The Playboy of the Western World

by

J. M. Synge

Old Mahon / Christy’s Father Character Analysis

Old Mahon is Christy Mahon’s father. Christy thinks that he has killed his father with a blow to the head, and describes him as tyrannical, rude, and a drunk. Before too long, though, Old Mahon turns up at the village pub, looking for his son. His description of Christy is just as disparaging as his son’s of him—he thinks Christy is a loser, too lazy to work, and too shy to speak to women. Old Mahon is hell-bent on revenge against his son for striking him over the head with a loy. He is temporarily convinced that he is mad when he sees the man he thinks is Christy seemingly doing well at sports and confidently enjoying the admiration of the village—which he views as totally out of character for his son. Soon enough, though, he realizes that the popular “playboy of the western world” is Christy and attacks him, receiving another blow to the head. His paternal instincts kick in when the village turns on Christy, leading him to free his son from the ropes that bind him and call on them to leave the “villainy” and “fools” of the small village community. As the father and son depart, Synge hints at one key difference between their old life together and their future. Christy now insists that he will be the “gallant captain” to his father’s “heathen slave,” signaling a possible reversal in which of the two men holds authority over the other.

Old Mahon / Christy’s Father Quotes in The Playboy of the Western World

The The Playboy of the Western World quotes below are all either spoken by Old Mahon / Christy’s Father or refer to Old Mahon / Christy’s Father. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Heroism Theme Icon
).
Act 1 Quotes

PEGEEN (with a sign to the men to be quiet). You’re only saying it. You did nothing at all. A soft lad the like of you wouldn’t slit the windpipe of a screeching sow.

CHRISTY (offended). You’re not speaking the truth.

PEGEEN (in mock rage). Not speaking the truth, is it? Would you have me knock the head of you with the butt of the broom?

CHRISTY (twisting round on her with a sharp cry of horror). Don’t strike me. I killed my poor father, Tuesday was a week, for doing the like of that.

PEGEEN (with blank amazement). Is it killed your father?

CHRISTY (subsiding). With the help of God I did surely, and that the Holy Immaculate Mother may intercede for his soul.

PHILLY (retreating with Jimmy). There’s a daring fellow.

JIMMY. Oh, glory be to God!

MICHAEL (with great respect). That was a hanging crime, mister honey. You should have had good reason for doing the like of that.

Related Characters: Christopher “Christy” Mahon (speaker), Pegeen Mike (speaker), Michael James Flaherty / Pegeen’s Father (speaker), Philly O’Cullen (speaker), Jimmy Farrell (speaker), Old Mahon / Christy’s Father
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 10-11
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2 Quotes

CHRISTY (impressively). With that the sun came out between the cloud and the hill, and it shining green in my face. “God have mercy on your soul,” says he, lifting a scythe; “or on your own,” says I, raising the loy.

SUSAN. That’s a grand story.

HONOR. He tells it lovely.

CHRISTY (flattered and confident, waving bone). He gave a drive with the scythe, and I gave a lep to the east. Then I turned around with my back to the north, and I hit a blow on the ridge of his skull, laid him stretched out, and he split to the knob of his gullet.

[He raises the chicken bone to his Adam’s apple.]

GIRLS (together). Well, you’re a marvel! Oh, God bless you! You’re the lad surely!

Related Characters: Christopher “Christy” Mahon (speaker), Susan Brady (speaker), Honor Blake (speaker), Widow Quin, Old Mahon / Christy’s Father, Sara Tansey, Nelly McLaughlin
Related Symbols: The Loy
Page Number: 25
Explanation and Analysis:

CHRISTY. I wish to God I was letting on; but I was lonesome all times, and born lonesome, I’m thinking, as the moon of dawn.

[Going to door.]

PEGEEN (puzzled by his talk). Well, it’s a story I’m not understanding at all why you’d be worse than another, Christy Mahon, and you a fine lad with the great savagery to destroy your da.

CHRISTY. It’s little I’m understanding myself, saving only that my heart’s scalded this day, and I going off stretching out the earth between us, the way I’ll not be waking near you another dawn of the year till the two of us do arise to hope or judgment with the saints of God.

