CHARACTERS

MAURYA, an old woman

BARTLEY, her son

CATHLEEN, her daughter

NORA, a younger daughter

MEN AND WOMEN

1. analyze characters https://www.enotes.com/topics/riders-sea/characters

2. analyze conflict https://www.gradesaver.com/riders-to-the-sea/study-guide/summary

3. analyze settings

4. analyze plot https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Riders-to-the-Sea/plot-summary/

5. analyze theme https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Riders-to-the-Sea/themes/

Maurya (MOY-ruh), an old peasant woman living on one of the Aran Islands at the mouth of Galway
Bay on the western coast of Ireland, a wild, desolate, impoverished area. She has reared six sons,
four of whom are known to be dead, as are her husband and her husband’s father—all from the
ravages of the sea, whose fierce tides and winds make life difficult and dangerous. She is afraid that
Michael, the next from youngest son, who has been absent unexpectedly for some time, is drowned
also, and she tries to dissuade her last son, Bartley, from crossing over the tumultuous sea to sell
two horses at the fair on the mainland. Twice unable to give him a journey’s blessing, she has a
vision foretelling his death. When her two daughters, after identifying as Michael’s some clothes
found on a drowned body, inform her of Michael’s death, she recites the list of the others’ deaths
and the circumstances. As she is being persuaded that he is dead, villagers enter to announce the
death of her last son, Bartley, who was knocked into the sea by his pony.

Instead of becoming bitter and angry, Maurya recognizes that the sea can do no more to harm her,
because she has lost all her men. There is an end to anxiety and a beginning of peace for her, though
there will be little to eat. She realizes that she will not long survive these deaths. Maurya’s nobility
and maturity of spirit enable her to see the good in all of her men now being together. She sprinkles
Holy Water over the dead Bartley and asks God’s mercy on the souls of her men, on her own, and,
generously, on the souls of everyone left living in the world.

Bartley

Bartley, the youngest of six sons, now the sole support of the household. He earns income by riding
horses into the sea to the steamer anchored far offshore, so that they can be sold at the mainland
fair. Preoccupied with practical exigencies, he ignores his mother’s request that he not go to sea,
being the last surviving male of the family. He nevertheless asks God’s blessing on the family and
rides off on the red mare, leading the pony. His mother foretells his death and omits the giving of a
blessing to him, an omission considered bad luck. When his mother subsequently stands on the path
trying in vain to say the blessing, he gives her his blessing.

Cathleen

Cathleen, a daughter about twenty years old. As the older of two sisters, she takes the lead in
expressing concern and making arrangements. She sympathizes with her brother’s need to go to sea
and criticizes her mother for repeatedly trying to stop him and for not giving him a blessing. She
sends Maurya with some bread to give him. Cathleen is effective in dealing with practical details, as
when she identifies some clothes as belonging to her other brother, Michael, drowned nine days
earlier. Cathleen is matter-of-fact and impatient with her mother’s lamentations and visions, telling
Maurya of the evidence of Michael’s death. Filled with life herself, she sees her mother as old,
broken, and lamenting excessively. Cathleen stands in sharp contrast to her mother’s deep,
powerful, and mature emotions.

Nora

Nora, a young girl, another of Maurya’s daughters. Her main function in the play is to talk with
Cathleen and enable the exposition of background and commentary on the action. She speaks more
respectfully to her mother than does Cathleen and with pity about her dead brother.

The Priest

The priest is never actually seen on stage, but his presence is so vital to the story that he must be
considered at least as important a character as Nora. It is the priest who delivers the message
through Nora that Maurya must put her faith and trust in a God that would never allow every last
one of her sons to die while she is still alive. He is younger and more modern than Maurya.
The play, set on an island off the coast of Ireland, begins with Nora bringing in a small bundle with
her and telling Cathleen that these may be the clothes of their brother Michael. The young priest
told her a body of a drowned man was found at Donegal, and the body might be Michael's. The
sisters are scared to open the bundle of clothes because they do not want their mother, Maurya, to
know: Michael has been missing for a week and the family had already lost five men to the sea. They
hide the bundle in the turf loft of the cottage.

