Trabalho - Marcel. - Final

8/13/2019 Trabalho - Marcel. - Final

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The Playboy of the Western World

J.M.Synge


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Edmund John Millington Synge

16 April 1871 24 March 1909


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Rathfarnham - County Dublin- Ireland


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1888

The family moved to the suburb of Kingstown (now

Dn Laoghaire), and Synge entered Trinity College,

Dublin the following year, where he graduated with

a BA in 1892. While at college, he studied Irish andHebrew, as well as continued his music studies and

played with the Academy orchestra in the Concert

Rooms.


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Education

Synge was educated privately at schools in Dublin

and Bray, and later studied piano, flute, violin,

music theory and counterpoint at the Royal Irish

Academy of Music.

1892Synge forms the Irish Literacy Society


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He joined the Dublin Naturalists Field Club and read

Charles Darwin. Synge wrote:

When I was about fourteen I obtained a book of

Darwin's .... My studies showed me the force of what

I read, [and] the more I put it from me the more itrushed back with new instances and power ... Soon

afterwards I turned my attention to works of

Christian evidence, reading them at first with

pleasure, soon with doubt, and at last in some cases

with derision.


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1893 - At the age of 22

Travelled to Germany in the hope of becoming a

musician

Paris

Rome

Florence

Brittany


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1894

In June, Synge returned to Dublin.


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1895

Moved to Paris to study Literature and languages at the

Sorbonne.

During summer holidays with his family in Dublin, he met

and fell in love with Cherrie Matheson, a friend of his cousin

and a member of the Plymouth Brethren. He proposed to her

in 1895 and again the next year, but she turned him down on

both occasions because of their differing religious viewpoints.

This rejection affected Synge greatly and reinforced his

determination to spend as much time as possible outsideIreland.


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1896

He visited Italy to study the language for a time

before returning to Paris. Later that year he met W.

B. Yeats, who encouraged Synge to live for a while

in the Aran Islands and then return to Dublin anddevote himself to creative work.

He joined with Yeats, Augusta, Lady Gregory, and

George William Russel to form the Irish National

Theatre Society, which later would establish the

Abbey Theatre.


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1897

Synge suffered his first attack of Hodgkin's disease and also

had an enlarged gland removed from his neck. The following

year, he spent the summer on the Aran Islands. He spent the

next five summers on the islands, collecting stories and

folklore and perfecting his Irish, while continuing to live inParis for most of the rest of the year. He also visited Brittany

regularly. During this period, Synge wrote his first play, When

the Moon has Set. He sent it to Lady Gregory for the Irish

Literary Theatre in 1900, but she rejected it and the play wasnot published until it appeared in the Collected Works.


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1898

Synge visits the Aran Islands for the first time.


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1899

Yeats, Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and George

Moore found the Irish Literary Theatre.


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1902

He wrote two one-act plays,Riders to the Seaand

The Shadow of the Glen.


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1903

Synge left Paris and moved to London.


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1907

The Playboy of the Western World, was first

performed in the Abbey on 26 January 1907.


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THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD

The Old Vic Theatre


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The Old Vic Theatre


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The Old Vic Theatre


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Character Breakdown


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Robert Sheehan, who played Christopher Mahon at

the Old Vic


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Ruth Negga, who played Pegeen Mike (Margaret

Flaherty) at the Old Vic


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Niamh Cusack, who played Widow Quin at the Old

Vic


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Frank Laverty, who played Michael James Flaherty


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Kevin Trainor, who played Shawn Keogh at the Old

Vic


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Gary Lydon, who played Old Mahon at the Old Vic


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The Act of Union of 1809 brought Ireland intothe United Kingdom

Many activists kept working towardsindependence throughout the 19th century

In the later 19thcentury, a greater awarenessof nationalism was followed by the movementtoward Irish rule led by politicians such as

Charles Stewart Parnell.

