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Originally Posted by Chris76
We`re dealing with Synge`s Playboy at university at the moment. Therefore I`m glad to have found this forum with some experts on Synge involved.
I really wonder whether Synge was ahead of his time writing the Playboy. Yeats and Co. were still trying to create some Irish identity basically on old myths and folk-tales. They did this like numerous scholars on the continent in their countries, e.g. Germany, Italy and numerous Slavian countries. Everybody tried to create a nation these days. All had one thing in common. They tried to define their languages as distinct from other languages and they tried to revive a"glorious" past, both in order to create a nation. The Irish, being the oldest colony of Great Britain, had no lesser right to struggle for a nation of their own than the other countries who had by the time the Irish Revival reached its peak mostly established their own nations already.
But Synge portrayed the Irish peasants as superstitious and easy to manipulate. Did he foresee the dangers of nationalism? Did he realize how narrow-minded people can get, that have but one thing to identify, namely their nation?
What do you think?
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Originally Posted by Niamh
Yes i do believe Synge was a head of his time when writing his Plays, Hence why most were not fully appriciated until well after Ireland gained it's independence. I also believe that he was more realistic in his portrayal. You have to note that Synge lived for a while amonst the Irish people in the west, many of which still lived relatively simple lives compared to the lives of people in Dublin. The portrayal of the Aran islanders as viewed in some of his plays, and his Prose 'the Aran Islands' was more or less what had been shown in the first ever film shot in ireland in c1900, also called 'The Aran Islands'. (The story that the Playboy was based on can be found in this book) A lot of these people were very supersticious, and the Irish were notoriously supersticious. still are to some degree!
Also only a few years before, a man called Michael Cleary murdered his wife claiming that she had been swapped by the fairies and the body they found was infact that of a changling. (There goes home rule!)
It might be interesting for you to know that Synge spent a few years living in Germany. While there he did some translations of Petrarch and a few others.
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Originally Posted by
JackShea
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Originally Posted by Chris76 View Post
The Irish, being the oldest colony of Great Britain..
Well for one, and this is my opinion, the Irish never considered themselves a colony at all but an occupied nation. But I leave the question/answers open to those who were born on Irish soil.
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Originally Posted by Niamh
You're right. i dont think we ever did class ourselves as a colony. more like an oppressed nation. Everytime the Irish fought for their freedom the english squashed us like bugs and reinvaded us.(seeing as most of the rebels were originally anglo Irish aristocrats) Ever wondered why a country as old as ireland only to this day has a 4million population? most of it was because of the english. the plantations, Oliver Cromwell and his 'to hell or to Connaght' (reason why irish is mainly only spoken in the west), their lack of assistance during the famine etc. Ireland was regarded by the english as the Troublesome colony though! we didnt stop fighting them for 800 years!
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Originally Posted by Virgil
Niamh, did you want to have a group reading and discussion of the play?
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Originally Posted by Niamh
I think that might be a good idea. It would be a nice way of celebrating the 'Playboy'. how would one go about arranging it?
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