Maurya is prepared for the funeral for Michael, with whiteboards for his coffin ready at the cottage.
She enters the kitchen; she is a woman who is seen lamenting all the time and worrying that her
sons will never come back from the sea. Maurya, Nora, and Cathleen discuss the last son, Bartley,
who is also planning to go the sea to sell the family horses so they could get some money. Nora and
Cathleen are convinced that Bartley should go to the fair at Galway to sell the animals, while Maurya
is still hoping that the Priest will not allow him to go in such dangerous tides.

Bartley enters the cottage looking for a new piece of rope. Maurya tries to stop him, but he says he
wants to make a halter for the horses; clearly Bartley plans to go to the sea. Maurya again tries to
dissuade him by showing him the whiteboards for Michael. Paying no attention , Bartley changes his
clothes, asks his sisters to take care of the sheep, and leaves without receiving any blessings from his
mother. It is a tradition in Ireland that the son receives the blessings of his mother before going
anywhere, but Maurya breaks this fashion.

Bartley leaves with a red horse and a grey pony tied behind. Cathleen then notices that he has not
taken any food and tells Maurya to walk down to the well to give Bartley his food and the blessings.
Maurya leaves using a stick that Michael brought, lamenting over how in her family, the old ones
never leave anything behind for their heirs, despite that being the general custom.

Once Maurya is gone, the girls retrieve the bundle of clothes from the loft to check if they are
Michael's. Nora realizes that the stockings are truly Michael's, because she recognizes her own
stitching on them. They count the number of stitches and arrive at the conclusion that Michael was
dead and buried.

The sisters hide the clothes again because they think that Maurya will be returning in a good mood
since she got the chance to bless Bartley; however, Maurya comes back more distressed than ever.
She tells her daughters that she saw Michael on the grey pony; s. To calm her down, Nora and
Cathleen show Maurya the clothes and tell her that Michael has had a clean burial. Maurya's
laments are interrupted when islanders bring the body of Bartley into the cottage and tell the
women that the grey pony knocked Bartley into the sea, where he drowned.

Maurya gets on her knees near Bartley's body and sprinkles holy water on him. She finally resigns
herself to her fate as she claims that she will finally sleep at night because she no longer has anyone
to worry about: all the men of her family have died to the sea. The whiteboards that were supposed
to be used for Michael's coffin will now be used to bury Bartley. Maurya prays that the souls of her
husband, her husband's father, and four sons may rest in peace, and the curtains are drawn.
Summary

The Delivery

A young woman, Cathleen, sits at a spinning wheel in her cottage on a fishing island off the west
coast of Ireland. Her younger sister, Nora, pokes her head through the door and asks where their
mother is. She pulls a bundle of clothes from under her shawl, saying the young priest found them
on a drowned man in Donegal. She wants to find out whether the clothes belong to their brother,
Michael, but doesn't want to upset their mother. Cathleen doubts the clothes are Michael's because
she doesn't think he would have gone that far north. As they talk, the door blows open. Cathleen
asks whether the young priest will intervene in their youngest brother Bartley's decision to take the
horses to the Galway fair. Nora claims the young priest assured her God would not leave their
mother, Maurya, "destitute ... with no son living." They discuss the storm that seems to be brewing
by the white rocks and decide to wait until later to inspect the bundle of clothes in case their mother
enters and finds them crying.

The sisters hear their mother stirring from bed, and they hurry to hide the clothes in the loft. She
throws down some turf, pretending she needs more of the burning material to bake a cake. Bartley
arrives looking for rope. Immediately, Maurya senses he wants the rope for the horses, and she
urges him to "leave that rope" today, thinking about his dead brother, Michael, whose body hasn't
even washed back to shore yet. Bartley is determined to leave because another ship won't be
leaving the island for at least two weeks, and he's heard the fair will be a good one for selling horses.
In response Maurya snorts, "what is the price of a thousand horses against a son?"

The Blessing

Before he leaves, Bartley gives his sisters orders for taking care of the house and farm. Maurya
wishes he would just stay and take care of things himself: If he thinks they'll be "hard set" for the
few days he plans to be away, imagine how hard off they'll be "surely the day you're drownd'd with
the rest." Maurya snaps at Bartley for not listening to her and ignores him as he leaves instead of
giving him the traditional blessing. As soon as he's gone, Cathleen chastises her mother for "sending
him out with an unlucky word" and asks her mother to take him some bread before he goes. Maurya
takes her walking stick for the unsteady path, remembering that it was the stick Michael brought
back from Connemara.