Political context


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In the last decades of the 20th century, there

was a stronger move to an Irish "identity,

also in the countries where Irish emigrantshad settled and made their mark

Visiting Ireland" became an aim of many

Americans, Canadians and Australians who

had begun to value their Irish roots

Cultural Identity


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The Catholic church has played a role inshaping Ireland and the Irish people.

It has impacted on family life, local affairsand government policies on such things as

divorce and abortion.

In the past many families had sons who werepriests or missionaries.

Social Context


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National identity: One of the most difficult

aspects of the situation in Ireland is thechallenge to ideas of national identity

The long traditions of British rule haveinstilled a sense of identification with England

Social Context


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The history of Irish theatre begins with therise of the English administration in Dublin atthe start of the 17th century.

Theatrical productions in Ireland tended to

serve the political purposes of theadministration.

A more diverse range of entertainments werestaged, as more theatres opened and thepopular audience grew.

Irish Theatre


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From the late18th to the mid19th centuries,Almost all Irish playwrights from WilliamCongreve to George Bernard Shaw emergedfrom Ireland

Rather than developing their skills in theirown country, they had to leave Ireland forLondon to develop their work and establishthemselves.

Their plays focused on London city life,rather than the Irish towns or Irish way of life.

Before Synge


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Before SyngeGeorge Bernard Shaw washeavily influenced by thework of Henrik Ibsen,

He used comedy to great

effect, many of his playsdealt with pointed socialissues.

He paved the way for writerslike Synge to write social

dramas that were morerealistic than thosepreviously seen on stage.


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Oliver Goldsmith (17281774) Selected works: She Stoops to Conquer, The Good

Naturd Man

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (17511816) Selected works: The Rivals, The School for Scandal

Dion Boucicault (18201890) Selected works: London Assurance, The Shaughraun

Oscar Wilde (18541900) Selected works: The Importance of Earnest, An Ideal

Husband

George Bernard Shaw (18561950) Selected works: Pygmalion, Saint Joan

Major Works Before Synge


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Coinciding with a period of great political riotand violence, as the Irish soughtindependence from British rule, the IrishLiterary Renaissance drew upon Gaelic

mythology and an interest in reviving thelong-suppressed Gaelic language and ruralnative culture to conceptualize Irish nationaland cultural identity as separate and distinct

from that of the British.

The Irish LiteratureRenaissance


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During the Irish Renaissance, which lasted

from approximately 1880 until 1930, a

generation of Irish writers, seeking to

produce a national literature that was

uniquely Irish, produced an impressive body

of work, much of which was seen on the

stage of the Abbey Theatre.



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The Irish LiteratureRenaissanceYeats and Lady Gregory were nationalistsand leading figures in the Irish LiteraryRenaissance. Prior to the founding of theAbbey Theatre, Yeats, Lady Gregory, andEdward Martyn published a Manifesto forIrish Literary Theatre (1897),


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Manifesto for Irish Literary Theatre (1897)It proclaimed their intention of establishing a national theater for

Ireland. In 1899, they established the Irish Literary Theatre and

produced such plays as Yeats's controversial The Countess

Cathleen(1899), Lady Gregory's Cuchulain of Muirthemne (1902).


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According to Yeats's manifesto, his main goal infounding a national theater was to build up aCeltic and Irish school of dramatic literature.

Although some plays inspired nationalisticfervor, others angered nationalists with theirdepiction of Ireland. The Catholic Church, forexample, denounced the vision of Yeats'splay, The Countess Cathleen, and confound

Catholic values with the Irish ones.



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The Irish LiteratureRenaissanceIn The Countess Cathleen The idealisticCountess of the title sells her soul to the devil sothat she can save her tenants from starvation and

from damnation for having sold their own souls.After her death, she is redeemed as her motiveswere altruistic and ascends to Heaven.


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It was initiated in 1897 at a meeting of threepeople: William Butler Yeats, Lady AugustaGregory, and Edward Martyn.

In 1903 they founded the Irish LiteraryTheatre, now called the Irish NationalTheatre Society, and in 1904 they openedthe Abbey Theatre

Modern Irish Drama


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The Abbey Theatre was dedicated to

cultural nationalism and committed to

staging native plays with Irish themes.


