The absence of the heavy boot of Europe has preserved to these people the agile walk of the wild animal, while the general simplicity of their lives has given them many other points of physical perfection.

Not even the members of his own family were close enough to understand him. The comedy centers on the story of apparent patricide and attracted a wide hostile reaction from the Irish public.

He is best known for his play The Playboy of the Western World which caused riots in Dublin during its opening run at the Abbey Theatre. Synge suffered from Hodgkin's disease a form of cancer at the time untreatable.