Riders to the Sea (one act play) by J.M. Synge

Riders to the Sea

                                                                                            John Millington Synge (J.M. Synge)

Answer the following questions in not more than three sentences.

1.      What did Nora bring home from the young priest?

Nora brought home a bundle which contained a shirt and a stocking that belonged to a drowned man.  The village priest had given the bundle to Nora to verify if the clothes belonged to her missing brother Michael. The priest told her that the bundle belonged to a drowned man whose dead body had been found in Donegal and given a decent burial there.

2.      How does Cathleen deceive her mother Maurya?

Maurya had seen Cathleen climbing up to the turf-loft and Cathleen told her mother that she had been burning a cake at the fire for Bartley. But she was actually hiding the bundle of clothes on the turf-loft. The young priest had given Nora that bundle which belonged to a drowned man whose body had been found in Donegal.

What are the reasons that Maurya gives for keeping Bartley back from going to the horse-fair in Connemara?

3. Maurya had lost her husband, father-in-law and five sons. Her youngest son Bartley is going to the horse-fair in Connemara. She requests Bartley not to sail for Connemara because the weather is very bad and the sea is violent. Secondly, if Michael’s dead body is brought home, there is no one to make a coffin for him.

4.      What story is told Cathleen about the recovery of Michael’s clothes in Donegal?

Nora tells her sister Cathleen that two smugglers were carrying whisky in their boat by the black-looking rock on the Irish coast, the oar of one of them struck a dead body, which was floating. They picked up the dead body, which is supposed to be Michael’s.

5.      How does Nora confirm that the shirt and the stocking in the bundle belonged to Michael?

Nora had knitted her brother, Michael’s pair of stockings. So she examined the number of stitching that she had put in them and found them correct. Similarly the shirt is of the same quality of Michael’s old shirt. Thus Nora confirms that the shirt and stockings belonged to Michael’s.

6.      What was the fearfullest thing that Maurya had seen?Bring out its dramatic significance

The dreadfullest thing  that Maurya had seen was the ghost of her dead son Michael chasing her youngest son Bartley on a grey pony. The poor fisherfolk of Aran had a superstitious belief that if a living man is chased by a ghost, he would die soon.

7. “I ‘ll have no call now to be going down and getting Holy Water in the dark night after Samhain and I won’t care what way the sea is when the other women will be keening” Why does Maurya say so?

With the death of her last son  Bartley, there was no male member left in the family. Now she is free from all burdens of life. She becomes a living dead person who has no feeling left and she does not care fore anything life. The sea can do her no more harm.

8. How did Bartley die?

Bartley was going to the horse-fair in Connemara. While he was crossing the sea, the grey pony knocked him down to the violent sea and he was drowned.

Why is the neighbour surprised at Maurya’s forgetting to purchase nails for the coffin?

The neighbour is surprised because Maurya has seen many coffins made for her menfolk such as her husband, father-in-law and her five sons. So it is surprising that Maurya forgot to buy nails for her sixth son Bartley.

9. What does Maurya mean when she says Michael has a clean burial in the far north?

Maurya has seen the tragic deaths of her husband, father-in-law and six sons. So now she bows her head to the inevitable fate-death without any complaint. She accepts the deaths of her two sons Michael and Bartley without any complaint. Therefore Maurya says that it is enough that Michael had a clean burial in Donegal.

10.“What more can we want than that? No man at all can be living for ever, and we must be satisfied” – what is the dramatic significance of these lines?

The final effect of ‘Riders to the Sea’ is sublime and not depressing. Maurya is the tragic heroine of the play and they are the concluding utterance, which bring the play to a sublime end because it expresses a sense of relief. Man is a helpless creature in the hands of death. Death closes all. So Maurya heaves a sigh of relief that everything is over with death. She has lost her husband, father-in-law and six healthy, young sons in the sea.

11.What do the red mare and grey pony represent in the play “Riders to the Sea”?

The red mare and grey pony are symbolic representations. Red colour represents strength and virility and grey stands for death. It should be remembered that Bartley who was riding the red mare was knocked down to the sea by the grey pony that was following Bartley.

Write short notes on the following:

1.       Supernatural elements in “Riders to the Sea”

Riders to the Sea is a one act play written by J.M. Synge who is a great Irish writer. He spent five summers in the Aran Islands, which excited his interest in the durablity and humour of the Aran peasant folk.  Riders to the Sea is a very simple but powerful one act play about a mother who loses her sixth son to the sea. As the characters are rude peasants, supernaturalism is natural to them. It is penetrated into the spirit of the drama. The very title “Riders to the Sea” reflects supernatural elements.  There are only two riders in the play.  They are Bartley and his “ghost” brother Michael. Maurya, their mother has seen the horrible sight. She had seen Michael riding on a grey pony behind Bartley.  Synge has created a world of spectre and spirit by weaving the ghost horse and Samhain into the plot of the play. Samhain is the Celtic festival of the departing Sun, which is held on November 1^st. It is the feast of the Dead in Pagan and Christian times.

Nora tells Cathleen that there were two men and they were rowing and the oar of one of them caught the body of Michael, which was floating near the cliffs in the North. Black cliffs represent some place of darkness through which the spirits of the dead pass into Hades. Murya’s youngest son Bartley was riding on a red mare while the ghost of her dead son(Michael) was following on a grey poney. It is the superstitious belief among the poor fisherfolk of Ireland that red colour stands for strength and virility and grey colour for death. The springwell and the food that Maurya prepared for Bartley also reflect the supernatural element in the play. Maurya tried her best to stop Bartley from going to Connemara crossing the sea because she had seen a star at the tip of the rising moon.

Drafted and typed by K.J. Thomas for his students at Prathibha College, Karivarakundu on 20^th August 2006..