Christy Mahon as a Comic Hero in the Playboy of the Western World

Christy Mahon as a Comic Hero in The Playboy of the Western World  The Playboy of the Western World is a comedy with satiric and tragic tr agic elements. Christy Mahon is the central character of  the play. The play focuses on the reception given to Christy Mahon as he wanders into a small Irish village, declaring that he has just murdered his father. The villagers initially embrace Christy, determining that his courageous act has made him "the playboy of the western world. Whatever, in the play Christy shows all the major characteristics of a comic hero.

When Christy first comes to Michael James's pub, he is quite f earful about his reception there and being caught by the police. He had just committed a desperate and impulsive act from which he had run in panic, not checking to see if his father was truly dead. Yet, Christy's attempted murder of his father also reveals his rebellious nature. Christy's father had tried to force him to marry the Widow Casey, who is twice his age, a ge, blind in one eye, and noted for "misbehavior with the old and young." At the beginning of the play, Christy is ordinary and undistinguished except in his ability to tell a good story — namely namely the story of how he killed his father. f ather. His tale turns him into a hero to his listeners. Their admiration for him improves his self-esteem. By the end of the play, he is a better man. Christy is necessarily a comic hero. The hero must display at least the minimal level of personal charm or worth of  character it takes to win the audience's basic approval and support. The Playboy of the Western World centres round the character and personality of Christy. The entire action of the play takes place in the course of just twenty four hours or so,  but during this this brief period period of time time Christy’s character undergoes undergoes a transformation; transformation; and this transformation transformation is the real theme of the play. At the beginning Christy was timid and evasive. But with surprise he noticed the warm r eception that he received from the villagers. Everyone was impressed by his action in having killed his father. Everybody thinks that he has performed a brave deed. Then a change begins to come over him. He acquired a newly self esteem. The new found self confidence of Christy enables him to distinguish himself at the village sports. At last he establishes himself as a hero. Though the villagers failed to receive the real hero in Christy, the audiences give him full approval as a hero in the end. Aristotle suggests that comic figures are mainly "average to below average" in terms of moral character. Christy is not of  a high moral character. He shows less morality. At first he tries to kill his father. But in the pub he confessed his guilt. Aristotle also suggests that only low or ignoble figures can strike us as comic. Christy is not from a noble family. f amily. It is true that his father is a wealthy person, but his real identity is that of a farmer. Christy is not also a wise or famous figure. From his own statement to Pegeen, we learn that Christy was a complete non entity in his own village. He also says that he was a over worked and neglected person in his own village. So, Christy’s character matches wi th the Aristotelian view of a comic hero. Comic heroes tend to be more rigid. Life tends to be messier, full of diversity and unexpected twists and turns. It is more difficult to classify experience. Same things happen to Christy in the play. Christy has not a flat life. At first he was an ordinary man. But after trying to murder his father whom he thinks thinks as a dead, he flees. At the bar he faces a different experience. And with the flow of time he learns different things about him and and as well as the life. At the end of the play he becomes a complete new man. He gets a better concept of self. Comic heroes are often ironic and disengaged from the situation; they tend to respond with wit, imagination, or cynicism. They tend to abstract themselves from their their misfortunes. The audience is expected to react in much the same way to what the characters undergo. In The Playboy of the Western World Christy is also an ironic character. When he was not a hero both in real or in his unconscious, the villagers of Mayo think him a hero. But when he becomes a real hero, the villagers refuse to accept him as a hero. In the play Christy shows wit in his conversation with others. Comic heroes are more adaptable. They are more willing to change. Or if they are not, we as the audience find this funny rather than tragic. Christy shows both of the qualities of a comic hero. When the villagers think him as a hero, Christy suddenly takes the attitude of a hero. He begins to think himself as a hero. He begins to thinks him by the side of Pegeen. Even at last he changes himself as a actual hero. In the character of Christy there is nothing tragic. Moreover, he is a interesting fellow from the beginning to the end of the play. In The Playboy of the Western World J.M. Synge portrays his protagonist as a stereotype of a comic hero. Christy has the qualities of a comic hero, but he is simple and ample. Though at the end he does not get any material thing but he finds a new way of life which is more brave and more glorious. This reversal establishes him as an approved comic hero.