Related Characters: Christopher “Christy” Mahon (speaker), Pegeen Mike (speaker), Old Mahon / Christy’s Father
Page Number: 29
Explanation and Analysis:

CHRISTY. From this out I’ll have no want of company when all sorts is bringing me their food and clothing (he swaggers to the door, tightening his belt), the way they’d set their eyes upon a gallant orphan cleft his father with one blow to the breeches belt. (He opens door, then staggers back.) Saints of glory! Holy angels from the throne of light!

WIDOW QUIN (going over). What ails you?

CHRISTY. It’s the walking spirit of my murdered da!

Related Characters: Christopher “Christy” Mahon (speaker), Widow Quin (speaker), Old Mahon / Christy’s Father
Page Number: 32
Explanation and Analysis:

MAHON. I’d take a mighty oath you didn’t surely, and wasn’t he the laughing joke of every female woman where four baronies meet, the way the girls would stop their weeding if they seen him coming the road to let a roar at him, and call him the looney of Mahon’s.

Related Characters: Old Mahon / Christy’s Father (speaker), Christopher “Christy” Mahon, Widow Quin
Page Number: 34
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3 Quotes

WIDOW QUIN (taking men to the right stealthily). Do you know what? That mans raving from his wound to-day, for I met him a while since telling a rambling tale of a tinker had him destroyed. Then he heard of Christy’s deed, and he up and says it was his son had cracked his skull. O isn’t madness a fright, for he’ll go killing someone yet, and he thinking it’s the man has struck him so?

JIMMY (entirely convinced). It’s a fright, surely. I knew a party was kicked in the head by a red mare, and he went killing horses a great while, till he eat the insides of a clock and died after.

PHILLY (with suspicion). Did he see Christy?

Related Characters: Widow Quin (speaker), Philly O’Cullen (speaker), Jimmy Farrell (speaker), Christopher “Christy” Mahon, Old Mahon / Christy’s Father
Page Number: 41
Explanation and Analysis:

MAHON (putting his hands to his ears). What in the name of God do they want roaring below?

WIDOW QUIN (with the shade of a smile). They’re cheering a young lad, the champion Playboy of the Western World.

[More cheering.]

MAHON (going to window). It’d split my heart to hear them, and I with pulses in my brain-pan for a week gone by. Is it racing they are?

JIMMY (looking from door). It is then. They are mounting him for the mule race will be run upon the sands. That’s the playboy on the winkered mule.

MAHON (puzzled). That lad, is it? If you said it was a fool he was, I’d have laid a mighty oath he was the likeness of my wandering son (uneasily, putting his hand to his head).

Related Characters: Widow Quin (speaker), Old Mahon / Christy’s Father (speaker), Jimmy Farrell (speaker), Christopher “Christy” Mahon
Page Number: 42
Explanation and Analysis:

CHRISTY (in low and intense voice). Shut your yelling, for if you’re after making a mighty man of me this day by the power of a lie, you’re setting me now to think if it’s a poor thing to be lonesome, it’s worse maybe to go mixing with the fools of earth.

[Mahon makes a movement towards him.]

CHRISTY (almost shouting). Keep off…lest I do show a blow unto the lot of you would set the guardian angels winking in the clouds above.

[He swings round with a sudden rapid movement and picks up a loy.]

CROWD (half frightened, half amused). He’s going mad! Mind yourselves! Run from the idiot!

CHRISTY. If I am an idiot, I’m after hearing my voice this day saying words would raise the topknot on a poet in a merchant’s town.

Related Characters: Christopher “Christy” Mahon (speaker), Old Mahon / Christy’s Father
Related Symbols: The Loy
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis:

CHRISTY. Ten thousand blessings upon all that’s here, for you’ve turned me a likely gaffer in the end of all, the way I’ll go romancing through a romping lifetime from this hour to the dawning of the judgment day.

[He goes out.]

MICHAEL. By the will of God, we’ll have peace now for our drinks. Will you draw the porter, Pegeen?

