Evaluate Riders to the Sea as a Modern One-Act Tragedy with a Classical Setting.

Answer

Evaluate Riders to the Sea as a modern one-act tragedy with a classical setting.

“Riders to the Sea,” published in 1903, is a modern one-act tragedy by John Millington Synge (1871-1909). It is one of the notable tragic plays of the modern age. Tragedy is a type of play that represents the problems and sufferings of human life. “Riders to the Sea” describes human sufferings that raise pity and fear among us and make us decide that the play is a great one in its tragic effect.

The play is similar to classical Greek tragedies, set in the modern context. Here is a detailed comparison concerning the play.

Tragic Theme: According to Aristotle, tragedy originated from Greek literature. Tragic theme means pathos, the fundamental condition for a play being tragedy. The tragic theme of “Riders to the Sea” moves around with the deep pathos of a mother, Maurya. The tragedy of the play is straightforward but sublime and universal. And the message of the play that is akin to Greek tragedy is –

No man at all can be living forever, and we must be satisfied

Attainment of Unique Tragic Grandeur: The play has the magnificence of a classical tragedy in its attainment of a unique, tragic grandeur. The tragedy of Maurya is unforgettable, though she is an old, superstitious, and peevish woman. It is factual that Maurya has nothing of the brilliance or personality of Lady Macbeth and Cleopatra, but she touches our hearts with pathetic feelings. She loses her husband and all six sons to the sea.

Technical Standpoint: From the technical standpoint, “Riders to the Sea” also comes closer to classical tragedies. The principle of the three unities (unity of time, place, and action) of the classical tragedy is carefully followed here. The play has a single plot of the acute suffering of an old mother. The duration of the play does not cover more than an hour. The action of the play is laid in a lonely seacoast cottage.

Role of Chorus: This play has no conventional chorus of the classical tragedy. However, the conversation between the two sisters, Cathleen and Nora, represents the prosaic chorus of the play.

She is lying down. God helps her and may be sleeping.

Thus, it is akin to Greek tragedy in the modern context.

Role of Fate: Greek tragedy is out and out fate-based. Like Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, Riders to the Sea is a fate-based tragedy. All the visible or invisible characters are forced to submit themselves before fate. The tragic figure of the play, Maurya, has lost her six young sons, husband, and father-in-law, who were helpless. The supernatural agent of the play ‘Sea’ symbolizes inscrutable fate.

Dramatic or Tragic Irony: Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows something the characters do not know. It has been used in this play to create tragic anticipation. Bartley says the very opposite of what will happen. He says he will return from the Galway Fair in two or four days. Similarly, there are uses of premonitions and forebodings that appeal to our senses of pity and terror. A more straightforward but still classical use of foreboding speech occurs when Maurya says to Bartley:

What way will I live and the girls with me,

and I an old woman looking for the grave

When Bartley leaves, Maurya makes another foreboding comment, which suggests that the sea or fate is working against her and Bartley will be killed.

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.

It is clear from the above discussion that in a tiny canvas, Synge has successfully constructed the effect of his modern tragedy akin to the craft and convention of Greek theatre. Besides, it is not merely a tragedy of an individual old woman but a tragedy of those seashore people who struggle for survival against the heavy odds of life.