Leaving Certificate Ordinary Level – Excellence in English Language and Literature
Feature Tragic
Examples
Pegeen is heartbroken when she realises the mistake she has made in rejecting Christy: ‘Oh my grief, I’ve lost him surely. I’ve lost the only Playboy of the Western World.’
Discussion
Pegeen wants to be rescued from her unromantic life and is delighted to fi nd love with Christy. However, she throws all that away and, even if she does marry Shawn Keogh now, she will always know what she could have had but lost.
‘It is hard to have much sympathy with Pegeen Mike at the end of The Playboy of the Western World.’
Do you agree with this statement? Support your answer with reference to the play.
Widow Quin
Widow Quin is described as being ‘about thirty’ years of age. She is said to have killed her husband by hitting him with a rusty pickaxe so he died of blood-poisoning. She is sent to Flaherty’s to bring Christy home with her because Shawn Keogh and Father Reilly are unhappy at the thought of Christy and Pegeen spending the night alone in the same house. Pegeen fi ghts to keep Christy with her – and wins – but the Widow Quin is not easily put off. She visits Christy the next day and enters him in a local sporting competition. She makes secret deals with Christy and Shawn, telling each that she will help him to marry Pegeen. Widow Quin meets Christy’s father when he turns up looking for his son and manages to convince him that he has gone mad when he thinks he sees Christy. She never loses hope that Christy will be hers at the end of the day because she alone knows the truth of his story and is not put off by it. When Christy fi ghts his father again and appears to have killed him, Widow Quin tries to help him escape but he will not go. She leaves to fetch the doctor, hoping to have him declared mad and thus to spare him jail.
