Synge’s Playboy of the Western World

Synge’s Playboy of the Western World

In the play The Playboy of the Western World Synge shows different

levels of comedy through visual presentation, language and irony.

The language in the play and its figures of speech and slang makes the

readers get a feel of Irish culture as it is rich and typical of the

Irish. In the first couple of pages of the play we see the characters

say such things as “God bless you,” and we may initially be fooled

into thinking that Mayo villagers are very religious people and the

comedy here is in the fact that as the play progresses we realize that

it is just in fact a traditional way of greeting. We are further shown

that they are not very religious people when Christy says “with the

help of God I did (slay my da), surely, and that the Holy Immaculate

Mother may intervene for his soul.” It is clearly not of God to kill

people or owe another and so bringing God in and praising him for

fuelling a deed that is so against his teachings again convinces us of

the comedy in this play.

Another aspect of the language that brings in comed...