Riders to the Sea is one of the greatest tragedies in modern
time in one act. Mainly by virtue of its concentrated strength of conception
and execution. In conception and tragic intensity of the story has an austere
beauty of a Greek tragedy and in execution the imagery and symbols are so intensely employed as to refer to us not only to the world of Irish history and
folklore but to the world of archetypal symbolism. Symbolism is one of the
major literary devices with the poets and dramatists to create an atmosphere in
their works without giving a detailed description of their ideas and emotions.
In Riders to the Sea the most universal, archetypal symbol
setting up a tragic atmosphere is that of the sea which is the main protagonist
in the play and also become symbolic of all those elemental forces that man can
neither compliment nor control. The sea, though a vast expanse of water is a
symbol of the cradle and grave of the grave of the islanders.The heroic riders
and their horses comprise another archetypal symbol creating the tragic
atmosphere . The superstition regarding the “grey horse” perhaps springs from
the “pale horse” of Revelation : “ And I looked and beheld a pale horse”, and
his name that sat on him was Death. It is therefore highly appropriate that
Bartley should die immediately after Maurya’s vision of him being followed by a
‘grey pony’ and that grey pony itself should be the agent of Death.
Synge has made brilliant use of other symbols , too. He has
made the symbolic use of the ‘number nine’ subtly in the play-Michael was
missing for nine days. Maurya, like Niobe wept for nine days for her lost son.
Maurya herself recalling the drowning incident of Patch reports that she saw
two women and three women and four women coming in.-these adds up to nine.
Again, as do the numbers mentioned by Bartley himself when he says optimistically,
“ you will see me coming again in two
days or three days or may be in four days if the wind is bad.”Thus, the number
nine is very symbolically used in the play to imply something ominous.
There are some other very engrossing symbols which
constantly arrest the attention of the audience. The drowned man symbolizes ‘sad
mortality’. The “spring well” symbolizes life. “Nail” symbolizes pain and
finality. The stick that Maurya takes on her way to the Spring well and Bartley’s
wearing of Michael’s shirt are all symbolic and artfully manifested in the play
where the living and the dead are intermingled even in their possessions. The new rope that was brought to be used in
the coffin of Michael is taken by Bartley to serve as a halter for himself,
something which look like a hangman’s noose. Brad is being baked for Bartley,
but ironically it is eaten up by men who are to make coffin – bread is symbolic
of the last supper that pr-eluded the end of Christ.
Further again, the Irish have strong faith in superstitions
and symbolism is quite related with it. Maurya who tries to hold back her son
from undertaking the risky voyage to the windy sea says- “there is a star up by
the sickle moon”- this image of a star by the sickle moon is a symbolic manifestation
of something ominous and as such it is a foreboding, a presaging the death of Bartley.
The colours of the horses are symbolic
too- the “red” color stands for vigor and strength while the “grey” colour is
unmistakably suggestive of death; new clothes obviously allude to the new linen,
as recorded in the Holy Bible.
Thus Synge makes full use of symbols and images in order to
excite our imagination and to create the conceivable tragic atmosphere within a
short compass . The dramatist caters to this traditional precept that the final
event in the drama should have a ‘probability’ and should not come as a sudden
shock which is detrimental to artistic pleasure.
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