| Chapter No. | Chapter Title | Chapter Author | Page No. |
| 1 | The Author : Life , Background & Making | | 11 |
| 2 | The Play | | |
| Introduction | | 22 |
| J.M. Synge's Preface | | 28 |
| The Play Boyof the Western World (The Text) | | 31 |
| Critical Commentary | | 85 |
| 3 | Themes and Issues Involved in the Play | | 90 |
| 4 | The problem of Exploring the Title of the Play | | 97 |
| 5 | The Task of definition : Is the Playboy a Specimen of 'Modern Comedy'? | | 106 |
| 6 | Christy Mahon : A Playboy or a Mock-Hero or Something else? | | 113 |
| 7 | Realism and the Desecration of Myths | | 123 |
| 8 | Heroism or Higher Nationalism | | 131 |
| 9 | The Language Used in the Playboy | | 138 |
| 10 | Pegeen Mike and the Women | | 144 |
| 11 | The Existenceof the two 'Worlds' : The Commonality among the Irish | | 151 |
| 12 | A Postscript | | 163 |