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Yeatss plays were based on Irish mythologyand legend, in accordance with the Abbeyscelebration of Ireland and Irish traditions.

Lady Gregorys plays were based on her interestin Irish folk tales and mythology.

Yeatss and Lady Gregorys plays were inreaction to the stereotypical stage Irishman

character, often the object of ridicule in playsimported from England.

Modern Irish Drama


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Modern Irish dramaYeats was a symbolist poet, in thathe used allusive imagery andsymbolic structures throughout hiscareer. His early poetry drew heavilyon Irish myth and folklore, The

poems were pre-Raphaelite intone, self-consciously ornate, and,at times,stilted.Yeats began by writing epic poemssuch as The Isle of Statuesand Thewanderings of Oisin. His other early

poems are lyrics on the themes oflove or mystical and esotericsubjects.


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Pre RaphaeliteThe artist aspires to poeticbeauty, that goes beyond therepresentation of reality:working with the raw soul andspirituality.

The representation of the"dream" will be translatedformally in the pursuit ofharmony and balance betweenthe elements.

In this style, prevails thepoetic romance and eroticism ,united with a certaininnocence


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Modern Irish Drama

John Millington Synge has entererthe Abbey at 1906.

Synge's writings are mainlyconcerned with the world ofthe Roman catholic peasants of

rural Ireland and with what he sawas the essential paganism of theirworld view.

His works were more realistic thanthe ones from Synges

contemporaries.


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Synge says: When I was about fourteen I obtained a bookof Darwin's .... My studies showed me the force of what Iread, [and] the more I put it from me the more it rushedback with new instances and power ... Soon afterwards I

turned my attention to works of Christian evidence,reading them at first with pleasure, soon with doubt, andat last in some cases with derision.

He continues: "Soon after I had relinquished the kingdomof God I began to take up a real interest in the kingdom of

Ireland. My politics went round ... to a temperateNationalism."

Modern Irish Drama


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Modern Irish DramaCritics have considered the profanity in playboyof the westernworld.

For instance, in act I there are manyinappropriate invocations of the name of God:Pegeen: Is it killed your father?

Christy: with the help of God I did surely, and

that the Holy immaculate Mother may intercedefor his soul.


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Modern Irish DramaNicholas Grene (1999) analyses that: Syngesprofanity was bound to have been an addedsource of offence to the largely Catholicaudiences of the Abbey. For it was not only the

set-piece ironies of pious habits of language inflagrantly impious contexts like Christysconfession which were sources of provocation.More pervasively there was the merely mechanicaluse of mouth-filling oaths as rhythmic countersto round out a line or give emphasis to anintonation. Synge wrote as the unbeliever he was,and gave to his characters a colorful language ofthe sacred emptied out of belief.


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Modern Irish DramaIn the early 1900s, the Abbey became a centerof Irish cultural and political friction.

Audience protests occurred due to differingartistic and political attitudes.

The nationalists protested certain plays that

they felt did not represent an accurate view ofIrish life


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Modern Irish DramaThe public wanted plays that presentedpositive views that countered the stereotypesof the stage Irishman

If a character was felt to portray the nationalcharacter in a negative way, that character,play, and playwright were subject to protests.


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The Abbey Theaterwas the site ofSynges early work,including The

Playboy of theWesternWorld,whose initialproduction in 1907provoked thePlayboy riots.

The layboys Riots


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The layboys RiotsIn Act III, when Willie Fay the actor playing

Christy delivered the line Its Pegeen Imseeking only, and whatd I care if you broughtme a drift of Mayo girls, standing in their shifts

itself maybe, the audiences fury becameapparent. They begin shouting.

Audiences had been unaccustomed to seeing

their own world onstage. Many felt that Syngewas satirizing them and ridiculing their lives.


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The layboys RiotsSome critics believe that Synge, in his peasant charactersand invented peasant language, created unflatteringstereotypes of the Irish people. The Freemans Journal an Irish nationalist newspaper described the play as an

unmitigated libel on peasant men and, worse still, uponIrish peasant girlhood.

