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Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Religion

While characters in the play do not discuss their faith explicitly, religion is implied to be an important aspect of their lives. Shawn most clearly represents someone whose every move is dictated by religion, as he is fixated on what Father Reilly would think of any decision he makes. While the other characters mock Shawn for this, religion affects their beliefs and actions as well. Michael admires Christy for killing Old Mahon but chastises him for not giving Old Mahon a proper burial. The fact that Shawn’s romantic foil is someone who has committed a serious sin and who is universally embraced rather than rejected because of his crime shows that the villagers are curious about and excited by a life free from the binds of religion.

Father Figures

There are three fathers or father figures in The Playboy of the Western World: Father Reilly, Michael Flaherty, and Old Mahon. Each father–child relationship reveals aspects about each “child’s” character and shows how these relationships change through the course of the play. Though Father Reilly never actually appears in the play, Shawn shows absolute deference to him, basing all his decisions on what Father Reilly would think. Pegeen’s relationship with Michael is a conventional father–daughter relationship throughout the play. Pegeen is reliant on Michael and requires his blessing for her marriage. However, she doesn’t hesitate to make her own opinions known. Christy’s relationship with Old Mahon is the starkest of the three father–child relationships. While Christy had previously been completely submissive to his father, he let his anger build up to the point of trying to kill Old Mahon. Getting to know Christy encourages Pegeen to openly defy Michael by insisting on marrying Christy instead of Shawn. By the end of the play, Shawn’s relationship with Father Reilly is unchanged, Christy has switched the dynamic of his relationship with his father, and Pegeen, while still dependent on Michael, refuses to marry Shawn in her own act of rebellion.

Marriage

Marriage is at the center of the battle between control and independence throughout the play. The play opens with Pegeen writing a list of items she needs for her upcoming wedding to Shawn. She doesn’t seem to care for Shawn very much, as evidenced by her annoyance at his cowardice and deference to religion. However, Michael has chosen Shawn for Pegeen. Pegeen doesn’t seem to resist this match until she meets Christy and tells him she has no plans to get married, seemingly hoping to present herself as someone whose life is not controlled by her father, just like Christy. In Christy’s story, he strikes his father with the loy after his father tells Christy he has arranged for Christy to marry a local widow whom Christy finds unattractive. Whether this account is true remains unclear, but the detail makes the villagers admire Christy even more for flouting his father’s authority. At the end of the play, when Shawn tries once again to bring up the subject of marriage with Pegeen, she dismisses him, showing that Christy’s presence has changed her. She’s become a more assertive, independent woman who doesn’t fear defying the expectations of marriage.

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