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A Realistic Hero: Christy Mahon in J.M. Synges The Playboy of the Western World

Rachael Molidor

ENG 285: Modern Irish Lit & Culture

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During the 19th and 20th century, Ireland was undergoing a major event known at the

Celtic Revival. In 1907, J.M. Synge produced his play The Playboy of the Western World in

order to try and cause awareness and inspire Ireland to take back its identity from Great Britain.

Although there were riots, in response to the play by the people of Ireland, the symbolism in it

was one that should have inspired a sense of identity. Christy Mahon represents in The Playboy

of the Western World a personification of the attitude that Ireland needed to take on in order to

overcome British oppression. The type of hero that Christy becomes is more mundane and

humanized compared to the Romanticized hero endorsed by the Celtic Revival.

In the beginning of the play, Christy Mahon portrays a shy and timid Ireland not only

through his dialogue, but in how he says it. Declan Kiberd, author of Inventing Ireland, helps to

analyze this theme specifically through the image of Christy through mirrors. Kiberd suggests

that in Act One, Christy finds a false image of himself through the image in the mirror of his

fathers cruel home, the very image of Irish self-disgust under colonial misrule, his father

become a representation of Britain, a metaphor that is prevalent throughout the book (184).

Christy is in direct correlation with an oppressed Ireland at this time, with an abusive and

seemingly unloving father. When looking at himself in this mirror, Christy believes that he is

useless and weak exactly how Ireland was meant to feel at this time. Throughout Act One

when Christy is introduced, he does not talk with any confidence. He is described as talking

peevishly shyly clinging to Pegeen doubtfully innocently and timidly, all of

these representations demonstrate the seemingly weak Ireland with no real confidence or call to

action (74, 79, 80, 81). Christy talks this way because his father instilled it into him that he was

nothing. Britain treated Ireland in a similar way, making them seem helpless and unable to fend
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for themselves in the world. In this way Christy and his father have taken on the roles of Ireland

and Britain.

In Act Two, Christy transforms dramatically into an excessively dominant, masculine,

and aggressive character. To continue the theme of the mirror, in Act Two, he [Christy] then

discovers an over-flattering image of himself in the perfect mirror of Pegeens shebeen, the

image that Christy now sees of himself is that of the perfect symbol of the Celtic Revival, the

very acme of Irish pride (Kiberd, 184). In this act, he becomes the hero the Ireland wants

desperately. Most characters are admiring Christy for the action of killing his own father at this

point, demonstrating the increased interest in standing against Britain during the Celtic Revival.

On page 82 of The Playboy of the Western World, Christy is actually admiring himself in

Pegeens mirror, portraying a more self-confident Ireland that is necessary to overcome the

British, rather than the Ireland representation in Act One. Christy now seems like a charismatic

and powerful lad who killed his father when he really did not. Sarah Townsend in

Cosmopolitanism at Home: Irelands Playboys from Celtic Revival to Celtic Tiger suggests

that the Playboys deceit is also the enabling condition for his transformation. By abandoning

his lowly position in an abusive colonial economy and reinventing himself as a playboy

Christy achieves a freedom unlikely in post-Famine rural Ireland (53). He becomes a glorified

figure for the citizens of Mayo, like something they have never seen before. And how does he

achieve this fascination? By eliminating the thing that was holding him down: his father/Britain.

However, this transformation may not be all positive. Kiberd suggests that

In the Irish Ireland movement of his time, there were basically two schools of writing:
one devoted to the heroic legends and ancient heroes, the other to a vision to the
western peasant as a secular saint and Gaelic mystic. By recreating some of the traits of
the ancient hero in a puny peasant playboy, Synge offered his own caustic comment on
the similarities and dissimilarities between the Irish past and present. His was a
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challenge to both schools, to concede, if they would, the savagery as well as the glamour
at the heart of their cultural enterprise (171).
It is evident that the townspeople have molded Christy into someone they believe to be a hero

but a hero of the past. He is more aggressive, bragging about the slaughter of his father which

would have been praised in the past, as it is in the play, but in present time was met with horror

and riots by the audience. Synge is trying to show to the audience that the praise of such a

gruesome action is undesirable by their own reactions, however the effect is the opposite of what

he wants the audience only sees that the townspeople are praising Christy, they see his action

as being supported and therefore they feel misrepresented. Christys retelling of patricide

rekindles the towns resistance to the state and moreover, holds out however faintly the

prospect of transformative violence, Christy becomes an outlet and inspiration for violent

revolt, yet this changes throughout the play (Townshend, 55). The audience saw that Christy

was getting support for his violence towards his father at this point, even though the message

Synge was ultimately trying to get through was that violence was not the answer.

