Campbellian Quester in Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World

Abstract

Many critics have interpreted The Playboy of the Western World on its mythic level, but they have failed to integrate the play’s underlying structure and its mythic meaning. This failure may be because they have tried to extract some points or elements of the play and to fit them into an existing antiquity. When we need an archetypal figure to explain a literary work, we try to find a figure that possibly holds all the traits and action of the character in question. But It seems impossible to find such an archetypal figure for The Playboy of the Western World. If one single myth or legend cannot serve the purpose, however, we may have to expand its category, trying not to limit our scope. At this juncture, it has been useful to bring in an anonymous figure, a quester, who does not belong to any single myth, and who represents all from errant knights to modern seekers on their journey. The Playboy of the Western World has an underlying structure of a quest, a Campbellian night journey. Christy’s geographical movement and his loneliness are clues to the play’s journey structure. His movement from “a distant place” to a ditch on a dark night is a metaphoric prelude to his night journey. A Mayo village is a place for Christy to be tried. In this chaotic palace Christy goes through a series of traumatic insights and experiences a spiritual transformation. With the underlying structure of a quest, The Playboy of the Western World illustrates the process of a young man’s searching for his identity and his manhood. Seen in the context of self-realization or self-discovery in modern questers, Christy also achieves his manhood and identity through his night journey.