Riders to the Sea by J.M Synge discusses the struggles of a family in dealing with death. This play takes place in Ireland. This location is important because Ireland is an island and this creates isolation and gives power to the sea to create such isolation. Throughout the play, Maurya comes to terms with her situation and better understands herself through first mourning, then fear, and finally through acceptance.
The play begins by introducing the old woman, Maurya, who has been lamenting, an old Latin term meaning sorrowful mourning, for days over her lost son, Michael, by sleeping and moping. Her daughter, Cathleen, keeps herself busy by doing chores around the house. When Nora, Maura’s other daughter enters, she brings with her a bundle of clothes that were found on a dead body that washed up by the seas to the north. However, the daughters keep this new information hidden from their mother once she wakes by hiding the clothes in the turf loft. The turf loft is where carbonized vegetable tissue is stored so that dry fuel is always at hand. Was it really more beneficial for her daughter’s not to tell Maurya about the clothes? Would she have been better off if she didn’t have to wonder about what happened to Michael any longer?
Bartley, Maurya’s last remaining son, decides to sail to another city to sell a horse despite the poor weather. I think that Bartley’s decision was careless and irresponsible. He should have been thinking about his family when he went to sell the horse. He knew that he would be leaving his family with fears, and putting his task off until another day seemed wise. Now Maura is not only mourning Michael’s disappearance, but now is full of fears for Bartley. Maurya has already lost her husband and five sons to the sea. The possibility of losing another son to this tyrant would leave Maurya destitute, or a woman without suffering extreme poverty, without the men of her family. The sea symbolizes the transcendence from the formalities of earth to the non-formalities of the sea. In other words, the sea represents the voyage from life into death.
While Maurya goes after Bartley to bless his voyage, Cathleen and Nora examine the clothing they had hidden before. They were able to confirm that these clothes were indeed their brother, Michael’s. Maurya returns home claiming to have seen the ghost of Michael riding behind Bartley. Some of the villagers bring the body of Bartley, who has fallen off his horse and drown in the sea. Maurya becomes eerily calm and accepts that it was God’s time to take her Bartley and all her sons before because they will be together in heaven. There is not any more pain that the sea can inflict on her or her family. I thought that Maurya’s final show of feelings seemed odd for a mother. The play briefly stated that when she lost Michael, Maurya wept greatly, however, with Bartley, she shows only acceptance. Although I feel that acceptance displays Maurya’s character of a sorrowful woman, I thought a more dramatic reaction would be more fitting.
This play describes the hardships that a woman faces with the deaths that occur in her family. We learn a lot about Maurya through her reactions. Her mourning displays her affection and emotion, her fear displays that she still has fight left in her to keep her family safe, and acceptance displays that she believes in God’s plan. Would her daughters have the same reactions, or did their original concealing of their brother’s clothes distinguish them from their mother?
Works Cited
Synge, JM. Riders to the Sea. 2008. Nature Theater. 23 June 2009.
<http://whisperdownthewritealley.wordpress.com/2008/03/10/e1b-riders-to-the-sea-by-jm-synge/>
