The Playboy of the Western World

In The Playboy of the Western World, the mirror is a symbol of Christy’s vanity. Throughout the play, and particularly in Act II, Christy interacts with a looking glass he finds on the wall in the bar. He admires himself in it and begins to clean his face. When the women arrive to hear his story, one of them, Sara Tansey, finds the mirror in Christy’s hand and tells the others, “It’s a glass he has. Well, I never seen to this day a man with a looking glass held to his back. Them that kills their fathers is a vain lot surely” (34). She says this in jest, but the line is ironic because one of Christy’s larger character flaws is his vanity. Christy’s self-admiration ends up getting him in trouble with his love interest, Pegeen Mike, when she notices the mirror missing from the wall. When she confronts him about it, Christy replies, “I was making myself decent is all, and this is a fine country for young lovely girls” (38). Pegeen Mike senses that Christy might not be as loyal as he once claimed and sees this vanity as a red flag in their relationship. She is so put off by it that, for a moment, she tries to make him leave the bar and County Mayo for good.