Discussion Topic
Riders to the Sea: Characters and Sea's Role
Summary:
In "Riders to the Sea" by J.M. Synge, the sea symbolizes both livelihood and inevitable tragedy for the island family. Maurya, the matriarch, loses her husband and all her sons to the sea, reflecting its dual role as provider and destroyer. The "riders" include Bartley, who rides to his death, and the symbolic vision of her dead sons, linking to the Biblical Four Horsemen. Maurya's acceptance of her fate highlights the sea's inescapable grip on their lives.
What is the role of the sea in Riders to the Sea?
In the play Riders to the Sea, the sea represents not only the way in which the people on an island to the west of Ireland can make a living, it also represents the cruel hand of fate. Maurya, the widow at the center of the play, has experienced the drowning of four of her sons and her husband when the play opens (her fifth son, Michael, drowns shortly after the play begins). During the course of the play, she tries to prevent her final son, Bartley, from setting sail to sell a horse. She says the following to him:
"If it was a hundred horses, or a thousand horses you had itself, what is the price of a thousand horses against a son where there is one son only?"
However, Bartley ignores her and sets off. He feels a responsibility to support the family as the one remaining...
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man. Even before Maurya hears news of Bartley's drowning (which occurs when the horse throws him into the sea), she says, "He's gone now, and when the black night is falling I'll have no son left me in the world." She has accepted her fate—that the sea will swallow up all her sons.
At the end of the play, she is relieved that there is not much more that fate, in the form of the sea, can do to harm her. She says, "They're all gone now, and there isn't anything more the sea can do to me." After a lifetime of suffering, she is left without much more that can be taken away by the sea, which represents inescapable fate.
Who are the riders in Riders to the Sea?
Maurya has a terrifying vision in which she claims to have seen her late son Michael riding behind her only living son, Bartley, as he sails to Connemara to sell a horse. This turns out to be a premonition, as during his journey, Bartley falls from his horse into the sea and drowns, leaving Maurya entirely bereft of children. Maurya's premonition references the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the Biblical Book of Revelation. Two of the Horsemen are alluded to in Maurya's vision: one riding a red horse, capable of taking away peace (Bartley), and another riding a pale horse (Death, as represented by the figure of Michael).
The title is significant in another respect. We normally associate sailing with the sea, not riding. One could argue that Synge uses the title Riders to the Sea to highlight the futility of Bartley's fateful journey. He's a rider, not a sailor, and as such is doomed to a premature end beneath the waves.