The Playboy of the Western World - Essay Example

136463 Ledger and Luckhurst argue that the Fin de Siecle 'was an epoch of endings and beginnings' - explore one of the plays studied in the light of this assertion PLAY EXPLORED: THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD. Fin de Siecle or End of the Century, often used as a synonym, referring to last years of 19th century, and mirrors the garbled period of unhappiness, uncertainty, political upheavals building up for First World War, and the human and intellectual attempts to come of the hurdles, by ushering in acute changes in art and humanistic fields, etc. It was connected with the exalted groups of Brussels, Paris, representing symbolism, "In a broader sense the expression fin de sicle is used to characterize anything that has an ominous mixture of opulence and/or decadence, combined with a shared prospect of unavoidable radical change" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fin_de_si%C3%A8cle It also was supposed to be the 'Symbolist Art and Poetry from the Age of Decadence'. Opening the introduction of Reading the 'Fin de Siecle', Sally Ledger and Roger Luckhurst say: "The Victorian fin de siecle was an epoch of endings and beginnings. The collision between the old and new that characterised the turn of the century marks it as an excitingly volatile and transitional period; a time when British cultural politics were caught between two ages, the Victorian and the Modern; a time fraught with anxiety and with an exhilarating sense of possibility, (2000, p. xiii). According to them, women, imperialism, realism, journalism, drama, art, psychology, science, communication, education, democracy, politics, and meaning and expression of sex were all changing, at the turn of century. Intellectuality had a new meaning and geography of Europe, relationships between governments and countries were fast altering beyond recognition. They say that the allure of fin de siecle, its 'naughtiness' were reflected in the fantasies of the late twentieth century. Those are the ending of Victorian days, days of Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, Arthur Rimbaud, Thomas Hardy, Oscar Wilde, steam engines, literary groups, learned institutions, proud cultural heritages. In Europe, everything was so well established that people and intellectuals were craving for some change to break the monotony. It was a moment that started a literature movement in almost all the regions. As the authors say, the end of the century was also the beginning of another century in the true sense. World was ready for a new era full of new ideas, wars, scientific discoveries, new art and individuality in every scene. The era of Postmodernism had started. They were the days when Paris was full of radical ideas in literature and various forms of arts. "When German troops withdrew from Paris after the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, French anarchists briefly established the Commune of Paris. Though the Commune of Paris was not long-lived, it seemed to set off a time in French culture when radical ideas in literature, art, theatre, and architecture were allowed to blossom. Paris became the center of avant-garde culture" http://lala.essortment.com/literaturemovem_rzkb.htm The unconventional ideas of writers like Stephan Mallarme, Guy de Maupassant influenced the new generation enormously. The saddest moment of fin de seicle came when Captain Alfred Dreyfus was falsely accused of spying for Germans, convicted and was deported into Devil's Island. Writer Emile Zola in his famous open letter 'J'Accuse' defended Dreyfus and eventually Dreyfus was brought back and exonerated, after much turmoil. Zola himself had to flee to English accused of a libel case and his novel Germinal kicked up a great scandal. This experience, in no way, hindered either Zola or other writers of fin de seicle. Then there is the most famous Art Noveau movement, started by two stalwart architects, Hector Guimard and Victor Horta. They initiated the entire art movement of the century. "The fluidity and asymmetry of these works had never been seen before, and was shocking to the bourgeoisie. These architects affected not only the future of architecture, but also of art- their influence can be seen in the paintings of Dali and Picasso," http://lala.essortment.com/literaturemovem_rzkb.htm Being lesbians and gays became the new trend. Bare breasts, drug addiction and prostitution were romanticised. Bored aristocrats kept sewer rats as pets. Everything went against the conventionalism and was approved as the trendiest beginning. Fin de seicle, though remained a powerful influence on the culture of twentieth century, it is believed that 'its excesses burnt it out' as early as 1905. The Playboy of the Western World written by Synge caused a riot in Dublin in the opening week. Irish people were outraged that the play was indecent and was creating stereotypes. But over the years, the reputation of the play has increased and now it