Discuss How Synge’s “Riders to the Sea” is Simultaneously Locale And Universal

John Millington Synge chose the remote Aran Islands as the locale for his tragic play Riders to the Sea. The choice was a conscious one, and it yielded a surprising dividend for an artist who was, for years, groping for a fitting subject matter.

The very limitations of space and time, which the play finds bound in, opened up vistas of possibilities for universal meaning. The smallness of the island makes it symbolic enough to contain the whole universe.

The four people in the play ultimately grow big to become the prototypes of the whole humanity and its tragic fate. Their struggle against the cruel, hungry foam of the sea becomes the symbol of man’s eternal struggle against the odds of nature. 

Hence, Riders to the Sea is simultaneously a play about a particular place on the map and a document of the universal human struggle.

How Synge Ideated The Riders to the Sea’s Theme

W.B Yeats met Synge in Paris on 21v December 1896. He advised young Synge to go back to the Aran islands, study the life and the circumstances of the people, and find a potential subject matter for his writing.

Acting on the advice of W. B Yeats, Synge paid several visits to the Aran Islands and studied the manners, habits, beliefs, and mode of life of the natives there. He drew much of the material from his first-hand knowledge of these islands and their people.

The Regional Setting in Riders to the Sea Is Illustrious

The local setting color of the play is unmistakably sharp. The islands vividly portray their loneliness, poverty, and forbidding surroundings.

Situated on Galway Bay, the island of Riders to the Sea consists mainly of barren, chalky lands, and grey rocks. There is no greenery to relieve the sense of weariness, and the landscape is desolate.

The regional quality of the play is clear not only from how the characters speak but also from how they practice their beliefs and habits.

The Economic State of The Islanders in Riders to the Sea

The Islanders in Riders to the Sea live in shabby cottages too near the sea. Their hand-to-mouth survival depends on agriculture, pasturages, and fishing.

Before leaving for the Galway fair, Bartley tells Cathleen to sell the pig’s gobbler with the black feet if the price is reasonable. He also asks her to protect the rye fields from the sheep and collect enough kelp or seaweeds.

We see oilskins and nets outside Maurya’s cottages, and Nora mentions Michael as a great rower and fisher. The paraphernalia of living has been reduced to the minimum. Their privation level is transparent by numerous details scattered throughout the play.

Pressed hard for money, Bartley cannot defer his fatal voyage for two weeks; he has no other shirt to wear than his dead brothers; after Bartley’s death, Maurya laments that they will have to live on a bit of wet flower and stinking fish.

The Islanders’ Belief And Customs Strand Them Away from Civilization

The economic condition, beliefs, and customs give the islanders their local identity cut off from the mainstream of Irish civilization. Their age-old customs and rituals shadowed them.

Like the primitive people, the Aran people attribute supernatural powers to inanimate objects. Omens and forebodings pervade the play because their fears and anxieties project these.

No wonder these islanders believe in ghosts, demons, transmigrations of souls, and the like.

The Universal Appeal in Riders to the Sea Is Equivalent to The Locale

Amazingly, the local and regional appeal of the play should not stop us from seeing its universal quality.

The tragedy in the play is not that of a woman belonging to one of the Aran Islands. Rather, it is a human tragedy that has relevance to all climes. The sea stands for itself and symbolizes the cosmic forces inimical to man. 

Riders to the Sea reminds us of the ancient classical tragedies in which fate was the principal foe of human beings. Maurya, like Oedipus or Cassandra, is also foredoomed to suffer.

When the play opens, Maurya has just lost a son, Michael, to the sea. Her last surviving son, Bartley, is ready to journey to the mainland. Maurya tries her utmost to prevent him from going because she fears that Bartley, too, may be lost.

However, fate has already decided that Maurya should have no son left; she has no way of escaping this fate. While her fate profoundly moves us, we also realize that her case is not unique.

Women all over the world undergo a similar agony of suffering. The feeling of loss for a mother and the bereaved heart’s anguish is everywhere the same. Maurya is the universal mother, whining and lamenting for the brave sons who go out to fight the world, never to return.

Wrapping Up

It is safe to say that Synge did a justice to his effort in paralelly elucidating the locale and universal themes in Riders to the Sea.

The elements of the play, such the characters, environment, conflict, action, etc. are essentially linkable to human life irrespective to time and place.

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