With their mother gone, Cathleen and Nora scurry to pull the bundle of clothing back down from the
loft. They can't tell whether the clothing belonged to Michael because anyone could have purchased
the generic plaid. Counting stitches in the stocking, Nora gasps, recognizing the dropped stitches in
the stockings she knitted for her brother herself. Cathleen laments not only that their brother has
died, but that he died so far north, with "no one to keen him but the black hags." The girls quickly
hide the clothes and dry their eyes when they hear Maurya returning. Annoyed that their mother
still has the bread in her hands, they ignore their mother's soft moaning.

The Ghost
Finally, a terrified and shaken Maurya says she saw Michael on the grey pony Bartley was walking
beside him. The girls confide that Michael died—his body washed up to shore and they have his
clothing as proof—but Maurya won't listen. She saw Michael with her own eyes, wearing "fine
clothes" and new shoes. Maurya seems convinced that this apparition means Bartley will be "lost
now," and Maurya begins arranging for his funeral. Maurya lists all the men who lost their lives to
the sea "a husband, and a husband's father, and six sons ... some of them were found and some of
them were not found." As she talks, the girls shiver and start at sounds they hear through the door.
Cathleen whispers that "there's some one after crying out by the seashore." Maurya pays the girls no
mind and continues reminiscing about the dead men.

Maurya recalls holding baby Bartley as she watched a group of women crossing themselves as they
approached the house, men carrying a wet corpse between them. She says dreamily, "Is it Patch, or
Michael, or what is it at all?" Cathleen again tries to calm her mother by saying that Michael's body
was found far up north, so she couldn't have seen him on the pony, but Maurya insists that after
nine days in the water, not even a man's father could identify his body. Cathleen insists, pushing
Michael's clothes into her mother's hands. As she holds them, Maurya looks out the window and
cries that a crowd approaches carrying something wet. One woman whispers to Cathleen that it's
Bartley's drowned body. As the men lay Bartley's body on the table, the woman tells Cathleen that
the grey pony knocked him into the sea. Maurya stares at the body and says, "there isn't anything
more the sea can do to me." She vows not to watch the wind or pray or get holy water at night
because it doesn't matter anymore.

Maurya drops Michael's clothes on Bartley's feet, then sprinkles his body with holy water. Even
though life will be tough without a man to help provide, she knows it will be "a great rest" not to
worry. Cathleen asks one of the men to build Bartley's coffin out of the fine, white boards Maurya
had bought for Michael's body, promising him the fresh cake as payment. The old man notes that
there are no nails, which is surprising considering how many coffins Maurya has ordered made.
Having used all the holy water, Maurya prays for the "Almighty God" to have mercy on the souls of
her dead family. She hopes Michael has had a "clean burial" up north, and Bartley will have a "deep
grave." She kneels, saying, "No man at all can be living for ever, and we must be satisfied."

Analysis

Foreshadowing

As soon as the curtain rises, the audience sees the long, white boards Maurya has purchased to build
her son Michael's coffin. The boards loom over the room, and the characters mention them often as
a constant reminder that the family lies in wait for the return of a body. However, every mention of
the boards foreshadows that the boards will be put to use for Bartley's, not Michael's, untimely
death. Before Bartley leaves, Maurya reminds him of the "big price" she paid for the white boards,
which means doubly the financial expense as well as the emotional cost of losing her son. The fact
that Nora has gained possession of Michael's clothes without a body and Maurya's remark that a
body missing in the water for nine days wouldn't even be recognizable anymore—"it's hard set his
own mother would be to say what man was it"—further foreshadow that the body filling the
expensive coffin will not be Michael's. The foreshadowing comes to fruition when Bartley's drowned
corpse enters atop a plank and Maurya drapes Michael's clothes over his feet when the body is laid
on the table. Bartley's body will fill the white coffin along with Michael's clothes, and it will be
Maurya's final burial.

Cultural Roles

Maurya's family feels the strain of traditional gender roles once her husband and sons start dying at
sea. From the play's opening moments, the audience understands how traditional gender roles have
shaped the family. Female characters fulfill domestic roles: Cathleen sits at the spinning wheel, Nora
comments on her stitching, and Maurya prepares a meager meal. Meanwhile, male characters fulfill
traditionally masculine roles, albeit mainly offstage. Bartley, like his father and brothers before him,
tends to the animals and prepares to sell the horses.

