When I was watching \u201cPlayboy of the Western World\u201d and \u201cRiders to the Sea,\u201d one particular phrase that appeared in both works stood out to me\u2014the \u201cbig world.\u201d Characters in both plays refer to the \u201cbig world\u201d as a place separate from their own. Michael, in \u201cPlayboy of the Western World\u201d tells his family that \u201cin the big world, it\u2019s knives they use.\u201d Maurya, in \u201cRiders to the Sea,\u201d notes another difference between this big world and Ireland: \u201cIn the big world the old people do be leaving things after them for their sons and children, but in this place it is the young men do be leaving things behind for them that do be old\u201d (13). It is unclear whether the big world is the same as the western world that the title of \u201cPlayboy of the Western World\u201d refers to, but Ireland is clearly not a part of this big world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The distinction between the big world and Ireland, or the western world and Ireland, raises some questions about how the characters in these plays conceptualize their sense of place in the world. What, exactly, is the big world? What are the boundaries of the western world, of which Christy is the only playboy? Paradoxically, it seems like Ireland is at once a leader of the Western World and separate from it. Widow Quin laments Christy\u2019s sailing from \u201cMayo to the western World,\u201d implying a separation between the two, even as she claims Christy is the playboy of the western world. And though the big world is separate from Ireland, Sara calls for a toast to the wonders of the western world, which include \u201cthe pirates, preachers, poteen-makers, with the jobbing jockies; parching peelers, and the juries fill their stomachs selling judgments of the English law\u201d\u2014most of which are particular to Ireland. These characters share a lack of clarity about Ireland\u2019s place within the world. Is their country, with its \u201cstony scattered fields and scribes of bog,\u201d part of the western world or isolated from it? (“Playboy of the Western World”).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The only clear boundary between Ireland and the western or big world is the sea which surrounds them. Indeed, the sea is a force to be reckoned with in \u201cRiders to the Sea\u201d\u2014it kills Maurya\u2019s husband and all five sons until \u201cthere isn\u2019t anything more the sea can do to [her]\u201d (23). Multiple characters in \u201cPlayboy of the Western World\u201d refer to the sea that must be crossed to leave Ireland. Evidently, although the sense of place in these plays is contradictory, the sea\/the Atlantic is a defining feature. The movement of the ocean, which we discussed when reading Gilroy\u2019s work on the Atlantic, is an organizing feature for their conception of Ireland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I was watching \u201cPlayboy of the Western World\u201d and \u201cRiders to the Sea,\u201d one particular phrase that appeared in both works stood out to me\u2014the \u201cbig world.\u201d Characters in both plays refer to the \u201cbig world\u201d as a place separate from their own. Michael, in \u201cPlayboy of the Western World\u201d tells his family that … <\/p>\n