is considered to be a groundbreaking play. While depicting the social conventions of an Irish village, Synge shows great imagination and insight. Christy and his relationship with Pegeen invent play's magic by making it sensual and bold. The play was produced in 1907, exactly when the effect of fin de siecle is fading out, but people who saw or read the play knew that both were complimentary to one another. When the villagers are trying to protect Christie from police for killing his own father in a fit of passion, they were incorruptible, and even the price on his head does not tempt them to give him up. They did not find anything monstrous in murdering his father, and condoned the crime as 'that could happen in a fit of passion' and rallied around Christie, the unconventional hero. It is said that it was the indication of a rebellion against the British Jurisprudence and a natural desire to shield the criminal. It also could be interpreted as a different kind of thinking that the village helps Christie to go unpunished for the heinous crime of murdering his father, which is very different from the usual established public opinion of centuries, which calls for punishment of the guilty. Christee also realises that his act had earned him respect and admiration from the rural folk and revels in it. It goes to the extent of developing a false sense of prestige and importance. Instead of condemning his actions, the villagers were applauding his audacity, courage, free spirit and fearlessness. Village women are worshiping him for his cheekiness and in the eyes of the young girls, he was an unparalleled hero. He was not socially excluded, but was begged to join their local games. Tolerance of crime seems to be well organised as we come to know that Widow Quinn, another character, is presumed to have murdered her husband. Funnily, Pegeen and villagers disown Christie for being a liar, when they come to know that his father was alive. They become conscious of wrongly glorifying him as a just murderer, an act beyond his control! In the play, Pegeen, who loved Christie dearly disowns him saying "Take him on from this or I'll set the young lads to destroy him here," Singe (1962, p.104). People who did not hesitate to have a murderer in their midst, did not like a liar to be living in the village and all these points, which could be self derogatory, infuriated the Irish public, who dreaded being stereo typed, due to the popular play. In later years, Synge and his play had been highly admired. "Out of his sympathy and enthusiasm for life, its humor, its bite, its contradictions, its exhilaration, Synge wrote this play" http://www.theatredatabase.com/20th_century/john_millington_synge_003.html It was an epoch making play, because it defied many inhibitions of Irish society, by openly ridiculing them. The rural Irish Catholic morality was questioned by Singe, and this annoyed all Catholics regardless of place or region. It is now considered to be an epoch making play, with direct influence from fin de siecle. The language used in the play is rich, colourful, imaginative and bold. It is the dynamism of the language that shows up the ordinary rural folk as grand performers. It shows Pegeen as the newly liberated, bold woman, who is more than a match to not only Christie, mild Shawn, but also to entire village. Gender liberation is one of the direct effects of fin de siecle. Pegeen makes her own decisions, undeterred by others' opinion, and unafraid to make momentous decisions like losing Christie whom she loved, to return to her loveless match with Shawn. In a way fin de seicle is the end of the Romantic Era in the real sense and beginning of rude reality and shocking exposures. Till then, Europe had been one place where everything that was considered indecent and ugly had been hidden from public sight and with fin de seicle, those very things came to the glare and remained 'on the face'. Even a gentle art like poetry was very different during this period. "More particularly, commentators have identified the nature of fin-de-seicle poetry's intermediary uncertainty by drawing attention to a limited repertoire of features that seem more often than not to be connected with patterns of disillusioned self-destruction, purposeless immorality, stylized indolence and sensual indulgence," Bristow (2005, p.1). According to Yeats, Playboy 'roused the populace to fury' that they had to play it under police protection, with seventy police inside the theatre and nearly five hundred outside, maintaining law and order in and around the theatre. Play was so full of new and outrageous ideas that the Irish public was furious. And this was not only in Ireland, but also in other parts of the world including America. "The Irish nationalists in American mobilized every force they could touch to boycot the (Abbey) plays throughout the Eastern States," Henn in Singe (1970, p.22). Play had rude dialogues that infuriated the Church and Church goers alike. Till then, such open rudeness never