The Playboy of the Western World is a three-act comedy set against the rural west coast of Ireland. It was first performed on 26 January 1907.The story is set in Michael James Flaherty’s public house in County Mayo at the turn of the 20th century. It tells the story of Christy Mahon, a young man running away from his farm, claiming he killed his father. He takes the locals for a ride earning everyone’s admiration and the romantic attention of the bar maid Pegeen Mike, but when his father turns up his fortunes turn and he has to leave in disgrace after another failed attempt to kill his dad.
Escaping the boredom and ennui of routine existence– Christy Mahon is a very young fellow suffering under his tyrannical father living a humdrum existence till immediately before the opening of the play. But a moment comes when he acts decisively to change his life. The occasion is when he is ordered to marry a widow many years his senior. He runs away and arrives at Flaherty’s pub a fugitive from the law. But he takes advantage of the villagers’ credulity and interest in a good story and dramatically recounts the how he cracked his father’s. This endears him to his listeners. He as well as the villagers who have so far been living a life of routine boredom now enters into a semi fantastic world of adventure and romance. Christy is indulging it all and the playwright provides the audience with melodrama and action more than charting the moral growth of the protagonist. to the rural folk of County Mayo an alleged parricide becomes a hero who excites them relieving them from the routine life. In the end he is revealed as no hero and the villagers turn against him because they follow the conventional values of society that shuns crime especially parricide. The return to their humdrum life. Christy who came from the outside world had provided them with a romance that they enjoyed and when he is gone they are back again to the world of farming and pub life embracing its monotony.
Satire on Naivety and Cruelty of Peasantry– One reason why the play was found provocative was its alleged depiction of the Irish people as credulous and naïve. Christy Mahon is easily able to win the admiration of the villagers by claiming to have killed his father most violently. The pub girl leaves her fiancée for him and the local widow wants to seduce him. They believe his self glorifying tale without considering its serious implications. But then when the victim of the assault turns up and there is a real attempt to murder him, they scandalized peasants, suddenly turn against Christy and even try to hand him over to the law. His sweetheart even tortures him. The villagers appear to us as naïve credulous and morally insensitive.
Self- development and Improvement- Christy Mahon is a young man who is exposed to violence and harshness. Though he shows signs of cowardice and fear, the adulation that he receives from the people in the village including Pegeen, the widow and the other girls builds his self esteem. Christy discovers his hidden capabilities, including his power of self expression and physical capabilities. In the second confrontation with his father, he shows himself as capable of what he claimed in the beginning. That he is manly enough. His departing lines show that he has arrived at a new mode of relating to his father who has been his bugbear. He will be in charge of his life in the future. Thus through violence and romance he grows up morally.
Violence – If violence is to be taken as a theme, then we can see that it is an analysis of the two aspects of human violence. In a narration of violence the listeners are entrapped by the heroic quality of bold action without ever considering the moral and social implications of violence and murder. Violence for Christy is a way of expressing himself against an oppressive world represented by his tyrannical father. He takes advantage of it by projecting himself as a manly hero who stands up to his father and asserts his will. The villagers living in a state of lifeless boredom find the sensational story exciting. Though they are conventional and would not approve of a horrendous crime like parricide, they are distant from it except for the sensation they enjoy listening to a dramatic story. But when they actually witness the attempted murder, which is a repetition of what was earlier presented to them as a tale told by Christy, they are horrified and repulsed. They condemn it and begin to see its real horror. The comic treatment of the subject makes it bearable for the audience .It is also to be note that the climactic violence is made to happen offstage. Besides it ends with reconciliation between the contenders.