George Watson explained the real problem with the play,"this heady mixture of English stereotypical images of

Irish violence, of Irish resentment of those images, and ofSynge's stress on violence, which for him is almostsynonymous with vitality, is, far more than the word'shift', what made The Playboyso explosive."


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The layboys RiotsAfter the riots, Synge wrote to his fiance MollyAllgood, the actress playing Pegeen: It isbetter any day to have the row we did last night

than to have your play fizzling out inhalfhearted applause. Now well be talkedabout. Were an event in the history of the Irishstage.


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Following Synges early death, the next major

dramatist to emerge from Ireland was the

poet Austin Clarke. Like Synge, Clarke

experimented with theatrical dialogue, and

wrote verse plays that were in English, but

that drew heavily on the rhythms and

patterns of the Irish language.

After Synge


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Theatre practitioner Antonin Artaud (1896-

1948) claimed that The Playboy of the

WesternWorld featured many of the

fundamental values behind his Theatre of

Cruelty a form of heightened drama which

aimed to confront the audience with a reality

they did not necessarily want to be faced

with.

After Synge


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The Theatre of Cruelty movement gave rise to

the Theatre of the Absurd a theatrical style

drawing heavily on existential philosophy. It

examines humankinds growing isolation in

the aftermath of World War II.

After Synge


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After SyngeSamuel Beckett was one of theleading figures in the Absurdistmovement, and credits Syngewith being a major influence onhis work. Like Shaw and

OCasey, Beckett also leftIreland, moving to France andsettling there permanently in1938; he aided the FrenchResistance during World War IIand was awarded the NobelPrize for literature in 1970.



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J.M.Synge

What the term playboy means?

A playboy is a wealthy man with ample time for

leisure, who demonstratively is a bom

vivant(appreciates the pleasures of the world),

especially women. The term denotes a flashy

womaniser, such as Don Juan, or modern version of apublic Casanova.


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What the term playboy means?

Initially, the term was used in the eighteenth century for

boys who performed in the theatre, and later it appears

in the 1828 Oxford Dictionary to characterize a person

with money who is out to enjoy himself. By the end ofthe nineteenth century it also implied the connotations

of gamblerand musician. By 1907, in J. M. Synges

comedy The Playboy of the Western World, the term

had acquired the notion of a womaniser.


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And the term Western World?

The Western World, also known as the West and the

Occident(from Latin: occidens sunset,West; as contrasted

with the Orient), is a term referring to different nations

depending on the context. There is no agreed upon

definition about what all these nations have in common.

The concept of the Western part of the earth has its roots in

Greco-Roman civilization in Europe, with the advent of

Christianity. In the modern era, the Western culture has

been heavily influenced by the traditions of Renaissance,

Protestant Reformation, Age of Enlightment, and shaped by

the expansive colonialism of the 15th-20th centuries.


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Brief summary of the literary work

The Playboy of the Western World is a three-act play written

by Irish playwright John Millington Synge and first performed

at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, on January 26, 1907. It is set in

Michael James Flaherty's public house in County Mayo (on

the west coast of Ireland) during the early 1900s. It tells thestory of Christy Mahon, a young man running away from his

farm, claiming he killed his father. The locals are more

interested in vicariously enjoying his story than in condemning

the immorality of his murderous deed. He captures the

romantic attention of the bar-maid Pegeen Mike, the daughter

of Flaherty.


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Characters

Christopher ChristyMahon

Christy Mahon is a young man from a different town, who arrives

at Michael Flahertysshebeen with the news that he has murdered

his father. He is the playboy that the title of the play refers to.

Although the word would not have had the same connotations in

Synges time as it does now, it would have had the double

meaning of charmer and trickster. Christy portrays both of

these characteristics over the course of the play. When he first

appears, he is tired, frightened and dirty and comes across asshy and humble.


