Publications and Research
Document Type
Working Paper
Publication Date
Fall 2021
Abstract
Jonathan Millington Synge spent his time on the Aran Islands wandering through the peasantry in the countryside, using his experiences and things he witnessed to inspire his writings. He wrote the play Riders to the Sea to portray the lives of the Aran peasants by showing the way in which they coped with the natural forces surrounding their island through believing in certain cultures. Synge constructs a dichotomy between the belief in the forces of nature and culture stemming from modern Christianity not only to portray the mixture of cultures present among the Aran peasants but also to challenge the ideologies of both colonials (who predominantly worshiped the modern Christian culture) and nationalists (who often believed in the forces of nature) of the time. Maurya’s struggles with the losses of her male kinsfolk to the sea tie into a recurring theme of the worship of nature versus modern culture. Maurya is a firm believer in the idea of the sea holding divine and destructive power, and places no trust in the concept of modern faith and prayer to save her son from the fate she knows he is bound to meet. Her prediction of his fate and the dark omens she witnesses when his fate comes to fruition tie back to the sublime power of the sea and eventually lead to her emotional resignation. Through careful consideration of critical texts by Oona Frawley and Robin Skelton, this paper aims to mine the dichotomy Synge has created here between the worship of the forces of nature and modern culture to reveal the truth about the complex coexistence of cultures on the Aran Islands.
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