The community feeling during the Celtic Revival was the need for a glorified hero, such

a people desperately need a hero who can bring their instincts to violence into a single clear

focus: a hero, moreover, whom they can then convert into a scapegoat, onto whom they may be

visited any troublesomely violent tendencies that are still unfulfilled (Kiberd, 166). Pegeen and

Widow Quin are two characters in the play that truly endorse Kiberds point; they appear to

idolize Christy for his ferocity towards his father, and suggest that the Irish as a whole even

have a reputation for violence (Kiberd, 168). Christy says at the end of Act One two fine

women fighting for the likes of me wasnt I a foolish fellow not to kill my father in the years

gone by (82). We are informed by Philly on page 96 that Christy constantly brags about

murdering his father. This near worshipping of a gruesome act, and the idea that the perpetrator
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[Christy] is proud of it, appalls the audience. As Kiberd suggests, Synge is truly calling attention

to the Irish desire for an old Fianna hero. There was appalling violence in the stories of heroes

past, and Synge is demonstrating that there is a need for a different type of hero. Not only is

Christy bragging about slaying his father, he is becoming violent with the native Irish. He tries

to intimidate Shawn on page 90 when he says [almost pugnaciously]: and youd be using

bribery for to banish me? As Act Two progresses he becomes a larger threat to Ireland.

Synges point in this scene is to show the effect that the endorsement of violence will have on the

whole of Ireland. He is showing that not only will the assaults on Great Britain increase, but the

fighting will spread within the natives. This will happen because some of the Irish, like Shawn,

disagree with the malicious acts of killing and see it as wrong.

By the end of the play, Christys original deed of killing his father became too savage for

the people who once praised him for it. When it turns out that his father is truly alive, Christy

tries to murder him again (108). He tries to commit this act in front of his admirers including

Pegeen Mike. Soon after this attempt of killing his father, yet again, Pegeen refuses to marry

Christy anymore because, she claims, theres a great gap between a gallous story and a dirty

deed (110). To finish Kiberds quote from earlier, The Irish have a reputation for violence

but also a shrewd distaste for it (168). There was a difference for Pegeen Mike in hearing the

action of Christy murdering his father, and actually witnessing it. By witnessing it, the act

becomes real to the Irish and suddenly repulsive. This proves that the Irish truly do not want to

become violent against the British because they cannot possibly come to glorify something to

atrocious.

Christy is able to come to a balance by the end of the play, creating a perfect identity for

oppressed Ireland. To allude to the symbolism of the mirror again, only in Act Three can
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Christy forget about the good opinion of others, throw that mirror away and construct himself out

of his own desire, this is the true message that Synge wants the play to convey (Kiberd, 184). It

is not only in his actions that Christy becomes a stronger character, but also in the way he speaks.

This is fitting because in the beginning he was described as timid and now, while standing up

against the citizens of Mayo, his voice [grew] stronger (110). There is no longer a timid,

feeble character present in Christy Mahon from this point on. He is representative of the true

power Ireland should have. His actions in Act Three, are also more powerful than they have ever

been, but not in a negative way. Christy explains Im master of all fights from now [pushing

MAHON.] Go on, Im saying this shows that Christy (Ireland) is no longer willing to be

controlled by his father (Britain), he has become his own person (111). Christy presents a

message for Ireland to not let Britain decide their fate for them. They need to stand up and be

dominant, however, they do not need to murder their oppressors. The inability Christy has at

murdering his father is a clear message: no matter how hard Ireland tries to kill Britain, they will

always come back. However, tyrannical fathers should, and can be, overthrown is the heart of

this play is what Paul Michael Levitt suggests in his work, Fathers and Sons in Synges the

Playboy of the Western World (20). Synge suggests that the only way for Britain to be defeated

is if Ireland takes a stand against them and claims their own identity. This balance of the two

aspects of Christys hero, his dominance (past) and his ability to walk with his father (present),

are attractive to the Irish people. The last lines of the play are Pegeens when she says Oh my

grief, Ive lost him surely. Ive lost the only Playboy of the Western World her sudden rekindle

of desire towards Christy proves that this is the type of hero that Ireland needs to become (112).

Pegeen now sees that because Christy has overcome what the town had made him to be a
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malicious brute that he is the perfect hero for Ireland, one that the Irish present needs to accept

rather than idolizing the past heroes.

Although Christy Mahon is not a complete transformation into the hero of the Celtic

Revival, he contains some aspects by the end of the play that make him worthy of the label a

hero that Ireland is in desperate need of. Christy evidently moves out of his timid stage of

being all bark and no bite and he moves from that passive state to one of active self-reflection,

and his behavior is progressively less impulse-ridden and more deliberated: by the end, indeed,

he can proclaim himself master of those forces which have been mastering him (Kiberd, 185).

