Discussion Topic
Bartley's character, role, and death in Riders to the Sea
Summary:
Bartley, Maurya's last living son in Riders to the Sea, is determined to take horses to the Galway Fair despite his family's fears and his mother's pleas. His determination stems from their harsh poverty. Tragically, Bartley dies when he's knocked into the sea by a gray pony, leaving Maurya to mourn all her lost sons but finding ironic peace in her final blessing for Bartley.
Describe Bartley's death in Riders to the Sea.
Bartley is Maurya’s son. As the play begins, he is one of two sons who are (possibly) still alive, as four others have already died. His brother Michael is missing, and the family fears that he has died. The priest has brought some clothing from a drowned man, and the daughters want to hide it from their mother to delay the identification. Everyone is highly aware of the effect that losing Michael would have on their mother and on Bartley.
Bartley’s plan is to go the Galway Fair with his horses, and his sisters worry that the weather has turned bad in that area. Maurya assumes that he won’t go because of the weather and that the priest will stop him. But Bartley is determined to take advantage of the only boat going; he expects it to be a good fair. His mother implies that she wants him to stay...
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to help her with Michael’s burial; she will need a man to make the coffin, and no commerce is worth the risk of her losing her last son.
But Bartley is resolved to take the horses to the fair. Expecting to be back in four days, at a maximum, he sets off with his mother’s unlucky, hard word behind him, as his sister calls it.
In his haste, he forgets his bread, so his mother goes after him. She soon returns, looking ghastly, and reports her vision of seeing him with Michael’s body on his pony. While the girls are explaining that they have Michael’s clothes because he was found up north, two women come in and report that Bart has died: “The gray pony knocked him into the sea, and he was washed out where there is a great surf on the white rocks.”
References
Using textual evidence, this question is fairly straightforward, as there is very little explanation as to how Bartley dies. Audiences are told that Bartley was thrown off of his horse and drowned in the sea.
The gray pony knocked him into the sea, and he washed out where there is a great surf on the white rocks.
It is a devastating bit of news for audiences and Bartley's family. Maurya has spent a great deal of the play trying to convince Bartley not to go to sea that day. The weather is terrible, for one; however, Maurya has lost every other man in her life to the sea. She simply can not handle losing another loved one to the sea, so she is desperate to keep Bartley home. Bartley is not to be swayed from doing what he believes is his duty and responsibility to his family and wider community. He takes the horse and is thrown into the sea and dies. His body is recovered and brought back to Maurya's house, and the play ends soon after.
Describe Bartley's character and role in Riders to the Sea.
Conflict in a literary work is what moves the story forward. The types of conflict found in novels, poems, short stories, and plays include conflict with oneself—such as Hamlet's internal conflict in Shakespeare's Hamlet—conflict with others, including conflicts with individuals and society as a whole, conflict with the environment, including conflicts with nature and technology, and conflict with the supernatural, such as conflicts with "the gods" in ancient Greek tragedies, conflict with one's destiny or fate, or conflict with a supernatural entity or force.
In Irish playwright J. M. (John Millington) Synge's one-act play Riders to the Sea, the character of Bartely is involved with two conflicts: a conflict with nature, and a conflict with the supernatural.
Interestingly, though, these conflicts aren't with two different entities or forces. Synge represents these two conflicts with one entity and force: the sea.
When the play begins, Bartley's mother, Maurya, is waiting for word about her son, Michael, who's been swept out to sea. Maurya's sons Shawn, Sheamus, Stephen, and Patch, as well as Maurya's husband and his father have all been taken by the sea. Maurya is fatalistic about Michael, and holds no hope that he'll be found alive.
While Maurya waits for word about Michael, Maurya's youngest son, Bartley, makes preparations to take a horse on a boat to Connemara, where he hopes to sell it at a fair. Maurya tries to dissuade Bartley from going to Connemara, but Bartley simply continues to prepare for the journey, unmindful of Maurya's concerns:
MAURYA. Isn't it a hard and cruel man won't hear a word from an old woman, and she holding him from the sea?
CATHLEEN. It's the life of a young man to be going on the sea, and who would listen to an old woman with one thing and she saying it over?
As Bartley goes out the door to take the horse to the boat, Maurya laments to her daughters, Nora and Cathleen:
MAURYA. (crying out as he is in the door) He's gone now, God spare us, and we'll not see him again. He's gone now, and when the black night is falling I'll have no son left me in the world.
Maurya's words prove prophetic. Later in the play, some men and women carry in Bartley's body:
CATHLEEN. What way was he drowned?
ONE OF THE WOMEN. The gray pony knocked him into the sea, and he was washed out where there is a great surf on the white rocks.
The dual conflicts resolve in favor of the supernatural force of nature. The sea claims Maurya's youngest son, Bartley, who was destined to follow his brothers, father, and grandfather.