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Characters

His father describes the Christy he knows as a dirty,

stuttering loutwho is scared of girls, but as the play

progresses, and he attracts attention and praise fromthe other characters particularly the women

Christy becomes far more confident and charismatic,

and he begins to speak using increasingly poetic

language. Towards the end of the play, he revealsanother side to his personality, becoming violent and

aggressive, and leaves the shebeen seemingly full of

new confidence.


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Characters

Pegeen Mike (Margaret Flaherty)

Pegeen is Michael Jamess daughter, and the barmaid at the

shebeen. She is described as a wild-looking but fine girl, of

about twenty. She is feisty and confident, bossing around her

father, and Shawn, her second cousin to whom she has been

engaged. However, her apparent independence is contradicted by

her fear of staying in the shebeen alone, suggesting a certain

dichotomy in her character. When she meets Christy, she is

attracted to his danger, and to the outside world that he representsto her, a world of opportunities and romance that have so far been

lacking in her life.


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Characters

She behaves flirtatiously around Christy, but is abruptand assertive towards Widow Quin and the girls of the

village. She also has a violent streak, attacking Christy

with a burning sod of earth when she learns that he has

lied to her. However, when he finally leaves, she is

bereft, and mourns the loss of theonly Playboy of the

Western World.


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Characters

Widow Quin

Widow Quin is a woman who lives in the village, whose children

have died, and who has allegedly murdered her husband. Like

Christy, she is an outsider, but unlike Christy, she been excluded,

not welcomed by the community. Attracted to Christy, she seemsto be driven by lust and money. She is witty and crafty, and

manages to talk and joke herself out of difficult situations. When

she finds out that Christy has lied, her feelings towards him do

not change, and she agrees to help him as long as he pays her.However, when the rest of the village turn against him, she tries

to help him escape, this time without standing to gain anything

herself, suggesting that she also has a caring side to her

seemingly abrasive personality.


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Characters

Michael James Flaherty

Michael James, as he is known, is the proprietor of the shebeen in

which the play is set. He is a popular figure within the local

community, and the father of Pegeen Mike. He is described as

being a fat, jovial publican, and in Act I we see him teasingPegeens fianc Shawn, and being friendly and welcoming

towards Christy when he arrives. He seems laidback, initially

willing to leave his daughter alone overnight whilst he attends a

wake, and is then surprisingly trusting of the alleged murderer.He is also a religious man, and when Christyslies are revealed, it

is he who suggests that the locals hang him, so that God does not

punish them for harbouring him.


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Characters

Shawn Keogh

Shawn is afat and fair young manwho is engaged to be married

to his second cousin, Pegeen Mike. He is submissive towards

everyone, including Pegeen, and is frequently the butt ofpeoples

jokes. He is also religious, initially refusing to stay alone withPegeen until they are married. He is wary of Christy, and jealous

of the attention he gets from Pegeen. He is driven through the

play by his desire to get rid of Christy, and displays a certain

amount of cunning in his attempts to get rid of him. When hediscovers that Pegeen wishes to marry Christy, he becomes

depressed and resentful, but is too scared to fight him.


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Characters

Old Mahon

Mahon is Christysfather, who is assumed dead throughout Act I.

When he appears in Act II, he is injured, having been attacked by

Christy, and aggressive. He is proud of the injuries he has

sustained and talks about Christy derogatively, describing him insuch a way that makes him seem unrecognizable from the Christy

the audience and the other characters have been introduced to.

When he returns in Act III, Mahon becomes a more sympathetic

character, tired, emotional and confused, doubting his sanity, buthis aggression returns before the end of the play.


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Plot Summary

ACT I

The play opens in a shebeen (public house) on the outskirts of a

village on the North West coast of County Mayo. It is a dark

autumn evening, and the landlords daughter Pegeen Mike is

writing an order for supplies. She teases her fianc Shawn Keogh

because he refuses to stay alone with her until they have received

a dispensation permitting their marriage. Pegeensfather Michael

Flaherty arrives with their neighbours Jimmy and Philly and they

all continue to tease Shawn. A young strangerChristy Mahonenters the shebeen tired and dishevelled. When he is questioned,

he reveals that he has recently murdered his father with a spade,

and buried him in a potato field.


