Consider the Position of women in J M Synges The Playboy of the Western World In Playboy of the Western World Synge sets out to dismantle Yeats construction of self sacrificing and pious Irish womanhood the revivalists had encouraged him to portray in The Countess Cathleen Irish nationalism sought land reform and Home Rule for the Irish and encouraged the Irish revivalism in theatres as propaganda for their cause They promoted the ideal of a unified Irish peasant whose women were Christian Hist