targeted the Catholic Church, especially in Ireland. But Singe does not look at it that way. In his Preface he writes: "In Ireland for a few years more, we have a popular imagination that is fiery, and magnificent and tender, so that those of us who wish to write start with a chance that is not given to writers in places where the springtime of the local life has been forgotten and the harvest is a memory only, and the straw has been turned into bricks," Synge (1970, p.40). The legacy of fin de siecle is the basis of Playboy, without making it absolutely offensive. In the new found frenzy of fin de siecle, there are enough examples in various arts of making them as outrageous and unnecessarily indecent as possible; almost pushing it to the very edge and trying to break the outlines of territory. That did not happen with Playboy mainly because even an eccentric like Synge was aware that it was a play, and had to be staged to public audience and cannot go beyond a certain line. But the phenomenon is there in large measure. It also related to capitalism, industrial and even liberal, class system, class difference and difference in income and opportunity. Social disadvantages were slowly being voiced during this time and that is how Zola's book on miners was widely read. In Russia, communism was gaining ground. In other parts of the world, socialism and democracy are making their appearance and imperialism was fast becoming outdated. With fin de siecle electricity era started, first in Austria and modern cars and planes were invented. Nationalism, anti-Semitism, socialism, political Catholicism became part and parcel of expression of the mass politics and the same is reflected in Playboy. Mass media and resultant culture got established in Europe to spread to other parts of the world. Literature from diverse languages got translated at break-neck speed and people understood alien cultures and religions easily. Painting took a totally different meaning under this Cultural Revolution. For painting it is definitely end of one century and beginning of another where the entire form, method, style, meaning changed almost overnight and the same goes to music, physics, biology, genetics, neurology and most of all, psychology. Personalities, principles, institutions, beliefs all went topsy-turvy in literature. "They can now be seen as interrelated and interacting manifestations as well as factors of a major change affecting broadly all facets of life and thought that had evolved under the conditions of industrial and liberal capitalism during the nineteenth century," Teich and Porter (1980, p.8). Hence, fin de sicle, was the time of degeneration and regeneration, an exposure of hidden truths, starting with an attack on established values like Churches or jurisprudence, imperial rule etc. and this attack is never clearer than in Playboy. The entire play was a blatant attack on the establishment and was meant to be so. The play shows a new woman in Pegeen, all powerful, unhindered by masculinity and a complete with love, practicality and to some extent justice. She takes her decisions without anybody to guide her and even though impulsive at times, she was ready to face the aftermath of her actions. She is one the early characters where feminity merges with practicality and those were the days when demand for women suffrage was beginning to be vocal. At last the women were coming out of their shell of traditional role playing. Play also is based on a new imperialism, where everything imperialistic, judiciary, law and order, criminal conviction, order in society, almost everything that was represented by imperialism was either questioned or opposed. Christie finds shelter in the village that opposed the imperialistic establishment to the core. It declares a kind of severance from imperialism and declares its own war against it. Also the economic basis of socialism is pronounced where a homeless outsider is given shelter in an established rural society where women are a flourishing part of the society. But the main basis of the play is anarchism, because it questions the authority of church, religion, imperialism, government, law and order. Play throws up many questions that needed answer in those days. The strength and grit of it frightened the conventional Irish society. BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Bristow, Joseph (2005), The Fin-de-Seicle Poem, Ohio University Press. 2. Ledger, Sally and Luckhurst, Roger (2000), The Fin De Siecle, Oxford University Press. 3. Singe, J.M. (1961), The Playboy of the Western World, Methuen & Co. Ltd., London. 4. Teich, Mikulas and Porter, Rob (1991), ed., Fin De Siecle and its legacy, Cambridge University Press. ONLINE SOURCES: 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fin_de_si%C3%A8cle 2. http://lala.essortment.com/literaturemovem_rzkb.htm 3. http://www.theatredatabase.com/20th_century/john_millington_synge_003.html Theatre database. 4. Read More

 

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