Synge’s Exploration Of The Power Of Imagination in The Playboy Of The Western World

Categories: Freedom Of Expression Theatre

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The ability of mankind to transform their surroundings from the lethargic and mundane normalcy of life to a falsified, yet whimsical reality through imagination is captured all throughout literature. J. M. Synge’s controversial play, The Playboy of the Western World, explores this tendency in the characters of County Mayo who lead rather plain, agrarian lives. The opening scene of act two begins with Christy Mahon shining Pegeen Mike’s boots and romanticizing a fabricated future life together until he is interrupted by the entrance of the local farm girls hoping to meet the man who murdered his father.

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Synge’s depiction of Christy Mahon’s refuge from reality in his embellished story and the yearning of the farm girls to partake in his lie demonstrate their desire to “pass out of what is simple and plain” through the idyllic diction of Christy’s description and the hyperbolic assumptions made by the girls about this infamous murderer. Imagination is a flight from reality and a way for the characters to redefine themselves throughout the play.

Christy contemplates remaining in County Mayo for longer than his short employment as pot boy when he wishfully says, “Well, this’d be a fine place to be my whole life …and never a day’s work but drawing a cork an odd time, or wiping a glass, or rinsing out a shiny tumbler for a decent man”.

To Christy, his liberation from his father’s oppression to becoming a barkeeper with the woman he loves is bliss.

His languid diction expresses his belief that this simple life will be one of small pleasures. He romanticizes the humble lifestyle of County Mayo’s inhabitants with little regard for his reason for remaining there: his assault of his father. This fabricated future found within his mind is enough to make him forget any regret previously felt for his father’s presumed death, and is sufficient to momentarily diminish his fear of being found by the police. The imagined joy of the characters can often be enough to extract them from the humdrum lives they live in rural Ireland. This enticing story has taken hold of not only Christy, but the whole town as well. For the young farm girls who enter, meeting a murderer is too good of an opportunity to pass up. Sara, Susan, Honor, and Holly enter the stage by pushing open the door in the hopes of catching an unbeknownst glimpse of the stranger, before knocking. Their desire to meet such a man is evident not only in their hurried body language, but also in their speech. Holding Christy’s abandoned boots, Sara inspects them for blood, claiming that there is a “way murdered men do bleed and drip”.

The hyperbolic assumptions held by the girls about Christy are exacerbated by their naivety of the world, having never left County Mayo. In their minds, Christy carries around evidence of his murder in his very being with blood on his boots. Upon Christy’s reentering the room, the girls become enraptured with him. The sexual nature of their interaction is explored by Anthony Roche’s “The Impact of J. M. Synge” where he recounts their encounter: “The sexual charge which his reputation as a murderer ignites among the women is confirmed by the deliberate double entendre of the following: SUSAN. And I brought you a little laying pullet … Feel the fat of that breast, Mister.CHRISTY. It’s bursting, surely.” (

Their lewd behavior that is brought on by Christy’s story is evidence of their yearning for adventure outside of the ordinary and the power of their skewed perception of him over their rationale. The encounter between Christy Mahon and the farm girls at the beginning of the second act serves as an example of the influence imagination can have on one’s perception of truth. So enthralled with his story, Christy forgets himself, and so enthralled with Christy, the farm girls do the same. Synge’s depiction of Christy’s romanticizing life in County Mayo as well as the farm girls desire to partake in the shocking story remind the audience of how enthralling a fabricated reality can become. Synge reminds all that the tendency to find an escape from reality in one’s mind is engrained in the human psyche, as all of humanity possesses a “wildness of fancy.”