How does Synge make a classic comedy out of the frenzied love pursuit of the country girls? In The Playboy of the Western World J.M. Synge satirizes the pursuit of man by woman in his contemporary times. It may be remembered how Shakespeare and Shaw turned that theme to ac count, and the additional flavor lent to it by the idea of  modest Irish womanhood. Here Synge carves out an elegant comedy out of woman’s desperate chasing of love. In the  play Synge presents the female characters as the representatives of his country’s women who show distracted view to love. Synge not only ridicules girl’s excessive feelings to have love affair b ut he also fulfils all the elements that a classic comedy demands. His portrayal of Pegeen Mike, Widow Quin, and four village girls and their desire to have Christy’s company in a humorous way gives the play a shadow of Shakespearian classic comedy. The play is set in County Mayo in a country pub. Pegeen Mike is engaged to Shawn Keogh a rich farmer, but she is not in love with him. Pegeen’s father Michael James owns the pub, and spends his time going to wakes and getting drunk. A young man arrives one evening as Michael James and his two pals Jimmy Farrell and Philly Cullen are about to go off to a wake. This young man calls himself Christy Mahon and claims that he has killed his father. Everyone including Pegeen are fascinated and admire Christy for this heroic deed. Here the character Pegeen Mike shows desperateness for her desired love. At first, she makes no secret of her contempt for Shawn Keogh. This contempt is revealed at the very outset when shawn expresses his unwillingness to spend the night in the shebeen alone with pegeen on the ground that he is still not married to her. She becomes so impressed by Christy’s supposed bravery when he tells them that he had killed his father. She strongly urges her father to employ Christy as a pot boy in the pub because, with him by her side, she would no longer afraid of. Here a reflection of her secret desire for having Christy’s company is seen. She begins to praise Christy. When widow quin suddenly appears in the scene, Pegeen puts up a strong resistance to the to the wodow’s attempt to take Christy away to her own house. Though Pegeen is engaged with Shawn, he falls in love of Christy being impressed by his supposed heroism. Here is a comic matter that Pegeen shows affection for a complete unknown fellow. Another female character Widow Quin, who is supposed as the murderer of her husband, is also blind with pursuit of love. She is searching for second husband. She has come to know about the arrival of Christy and she comes to relieve Pegeen of the burden of Christy who is likely to misbehave with the young girl after drinking liquor, though her actual purpose is to gain Christy as a lover for herself. Her type of attitude arouses laughter. The absurdity of her searching a second husband also makes laughter. At the beginning of act two, four village girls arrive at the pub in order to take a look at the man who killed his father. They also bring gifts for Christy. They show plenty interest in Christy. They cannot hide their excitement for Christy. These girls are also the representatives of the girls who know nothing about a man but chase after him. The comedy reaches at its highest point when the cold war between Pegeen and Widow Quin for the possession of  Christy comes to the stage. Pegeen first attacks widow quin for having murdered her husband. Then she criticizes widow quin’s cottage, she says, leaks and which provides more pasture for the widow’s goat than her small field does. Widow quin also makes sarcastic remark when she says that Pegeen is the kind of girl who would ‘go helter -skeltering’ after any man who would wink at her on a road.

Here the frenzied love pursuit of girls is seen in a way that makes up a comedy. The girls’ life is dull and hum drum for  the want of excitement. They are searching for a heroic figure as their lover. They want a man who is brave and ready to fulfill all their desire. Here, in this play, the girls find Christy and everyone wants his company. To them, it is no matter that he killed his father, but matter is that he did a heroic deed. They praise him and want him. For him they flatter with one another. They quarrel with one another. They ironically become rivals of each other. They individually think them as Christy’s fiancé. J.M. Synge picture out the whole happening of girls’ desperate love pursuit through his pen and gives it a comic shape. He describes the characters in a comic way. They are comic in their dialogues, attitudes and behaviors. All of them show a common characteristic, their relentless hunt for man. The love pursuit of the girls plays a major role in the plot construction of the comedy. So it can be said that The Playboy of the Western World is out of girls’ hunt for love.