Role of the Sea in the Play Riders to the Sea
John Millington Synge, an Irish Literary Renaissance
playwright, has always used nature as background, character and symbol in his
plays. Nature is the protagonist or antagonist in many of his plays specially
in Riders To The Sea where nature fills the minds of the characters and
mounds their actions, even their moods and fate. The play is dominated by fate
in the shape of sea. In the play we find that the sea is that which provides a
living for the characters of the small cottages. At the same time it is also
that which causes their sufferings.
In Riders to
the Sea, the sea represents fate.
The sea is a great factor in the life of the people of Aran Islands. It is the
source of their living. Moreover, the sea gives them passage to the markets in
the mainland where they go to buy or sell things. There is no alternative for
them but to ride the sea to maintain their family's existence. But at the same
time the sea devours the men-folk as they go out for earning their living. The
men of the family, past and present, were and are trapped in a sense. The sea
is the bringer of suffering and tragedy. They are, in fact, in a no-win
situation. They must go to the sea to survive economically. But death on the
sea is so common that all of Maurya's sons, as well as her husband and
father-in -law are killed on it. Thus the sea plays the role of both the giver
and the taker. The sea provides living for them. At the same time acts as a
hungry demon devouring the humans that come in its way.
The sea is indeed
the most impressive character in the
play. It's unseen presence fills the mind of both the characters and the
audience. As a background, as a living character, as a force of nature, as an
agent of destiny, as a villain, the sea plays a great role throughout the play.
At present world, man has been trying to dominate the sea. He is successful in
colonizing the sea to a specific extent. But there was once a time when the sea
controlled man's life. The sea was then a more powerful enemy than it is now.
The sea is
also invested with supernatural
suggestions. It is the archetypal symbol of fate. The riders are men who
are engulfed by the dark, mysterious and inscrutable fate. The sea and humanity
are mysteriously interlocked. It has taken a heavy toll of eight lives of the
poor family of Maurya. When her last son is drowned, she is relieved at the thought
that -
''There isn't
anything more the sea can do to me.''
This is the heart
rending sorrow of the bereaved mother.
Some critics
consider the sea as the villain of
Maurya's life causing the tragedy of her life. But it would be wrong to
consider the sea as the villain because being a powerful element of nature, it
is governed by its own moods like anything else in nature. Besides, the sea
provides livelihood to people as it does to Maurya's family too. We can say
that Maurya was fated to suffer at the hands of sea.
In Riders
To The Sea, Maurya's family members fall victim to the fury of the sea. But it was their fate to be caught
up in a tempest on the all on a sudden and be killed. The old mother Maurya who
has had the mortifying experience of seeing all male members of her family
getting drowned into the sea, tries her best to dissuade her only surviving son
Bartley from crossing over the sea. Maurya gets the signal of Bartley's death. She
says-
''I've seen
the fearfullest thing any person has since the day Bride Dara seen the dead man
with the child in his arms.''
Bartley has to set
sail over the sea to earn their bread. Mother's words are futile to prevent
Bartley from going to sea. Cathleen, the practical-minded girl knows and she
says-
''It is the
life of a young man to be going on the sea.''
Barley's life could
be saved if he had listened to his mother's advice and if he had not gone to
the Galway fair. He decides to go to the fair to sell the horses because
he thinks that it is his duty to look after the family as there is no other
male member alive in the family. So it is the necessity of the family for which
Bartley feels compelled to go to the sea. So it is not the fault of the sea
for which Bartley died.
Thus
the sea is the powerful force which
causes endless tragedy. Synge brings the sea in place of fate and at the same
time he juxtaposes the sea with fate. The sea becomes the Nemesis, against whom
the doomed mankind must fight. And through the fight man attains dignity. The
sea is the agent of destiny, through which Maurya learns the wisdom and the
truth. The tidings of the sea turn the tidings of the life of Maurya and her
two daughters. She suffers, she experiences and she learns from the sea. The
ruthless and cruel hand of Maurya's fate forcibly led Bartley to his death to
complete her tragedy. Thus it is the inevitability of fate which in the shape
of sea dominates the action of the play.
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