Riders to the Sea

“MAURYA. […] what is the price of a thousand horses against a son where there is one son only?”

Maurya here pushes against the financial need that drives Bartley to the sea. She has learned, after losing many sons, her husband, and a father-in-law, that life is more valuable, despite their reliance on the sea for their economic welfare. Maurya thus fights back against an established system, unable to overcome the cultural necessity that drives their community.

“MAURYA (turning round to the fire, and putting her shawl over her head). Isn’t it a hard and cruel man to be going on the sea, and who would listen to an old woman with one thing and she saying it over?”

Maurya refuses to listen to Bartley’s logic about selling the horse, just as Bartley ignores her worries and cries for him to stay home. Maurya’s pain and worry is clear in these moments, foreshadowing the additional losses she will experience.

“CATHLEEN. It’s the life of a young man to be going on the sea, and who would listen to an old woman with one thing and she saying it over?”

Cathleen attempts to maintain a hold on the family’s sense of logic and financial survival. She points out that the men of their community must go on the sea and scolds Maurya for giving Bartley a hard time for doing what he must. This portion of the play addresses The Role of Place and Nature in Irish Culture, suggesting that their home and livelihoods revolve around this push and pull of life and death at the whims of nature.

“MAURYA (crying out as he is in the door). 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.”

Maurya has let Bartley leave without giving her blessing, which is seen as bad luck. This is a moment that highlights the mysticism and pagan superstitions still present in a society influenced by Christianity. Both of these belief systems work together in this family, whose members grasp for optimism and a sense of just fate wherever they can.

“CATHLEEN. Why wouldn’t you give him your blessing and he looking round in the door? Isn’t it sorrow enough is on every one in this house without your sending him out with an unlucky word behind him, and a hard word in his ear?”

Cathleen highlights the transgression Maurya has committed by withholding her blessing. Cathleen, however, tries to avoid the superstition that has Maurya claiming Bartley will die, instead focusing on how Maurya let Bartley walk away with hard words from her.

“CATHLEEN (turning the cake out of the oven). It’s destroyed he’ll be, surely. There’s no sense left on any person in a house where an old woman will be talking for ever.”

Cathleen here despairs of their household full of grief and the rantings of their mother. She has taken over as caretaker of the household, but things still go awry when they are all distracted by Maurya’s cries of sorrow.

“MAURYA (taking a stick Nora gives her). In the big world the old people do be leaving things after them for their sons and children, but in this place it is the young men do be leaving things behind for them that do be old.”

This moment is important both for the way it portrays Maurya’s grief and for its foreshadowing. The stick Maurya takes belonged to Michael, and its presence reminds her that she has had to bury several of her own sons rather than have her sons outlive her and inherit her belongings, as those in “the big world” do.

“CATHLEEN. […] Ah, Nora, isn’t it a bitter thing to think of him floating that way to the far north, and no one to keen him but the black hags that do be flying on the sea?”

Cathleen and Nora give into their own sorrow after realizing that the clothes belong to Michael. Cathleen’s sorrow over having no one to keen Michael reveals the importance of the keening tradition within the community for its support of the grieving process.

“CATHLEEN (a little impatiently). God forgive you; isn’t it a better thing to raise your voice and tell what you seen, than to be making lamentation for a thing that’s done?”

Dealing with her own sorrow and loss, Cathleen loses patience with her mother’s agonized silence on returning from meeting Bartley on the road. Her impatience draws out Maurya’s revelation and the vision foreshadowing Bartley’s death, elevating drama and suspense.

“MAURYA. […] I looked up then, and I crying, at the gray pony, and there was Michael upon it—with fine clothes on him, and new shoes on his feet.”

Maurya reveals the vision she saw of Michael on the horse pulled by Bartley. His ghostly appearance in fine clothes, like those that might be put on a body for burial, reveals his death to Maurya and foreshadows Bartley’s demise at sea. Maurya believes in this vision, leaning into her pagan spirituality.

“MAURYA (in a low voice, but clearly). […] Bartley will be lost now, and let you call in Eamon and make me a good coffin out of the white boards, for I won’t live after them. I’ve had a husband, and a husband’s father, and six sons in this house—six fine men, though it was a hard birth I had with every one of them and they coming to the world—and some of them were found and some of them were not found, but they’re gone now the lot of them.”