SHAWN (going up to her). It’s a miracle Father Reilly can wed us in the end of all, and we’ll have none to trouble us when his vicious bite is healed.

PEGEEN (hitting him a box on the ear). Quit my sight. (Putting her shawl over her head and breaking out into wild lamentations.) Oh my grief, I’ve lost him surely. I’ve lost the only Playboy of the Western World.

Related Characters: Christopher “Christy” Mahon (speaker), Pegeen Mike (speaker), Shawn Keogh (speaker), Michael James Flaherty / Pegeen’s Father (speaker), Old Mahon / Christy’s Father
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 57
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Playboy of the Western World LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Playboy of the Western World PDF

Old Mahon / Christy’s Father Quotes in The Playboy of the Western World

The The Playboy of the Western World quotes below are all either spoken by Old Mahon / Christy’s Father or refer to Old Mahon / Christy’s Father. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Heroism Theme Icon
).
Act 1 Quotes

PEGEEN (with a sign to the men to be quiet). You’re only saying it. You did nothing at all. A soft lad the like of you wouldn’t slit the windpipe of a screeching sow.

CHRISTY (offended). You’re not speaking the truth.

PEGEEN (in mock rage). Not speaking the truth, is it? Would you have me knock the head of you with the butt of the broom?

CHRISTY (twisting round on her with a sharp cry of horror). Don’t strike me. I killed my poor father, Tuesday was a week, for doing the like of that.

PEGEEN (with blank amazement). Is it killed your father?

CHRISTY (subsiding). With the help of God I did surely, and that the Holy Immaculate Mother may intercede for his soul.

PHILLY (retreating with Jimmy). There’s a daring fellow.

JIMMY. Oh, glory be to God!

MICHAEL (with great respect). That was a hanging crime, mister honey. You should have had good reason for doing the like of that.

Related Characters: Christopher “Christy” Mahon (speaker), Pegeen Mike (speaker), Michael James Flaherty / Pegeen’s Father (speaker), Philly O’Cullen (speaker), Jimmy Farrell (speaker), Old Mahon / Christy’s Father
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 10-11
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2 Quotes

CHRISTY (impressively). With that the sun came out between the cloud and the hill, and it shining green in my face. “God have mercy on your soul,” says he, lifting a scythe; “or on your own,” says I, raising the loy.

SUSAN. That’s a grand story.

HONOR. He tells it lovely.

CHRISTY (flattered and confident, waving bone). He gave a drive with the scythe, and I gave a lep to the east. Then I turned around with my back to the north, and I hit a blow on the ridge of his skull, laid him stretched out, and he split to the knob of his gullet.

[He raises the chicken bone to his Adam’s apple.]

GIRLS (together). Well, you’re a marvel! Oh, God bless you! You’re the lad surely!

Related Characters: Christopher “Christy” Mahon (speaker), Susan Brady (speaker), Honor Blake (speaker), Widow Quin, Old Mahon / Christy’s Father, Sara Tansey, Nelly McLaughlin
Related Symbols: The Loy
Page Number: 25
Explanation and Analysis:

CHRISTY. I wish to God I was letting on; but I was lonesome all times, and born lonesome, I’m thinking, as the moon of dawn.

[Going to door.]

PEGEEN (puzzled by his talk). Well, it’s a story I’m not understanding at all why you’d be worse than another, Christy Mahon, and you a fine lad with the great savagery to destroy your da.

CHRISTY. It’s little I’m understanding myself, saving only that my heart’s scalded this day, and I going off stretching out the earth between us, the way I’ll not be waking near you another dawn of the year till the two of us do arise to hope or judgment with the saints of God.

Related Characters: Christopher “Christy” Mahon (speaker), Pegeen Mike (speaker), Old Mahon / Christy’s Father
Page Number: 29
Explanation and Analysis:

CHRISTY. From this out I’ll have no want of company when all sorts is bringing me their food and clothing (he swaggers to the door, tightening his belt), the way they’d set their eyes upon a gallant orphan cleft his father with one blow to the breeches belt. (He opens door, then staggers back.) Saints of glory! Holy angels from the throne of light!

WIDOW QUIN (going over). What ails you?