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Plot Summary

Impressed by this, and encouraged by Pegeen, Michael offersChristy the position of pot boy at the shebeen, a role requiring

him to look after Pegeen, and guard Michaelspoteen (an illegal

alcoholic homebrew). The older men leave the shebeen to attend

a neighbourswake, and Shawn leaves to see another neighbour,Widow Quin. Pegeen is fascinated by Christy, but as the two

become close, Widow Quin arrives and interrupts them.

Rumoured for having murdered her husband, she tells them that

she would be a more appropriate friend to Christy than Pegeen.

When the women exit, Christy reflects that if he had known that

killing his father would have resulted in this amount of attention,

he would have done it years ago.


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Plot Summary

ACT IIThe following morning, Christy is still celebrating his new

found glory, but hides in the back room when four local girls

enter the shebeen. He eventually comes out to talk to them and

receive their gifts. Widow Quin arrives and announces that she

has entered him for a local sports competition. When Pegeen

returns to find Christy and the Widow with their arms linked,

she tells the women to leave and although she is initially angry

with Christy, he manages to charm her with his poetic talk.

Shawn enters and tells Pegeen to chase after her sheep thathave escaped. Whilst she is gone, he and Widow Quin try to

persuade Christy to leave, bribing him with new clothes and a

boat ticket to America. While Christy tries on the clothes, at

Widow Quinsinsistence, Shawn leaves the two of them alone.


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Plot Summary

Old Mahon Christys supposedly dead father enters, andChristy hides from him behind a door. Mahon tells Widow Quin

that he is looking for his weak and lazy son, who attacked him

with a spade. She pieces together the true story, and sends him

off, telling him that she saw his son fleeing over the hills to catcha boat. Once again left alone with Christy, Widow Quin promises

to help him. She initially tries to persuade him to go and live with

her, but when this fails, she promises to stop Pegeen and

everyone else from finding out the truth, in return for various

gifts. The village girls enter and escort Christy down to the beach

to compete in the sports competition.


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Plot Summary

ACT III

Philly and Jimmy return to the shebeen on their way back from

the wake, and drunkenly discuss Christy. Old Mahon returns and

shows them his injured head. Widow Quin tries to distract him,

and tells the other men that he is mad and that they mustntbelieve anything that he tells them. They are interrupted by loud

cheering coming from outside, and they watch the mule race

through the windows. Mahon recognizes the winner of the race as

his son, but Widow Quin assures him that he is imagining it, andshould leave. He agrees, and is followed out by Philly and

Jimmy. Christy enters triumphantly, and tells Pegeen that he

intends to marry her.


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Plot Summary

As the couple discuss their romantic future together, Michaelreturns with the dispensation granting the marriage of Pegeen to

Shawn. Pegeen tells her father that it is Christy that she wants to

marry, and although he is initially horrified, he quickly realises

that Christy is the better option for his daughter, and gives themhis blessing. Old Mahon returns again, and begins to attack

Christy. All present realise that Christy has been lying to them,

and refuse to help him. Christy chases his father out of the

shebeen brandishing a spade, and returns a moment later,

apparently having really killed him this time. Widow Quin and

Shawn try to disguise him by dressing him in petticoats so that he

can escape, but he refuses.


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Plot Summary

Expecting to have once again won everyone round, he is

surprised to find that they are even more against him now, with

Pegeen telling him that theres a great gap between a gallous

story and a dirty deed. Shawn and Pegeen tie him up, and

encouraged by the crowd, Pegeen burns him with a lit sod of turf.

To everyonesgreat surprise, Old Mahon enters once again, andunties Christy, saying that they will leave the village and tell

everyone about thevillainy of Mayo.Newly confident, Christy

tells his father that he will go with him, but that it will be him that

gives the orders from now on. With Christy gone, Shawn believesthat he and Pegeen will now be able to marry, but Pegeen rebuffs

him, as she mourns the loss of theonly Playboy of the Western

World.

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