John and Christie, Ireland’s Playboys

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On January 26, 1907, Edmund John Millington Synge managed to cause riot outbreaks in Dublin, Ireland due to his play The Playboy of the Western World. Synge sought to regenerate Ireland. He believed the natives of Ireland and the Aran Islands possessed a substratum of the ancient pagan beliefs of their ancestors despite the dominate Roman Catholic perspective. He commented, “Soon after I had relinquished the kingdom of God I began to take up a real interest in the kingdom of Ireland. My politics went round…to a temperate Nationalism”. Synge dedicated his writing career to produce creatively realistic Irish literature. He immersed himself in the Irish culture, taking careful notes of the activities and behaviors of the Irish people as well as writing down differences within the Irish dialects. John Synge based his plays upon the observations he made. Therefore, Synge was able to capture the true essence of Ireland and reveal it within his six well-known theatrical plays, especially The Playboy of the Western World.
Edmund John Millington Synge was born in Rathfarnham, Dublin, Ireland on April 16, 1871. He was the youngest child and had seven older siblings. The Synge family was positioned in the upper-middle class and had landed gentry in Glanmore Castle, Wicklow, Ireland. Synge was able to maintain a happy childhood despite his father’s death in 1872 from smallpox and his own fragile health. As a child, he enjoyed bird watching and fashioned his first “literary composition” which consisted of a poetic nature diary. Synge received private education in Dublin and Bray, as well as studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music to learn music theory, counterpoint, piano, flute, and violin. In 1889, he entered Trinity College to study...

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...slands, he observed the authentic western-Irish regionalisms and vulgarisms, as well as characteristics of its speech inflections and rhythms. He mixed these into his play’s dialogue as well as additional common words or phrases found in other parts of Ireland. Furthermore, the play is laced with imagery described through vivid metaphors and hyperboles.
John Synge’s production continues to captivate audiences today; however, without the outset of riots. Critics acclaim “it is good to be reminded that a public fascination with criminals and general wrongdoers is far from new”. This Irish playwright was able to embody the combination of reality and poetry into a drama. His main purpose was to allow his living characters to revel in both life and rich idioms. In conclusion, Synge revived Ireland through his whimsical stories and anapestic words in the Irish theatre.

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