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Widow Quin is first presented as a villainous character, as it is revealed that she killed her husband and acts as a shrewd romantic rival to Pegeen. However, although Widow Quin looks out for herself throughout the play, she also tries to help others when she can. She first tries to help Shawn bribe Christy to leave the village, and when that fails, she tells Shawn that she will marry Christy to get him away from Pegeen. She then helps Christy after discovering Old Mahon is still alive by first sending Old Mahon in the wrong direction and then agreeing to not let anyone else know that Old Mahon is still alive. Widow Quin even tries to convince the other villagers that Old Mahon is a lunatic when he returns to the pub. When the villagers discover Christy’s secret and turn on him, Widow Quin tries to help him escape, and when he refuses to go, she announces he needs a hospital instead of a prison. As opposed to Pegeen’s utopian vision of how the world can be, Widow Quin is a pragmatist, accepting her world and the people in it as they are and trying to make the best of it.

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