the place?” (11). Pegeen Mike has a reputation for being feisty and irritable. Her self-proclaimed fiancé, Shawn, tells Christy that she has “the divil’s own temper” (44), citing this as a reason Christy and Pegeen Mike would not be a good match. The two of them, Shawn argues, would be too strong-willed for each other, while his own timid nature is more suited for Pegeen Mike.

For all her biting remarks and jealous ways, Pegeen Mike has a soft spot for romance. She loves being wooed by Christy and soon finds herself flirting with him right back. This amazes her most of all, and she tells Christy, “And to think it’s me is talking sweetly, Christy Mahon, and I the fright of seven townlands for my biting tongue” (66). Pegeen Mike, it seems, has never been one to speak poetically herself, and she admires that Christy can bring out a side of her that no one else can. Christy is a revered outsider of the community, and Pegeen Mike is also drawn to his hero status within small County Mayo. Despite her anger at Christy for lying, she resents having lost the “playboy” in the play’s conclusion. True to her fierce nature, Pegeen Mike opts for a remaining unmarried rather than becoming the wife of a social pariah—Shawn, who is seen as a coward. Ironically, the stable and devoted Shawn would likely provide Pegeen Mike with a secure, comfortable life. Pegeen Mike’s rejection of a traditional marriage for fanciful romance develops the theme of Marriage as a Social and Economic Institution.

Shawn, Pegeen Mike’s betrothed, is described as “a fat and fair young man” (7). He functions as a character foil to Christy. Pegeen Mike and Christy both describe Shawn as a “scarecrow” to jeer Shawn’s masculinity (or what they see as a lack thereof). His most notable traits are his cowardice and his piousness, and the two are inexplicably linked. Shawn’s religious obedience and fears overshadow his love for Pegeen Mike. When asked to keep Pegeen Mike company in the night so that she won’t be alone and afraid, he refuses, saying, “I’m afeard of Father Reilly […] Let you not be tempting me, and we near married itself” (12). While he cares for Pegeen Mike and wants to be married, Shawn is more concerned with abiding to Father Reilly’s religious mores than he is about Pegeen Mike’s comfort and safety. Father Reilly, who is never seen, represents the oppressive rules of the Catholic church, and Synge uses the character of Shawn, a God-fearing Christian, to expose some of the absurdity of similar practicing Catholics.

Shawn is aware that he lacks the traditional masculine qualities and stands by them. He calls himself “a quiet simple fellow [who] wouldn’t raise a hand upon [Pegeen Mike] if she scratched itself” (45), citing this as a reason he will be a better husband for her than Christy. Even when he is ridiculed, Shawn never gives in to the pressure to become violent. Although his cowardice is seen to be weakness, there is also a quiet strength in maintaining his morals. Synge mocks piousness as well as masculine violence, yet he demonstrates the positives of each side. Shawn is teased for his religious morals but never succumbs to his community’s pressures to commit acts of violence.