This image is fuelled by fine, rich prose and linguistic devices, such as alexandrines and iambic metres, used by Christy to make his speech almost poetical. Pegeen is intoxicated by this ornate speech, and she too uses this rich, extravagant language to escape from her poor, shabby surroundings.
“I’ll be burning candles from this out to the miracles of God that have brought you”
Pegeen therefore escapes from loneliness and boredom, but also from a fiancé whom she does not really loves, as is shown in the stage directions, and text.
“PEGEEN (very sharply) Will you whisht? Who’s speaking to you?”
Pegeen escapes to love (or so she thinks) and excitement with the new mysterious orator Christy.
In Ireland, owing to the resented occupation by the British, anyone who stood up against authority, including criminals and murders, were admired by Irish society and many thought of these rebels as heroes. When Christy tells those assembled in the shebeen that he is a fugitive from the law, the stage direction given is:
“They all draw nearer with delighted curiosity.”
As well as admiring rebels, the Irish also loved story tellers and epic tales, as it was another way of escaping their boring everyday lives into a land of heroism, chivalry and justice.
“Come here to me……… let you tell us your story”
This Irish attitude is summed up by Una Ellis Fermor:
“No talker is without honour”
So not only Pegeen, but all the villagers try to escape from ennui to elation via Christy and his story telling.
Another means by which the people are looking for escapism is through a hero or an idol, and in the play, Christy is analogous to Jesus Christ. The people need a saviour because like the Jews in Jesus’ time, the Irish are a land under occupation by formidable foreign power. They are subjugated and due to the hardships of the times, feel they need someone to rescue them from their torments. Also as they are all virtually all the same, come from the same place, live in the same place and all have the same jobs, they need Christy to bring some versatility into their lives.
There are several events in Jesus’ life, which are mirrored in the play.
When Christy enters the world (in which the play is set) there are three men who give him gifts- a place to stay, drink and the fire for warmth. Also, the next day Christy is visited by four girls, Susan, Honor and Nelly; who bring him gifts of eggs, butter, cake and a pullet. These events are similar to the birth of Christ and the Epiphany when shepherds from the field came to see the new saviour, and later Three Wise Men came bearing gifts to see the new born king.
During the races, Christy rides victoriously on a donkey, just as Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Furthermore, if you take Christy’s name, within it are the letters that make up the word ‘Christ’.
When Christy is exposed as a fraud, the people cannot accept who he truly is, and they attack him; they bind him with rope, burn his leg and go to murder/ execute him. This is similar to Jesus’ crucifixion; as the people could not accept whom Jesus said he was. The people sent him off, bound (with rope and by duty) to be executed on the cross.
Christy is also a saviour to the village folk. He brought new life, excitement and love to a previously barren land.
Shawn Keogh finds his escapism not through Christy but through the Church. Shawn uses the Church as an excuse for his inability to take responsibility for his actions and he uses it as a shield to hide behind.
“I would and welcome, Michael James, but I’m afeard of Fr Reilly.”
Shawn is actually not a good Christian, he proves himself to be quite vindictive, spiteful, violent, savage, unforgiving and therefore hypocritical as these are not virtues taught by the Church.
“Lift a lighted sod, will you, and scorch his leg”
Synge himself came from a fiercely Protestant family (his family had produced five Church of Ireland bishops since settling in Ireland in the seventeenth century) and so he was not in favour of the Church. He saw the Church as hypocritical, strict and restrictive as well as being cowardly and hiding behind itself and its laws. Synge based Shawn on what, in his cynical mind, he saw as being a typical Catholic
Michael James, Philly and Jimmy find their escapism through drink- not only the alcohol but also the social occasion that drinking provides which leads Michael James to always be looking for an excuse to go drinking.
“Come on, Michael James, or they’ll have the best stuff drunk at the wake.”
This shows it is not only the three men who enjoy escaping into an alcohol-induced world of their own, where they can poison themselves into thinking they are not in the same lacklustre world they live in, but it is a feature of the indigenous people in rural Ireland.
Christy has already escaped when he arrives in the village; he was oppressed by a cruel father and led an unexciting, lonely life.
“A windy corner of high distant hills”
From his isolated, remote lifestyle, Christy escapes to love and acceptance. Christy also escapes from his timidity towards women.
“Yourself a kindly woman, the way I wasn’t fearing you at all.”
Prior to Christy coming to the village, he had not been popular with girls and they often mocked and ridiculed him, but with newfound confidence gained from the villager’s praise and worship of him, he is more assertive with women.
At the end of the play, it is clear that Christy is the real winner; he is the one who escapes into a new character- the playboy whom Pegeen and the other villagers created by giving Christy the support and confidence to become the new person.
“The vagrant hero fades into legend. The community remains more deeply stricken.” – Seamus Deane.
This suggests that the loss of Christy, after he was hyped up so much, has damaged the community (as it has removed the main centre of attention and excitement) to the extent that it would have been better if Christy had not come at all, such is the damage done by his departure.
The reaction of the villagers when they see Christy actually attempt to kill his father is one of shock and outrage; he is shunned and rejected before they turn against him and persecute him for his actions. This represents another Irish attitude- that they like the ideals but not always the actions, as Pegeen says:
“There is a great gap between a gallous story and a dirty deed”
In short, the people only really fell in love with Christy’s stories and when the witnessed the violence first hand, they were appalled. Robin Skelton suggests that Pegeen:
“represents an Ireland dreaming of independence cannot accept the consequences of the dream becoming a reality.”
He is implying that while most Irish dreamt of independence from Britain, but in reality they could not accept the consequences.
Finally, with Synge linking Christy to Christ, he is ridiculing Catholic Ireland by suggesting that when a Saviour actually does come to them, they are too stuck in their ways (as Synge believed the Church was) to accept him and end up trying to kill him, and finally the saviour leaves them, worse off than before.
