The Playboy of the Western World Lesson Plan

How does Synge romanticize the play's settings and characters at the outset?

At the top of Act I, Synge presents a picture of a rural, coastal Ireland that aligns quite closely with a romantic, even pastoral notion of peasantry and village life. The first image on stage clearly reflects this pastoral ideal. In a roughshod village pub, notably separated from "civilized" society, a "wild-looking but fine girl" reads through a list of wedding goods which she expects to receive via fish wagon. The rural remove of the setting is immediately beyond question, and indeed proves important towards understanding the characters who inhabit it.

The initial characterizations also...