Maurya’s monologue continues with an account of the losses she has endured. This moment is important for how it highlights the hardships of the poor Irish, especially on the Aran Islands. The scene pulls sympathy and pity from the audience for Maurya.

“CATHLEEN (in a whisper). There’s some one after crying out by the seashore.”

The sound of crying signals the revelation of how accurate Maurya’s vision was. The cry comes from the women, weeping over Bartley’s death, and those women carry the news to Maurya and her daughters.

“MAURYA (continues without hearing anything). […] There was Patch after was drowned […] I was sitting here with Bartley, and he a baby, lying on my two knees, and I seen two women, and three women, and four women coming in, and they crossing themselves, and not saying a word. I looked out then, and there were men coming after them, and they holding a thing in the half of a red sail, and water dripping out of it—it was a dry day, Nora—and leaving a track to the door.”

This moment inspires more pity in the audience and foreshadows the revelation of Bartley’s death. When the men carry Bartley’s body into the cottage, the scene will echo this description of Patch’s death.

“[She pauses again with her white hand stretched out towards the door. It opens softly and old women begin to come in, crossing themselves on the threshold, and kneeling down in front of the stage with red petticoats over their heads.]”

Maurya anticipates the arrival of the female mourners. Their kneeling and crossing reveal the truth of Bartley’s death to the audience and to Maurya and her daughters.

“MAURYA. There does be a power of young men floating round in the sea, and what way would they know if it was Michael they had, or another man like him, for when a man is nine days in the sea, and the wind blowing, it’s hard set his own mother would be to say what man was it.”

Maurya, half caught in her memories still, refuses at first to believe that the girls can know Michael is dead. Her musings yet again highlight the complexity behind The Role of Place and Nature in Irish Culture.

“NORA. They’re carrying a thing among them and there’s water dripping out of it and leaving a track by the big stones.”

Nora’s comment reveals the similarity between their brother Patch’s death and Bartley’s death. Maurya has just described the scene when Patch’s body was returned to her, and the girls recognize the echo of it in the men approaching their cottage.

“The women are keening softly and swaying themselves with a slow movement.”

Keening finally appears onstage, giving audiences a glimpse into the lives and traditions of those in rural areas who have held onto more pieces of ancient Irish culture. The women here provide support for the grieving family by echoing their sorrow with their voices.

“MAURYA (raising her head and speaking as if she did not see the people around her). They’re all gone now, and there isn’t anything more the sea can do to me…I’ll have no call now to be up crying and praying when the wind breaks from the south […] I’ll have no call now to be going down and getting Holy Water in the dark nights after Samhain, and I won’t care what way the sea is when the other women will be keening.”

This is the moment that most clearly addresses The Relationship Between Tragedy and Catharsis. The built-up sorrow and worry fade into a calm sadness as she realizes that the sea can take no more sons from her. The tragedy that has befallen the family has finally reached an end, and with this end is a release of grief and acceptance.

“MAURYA. […] [B]ut it’s a great rest I’ll have now, and it’s time surely. It’s a great rest I’ll have now, and great sleeping in the long nights after Samhain.”

Maurya reveals how tired she is after the loss of so many. Her reference to Samhain, the Celtic autumn festival, also reveals the hints of pagan tradition that linger in some parts of Irish society, despite the influence of the Christian church.

“CATHLEEN. It’s getting old she is, and broken.”

Nora suspects Maurya might have loved Michael more than Bartley, but Cathleen understands her mother better. She corrects Nora and highlights for the audience how broken Maurya is and how her quiet sorrow for this final death of a son is a reflection of that brokenness.

“CATHLEEN (slowly and clearly). An old woman will be soon tired with anything she will do.”

Cathleen again illustrates her deeper understanding of her mother. She understands how much her mother has lost, and she makes sure their community understands, as well.

“MAURYA (puts the empty cup mouth downwards on the table, and lays her hands together on Bartley’s feet). They’re all together this time, and the end is come.”

Maurya is reaching the end of her cathartic moment. She accepts the reality of her life, and she clings to her religious belief that her sons are now all together in Heaven.

“MAURYA. […] May the Almighty God […] have mercy on my soul, Nora, and on the soul of every one is left living in the world.”

Maurya’s religious belief remains, despite her losses. The sea has revealed its lack of care for her family and their needs, and Maurya sees that nature cares for no one, so she turns to prayer for comfort.