Christy not only masters his father, but he masters himself; he was once a very impressionable

man, as is evident by the effect the townspeople had on him throughout the play. Kiberd is right

in stating that he is self-reflective; at the end of the play Christy realizes that he has become

something other than himself, he changes his ways and abandons Mayo. This mature act proves

that he has developed as a character, and it is obviously an improvement from him trying to

murder his father. Synge took the violence of the colonizers as read: his deeper interest was in

how the colonized cope with the violence in themselves, their situation and their daily life, he

demonstrated throughout the play that the common Irish folk did not want an idealized hero from

the past, because of the disgust when witnessing Christys brutality (Kiberd, 166). They needed

an adapted hero who was not so rooted in revenge, but was more concerned about overcoming

the mastery of the oppressor and becoming a master of themselves. By the end of the play,

Pegeen Mike realizes that this is the type of person that Christy has become, and the person that

she needs. The violence that the people of Mayo believed to be in themselves was never truly

there. As the play goes on, there is greater amounts of dislike to what Christy has done:

beginning with annoyance of the constant talk of it, to actually seeing the act and revolting
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against their once hero. Synge demonstrates through this play that there is no need for the

idealized hero of the past, but there is more legitimacy of the commonplace hero that Christy

Mahon becomes.

There are many people, however, that believe Christy Mahon never reached the status of

a hero. Because the intended metaphor of the play is so deep, many audiences are unable to

grasp the true meaning of the play. This led to riots when the play was first performed because

the Irish nationals believed that Synge, an Irish-protestant, was suggesting that all Irish are

bloodthirsty heathens they saw Christy as a villain. Because they could not see the true genius

in Synges metaphor, the audience could not see that the play was truly an advocate for Ireland.

The play is, in reality, a call to regain the identity that Britain took from them without killing

Britain. The Irish did not interpret the lack of death in the play as a good thing, they only saw

the negative representation of the Irish people in bragging about the brutal act and praising it.

On the other side of the spectrum, people argue that Christy is not a hero because he reverts back

to his old passive ways. The main instance they see this is when he does not go through with

killing his father, he simply gives up and returns to his old life. What Synge is truly stating

here is that there does not need to be bloodshed in order to achieve independence. Christy is not

simply being passive by walking away with his father, instead he is more turning his back on

the people who made him violent. He is not returning to his old life of mistreatment and

psychological abuse, Christy has become independent and even dominant over his father by the

end of the play. Synges message is different from the message of the old Finnian stories, there

does not need to be a death in order to have a victory. He shows through Christys decisions, not

only to leave Mayo but to spare his father, that there can be peace and a sense of equality without
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brutality. Christy is in no way being passive at the end of the play, those who say he is are

simply mistaking passivity with a new found goodness.

This work by J.M. Synge called The Playboy of the Western World is still beneficial to

modern Irish culture today. When interpreted correctly, it serves as a reminder that there are

ways to stand up for yourself without killing. I believe that this work is one that can be referred

to during all times of violent crises, not just in Ireland. The audience is always appalled while

reading about Christy bragging about killing his father, and the way that the citizens make him a

hero for it. When put into the oppression context it was meant to be read in, the reader and

audience are able to interpret many things differently, even if we are all still horrified at the idea

of killing our own father, which is intentional. This action is meant to make us think of how

horrible killing someone truly is, even if it is for our absolute and obvious benefit. Synge shows

us through his play that standing up and being dominant is the best way to win, because even if

you try to kill your problem, it will always come back. This is important in modern culture

because war and oppression are evident everywhere. If Ireland, or any country for that matter,

were to find themselves in a position of fighting their oppressors, Synge would want them to

follow Christys example and to avoid mass killings. This could also become a message to the

oppressors themselves. The play is saying that no matter how long you have had control over

someone, they could still rise up against you despite how weak you believe them to be. Synges

ability to still have influence in these ways makes this work a timeless and useful artifact not

only in Ireland but all over the world.

In J.M. Synges The Playboy of the Western World, Christy Mahon transforms himself

throughout. In the beginning, he represents a timid and passive Ireland and at the end he is the

epitome of a modern day hero, he embodies a transforming Ireland stemming out of the Celtic
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Revival. Synge demonstrates through Christy that to revert back to past, violent ways of old

warriors is not the route to take, instead Ireland needs to adapt and, through non-murderous

actions, take back their Ireland from Britain.

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Bibliography

Townsend, Sarah L. "Cosmopolitanism At Home: Ireland's Playboys From Celtic Revival To

Celtic Tiger." Journal Of Modern Literature 34.2 (2011): 45-64. Academic Search

Complete. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.

Levitt, Paul Michael. "Fathers And Sons In Synge's The Playboy Of The Western

World." Explicator 66.1 (2007): 18. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.

Synge, John Millington. The Playboy of the Western World. Modern and Contemporary Irish

Drama. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2009. 68-112. Print.

Kiberd, Declan. J.M. Synge Remembering the Future. Inventing Ireland. Cambridge:

Harvard University Press, 1995. 166-188. Print.