A Comparison of “Riders to the Sea” with Greek Tragedy

Greek tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles present spectacles of human suffering and inexorable necessity wheel in the backdrop of the massive machinery of inscrutable fate. Greek tragedy shows the essential pre-determination of the human situation on earth.

In modern times, this Greek concept of tragedy lost favour with many tragic dramatists like O’Neil or Arthur Miller. However, at least one modern dramatist dealt with the theme of predestined fatalism and the hostility of eternal nature.

Synge’s Riders to the Sea is modelled upon the Greek tragedy of the Aeschylean type, both in structure and theme. It’s also full of struggling lives that are striving for survival against nature — as in Greek tragedy.

The Riders to the Sea Depicts A One-Act Play

For Synge, the form of a one-act play yielded a fantastic opportunity for portraying the tragedy of the fishing community on the remote island of Aran in Ireland. Aristotle divided the plot of a drama into three parts – beginning, middle, and end.

In a one-act play, only the end of a story is portrayed. However, the dramatic act, its utmost concentration, and suggestiveness are so powerful that the whole story comes alive.

Though a one-act play isolates and focuses on only a fragment of life, the vision itself conjures up and enchants up by its concreteness and intensity. This form is a modern invention that comes very close structurally to the compactness and breath-taking speed of a Greek tragedy.

We can compare the plot of Oedipus Rex, which is concerned with the last day of Oedipus’ life, with that of Riders to the Sea, concerned with the tragic happenings of one day in the life of Maurya, the bereaved mother.

Riders to the Sea Spills with Life & Struggle As in Greek Tragedy

Synge has maintained the three dramatic unities strictly. It has lent the play the high intensity and concentration found in a Greek tragedy.

The unchanging locale of the action is Maurya’sramshackle cottage which stands high on a rocky plain exposed to the sea’s storms. The unity of time is another remarkable feature of a Greek tragedy.

The entire action of Oedipus Rex covers less than twelve hours.

The Time And Unity of Action in the Riders to the Sea

The time of action in the Riders to the Sea is as brief as imaginable. It begins with hushed mourning over the identification of the clothes of frowned Michael. Then it follows a brief debate on the advisability of Bartley’s sea voyages, his setting out, and the speedy arrival of his corpse on the sea-shore.

As in a Greek tragedy, the unity of action is observed in Riders to the Sea. The two deaths around which the play moves are deftly telescoped. Bartley uses the rope preserved for Michael’s burial and wears the dead brother’s shirt.

Maurya Tells about Their Tragic Past Against The Monstrous Sea

The thought of Bartley’s doom reminds Maurya of the other deaths she suffered in the past. Her monody calls up the family’s past and links it with the present and future.

One cannot expect a chorus in a one-act play like Riders to the Sea, yet Maurya herself performs the role usually taken by a chorus in a Greek tragedy.

Maurya, the central character, has the additional function of presenting the tragic doom of the whole family pitted against the cruelty of the sea, which has snatched everything away from her.

Riders to the Sea Resembles Greek Tragedy Thematically

Nevertheless, Riders to the Sea approximates a Greek tragedy most in its theme and exposition of the perennial tragedy of man in the context of the mysterious ‘nature.’ The play symbolizes a largely one-sided struggle between malignant nature and the helpless islanders who have to wrest their living from it.

The atmosphere of doom and fatality is all over the play from the start. Despite Maurya’s persistent objection, Bartley decides to go to Galway fair. He has no choice, and Cathleen encourages him thus;

“Is the life of a young man to be going on the sea.”

Cathleen, Riders to the Sea.

With Michael’s dead body still buried, Maruya feels deeply that Bartley is doomed. Consequently, she is haunted by ominous signs and utters such words as they turn out to be grim ironies.

Conclusion

Riders to the Sea can be compared with a great Greek tragedy in its symbolic nature, its universalization of the theme of human suffering and loss.

Maurya’s extreme loss and Bartley’s predicament are inherent in the human condition. With her peaceful surrender to her fate, Maurya attains a noble hero of Sophocles or Shakespeare.

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