CHRISTY. It’s the walking spirit of my murdered da!

Related Characters: Christopher “Christy” Mahon (speaker), Widow Quin (speaker), Old Mahon / Christy’s Father
Page Number: 32
Explanation and Analysis:

MAHON. I’d take a mighty oath you didn’t surely, and wasn’t he the laughing joke of every female woman where four baronies meet, the way the girls would stop their weeding if they seen him coming the road to let a roar at him, and call him the looney of Mahon’s.

Related Characters: Old Mahon / Christy’s Father (speaker), Christopher “Christy” Mahon, Widow Quin
Page Number: 34
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3 Quotes

WIDOW QUIN (taking men to the right stealthily). Do you know what? That mans raving from his wound to-day, for I met him a while since telling a rambling tale of a tinker had him destroyed. Then he heard of Christy’s deed, and he up and says it was his son had cracked his skull. O isn’t madness a fright, for he’ll go killing someone yet, and he thinking it’s the man has struck him so?

JIMMY (entirely convinced). It’s a fright, surely. I knew a party was kicked in the head by a red mare, and he went killing horses a great while, till he eat the insides of a clock and died after.

PHILLY (with suspicion). Did he see Christy?

Related Characters: Widow Quin (speaker), Philly O’Cullen (speaker), Jimmy Farrell (speaker), Christopher “Christy” Mahon, Old Mahon / Christy’s Father
Page Number: 41
Explanation and Analysis:

MAHON (putting his hands to his ears). What in the name of God do they want roaring below?

WIDOW QUIN (with the shade of a smile). They’re cheering a young lad, the champion Playboy of the Western World.

[More cheering.]

MAHON (going to window). It’d split my heart to hear them, and I with pulses in my brain-pan for a week gone by. Is it racing they are?

JIMMY (looking from door). It is then. They are mounting him for the mule race will be run upon the sands. That’s the playboy on the winkered mule.

MAHON (puzzled). That lad, is it? If you said it was a fool he was, I’d have laid a mighty oath he was the likeness of my wandering son (uneasily, putting his hand to his head).

Related Characters: Widow Quin (speaker), Old Mahon / Christy’s Father (speaker), Jimmy Farrell (speaker), Christopher “Christy” Mahon
Page Number: 42
Explanation and Analysis:

CHRISTY (in low and intense voice). Shut your yelling, for if you’re after making a mighty man of me this day by the power of a lie, you’re setting me now to think if it’s a poor thing to be lonesome, it’s worse maybe to go mixing with the fools of earth.

[Mahon makes a movement towards him.]

CHRISTY (almost shouting). Keep off…lest I do show a blow unto the lot of you would set the guardian angels winking in the clouds above.

[He swings round with a sudden rapid movement and picks up a loy.]

CROWD (half frightened, half amused). He’s going mad! Mind yourselves! Run from the idiot!

CHRISTY. If I am an idiot, I’m after hearing my voice this day saying words would raise the topknot on a poet in a merchant’s town.

Related Characters: Christopher “Christy” Mahon (speaker), Old Mahon / Christy’s Father
Related Symbols: The Loy
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis:

CHRISTY. Ten thousand blessings upon all that’s here, for you’ve turned me a likely gaffer in the end of all, the way I’ll go romancing through a romping lifetime from this hour to the dawning of the judgment day.

[He goes out.]

MICHAEL. By the will of God, we’ll have peace now for our drinks. Will you draw the porter, Pegeen?

SHAWN (going up to her). It’s a miracle Father Reilly can wed us in the end of all, and we’ll have none to trouble us when his vicious bite is healed.

PEGEEN (hitting him a box on the ear). Quit my sight. (Putting her shawl over her head and breaking out into wild lamentations.) Oh my grief, I’ve lost him surely. I’ve lost the only Playboy of the Western World.

Related Characters: Christopher “Christy” Mahon (speaker), Pegeen Mike (speaker), Shawn Keogh (speaker), Michael James Flaherty / Pegeen’s Father (speaker), Old Mahon / Christy’s Father
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 57
Explanation and Analysis: