Role of the Sea in the Play Riders to the Sea by John Millington Synge

  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.