In fact, the only people seemingly alive on the island are women and old men—many of the young
men, as represented by Maurya's family, have died. Maurya's remark that "It's hard set we'll be
surely the day you're drownd'd with the rest" suggests how difficult life will be for the women in the
family should Bartley die. Without a man to fulfill the traditionally masculine roles, the women will
suffer. The play questions whether such a traditional community will have the resources needed to
restructure itself.

Powerlessness

Maurya's muted reaction to Bartley's death at the end of the play reminds audiences of the
enormity of her loss. Her sorrowful list of all the sea has taken from her, "Bartle[y] ... . Michae[l] ...
Sheamus and Patch, and Stephen and Shawn," serves as a heart-wrenching reminder of her pain.
Grief, not children, is Maurya's constant companion. At the opening of the play, the sisters question
whether they should tell their mother about Michael's clothes because she's spent so much time
"crying and lamenting." Bartley's death seems inevitable given the storm, yet Maurya offers little
fight against her final son's departure. When the old women lay Bartley's body on the table, Maurya
kneels but barely cries, feeling something akin to relief. Maurya has lost all the men in her life, and
the constant grief leaves her in a state of emotional paralysis. She knows she is powerless against
the force of the sea, and no prayer, superstition, or lamentation has kept her family safe. The
inefficacy of religion has left her powerless against fate.

In fact, the one entity with any power in the play is the sea. It has the power to nourish the village
inhabitants through fishing and providing routes for trade. In contrast, it also has the power to
destroy life completely, as is evident with the men in Maurya's family. The salt that is mentioned
throughout the play is a reminder of the sea's power—both positive and negative—over the lives of
the villagers. The power of nature contrasts starkly with the power of God when the young priest
promises that God will not take Maurya's last son, but the sea claims his life anyway.
Religion, Superstition, and Nature

The strongest theme in Riders to the Sea is the conflict between religion, superstition, and nature.
On the surface, Maurya and her family are devout Catholics. The most important thing to Maurya is
the return of Michael's body so he can have a proper Catholic funeral. When Bartley's body is
returned, she blesses it with holy water. Throughout the play, the characters pray to God and ask for
blessings. Everyone views the young Catholic priest as a prominent community leader. Under that
religious surface, however, it becomes clear that Maurya, and perhaps the community at large, no
longer trust in God's control. After first glance, the family's religious comments—such as "God help
us," "[t]he blessing of God on you," or "God spare us"—seem mechanical rather than reverential,
suggesting they have lost their meaning as prayers.

Instead of putting their faith in God for protection, which has failed Maurya's family so many times,
the women have come to rely on superstition. For example, Nora suggests that her mother might
have given Bartley bad luck by not blessing him before his journey out to sea: "Isn't it sorrow enough
is on everyone in this house without your sending him out with an unlucky word." Maurya agrees,
walking after Bartley to take him some bread. Even though the priest has assured the family that
God would never leave Maurya "destitute ... with no son living," his words appear hollow when
pitted against the powerful sea. Indeed, only shortly after these words are recalled, Maurya's last
son's body is pulled from the water, proving there is no prayer or God stronger than the sea. In this
way Riders to the Sea tells the story of a loss of faith alongside the loss of family.

Community

Riders to the Sea tells the heartbreaking story of the destruction of one family, but the text
references the downfall of an entire community and its way of life. The traditional fishing community
can survive only with young men to do the hard labor, including fishing and trading on the sea.
Without them, the entire community struggles. Synge illustrates this struggle through the hungry pig
that tries to eat the new rope. It can also be seen in the meager meal Maurya provides Bartley, the
"cake" (bread) made of grass, and the few possessions Bartley has to take with him on his journey.
The family is poor, and the struggle will intensify without Bartley. Before he leaves, Maurya notes:
"It's hard set we'll be surely the day you're drownd'd with the rest." Although her daughters are
healthy, their community does not treat young women as being as capable as the young men, as
Maurya notes of Cathleen, "How would the like of her get a good price for a pig?" She laments that
without a young man, the family will suffer and look "for the grave."

When Bartley's body washes ashore, there are only old men and women there to haul him in—all
the strong-bodied men have died, taking the fishing community's tradition and future into the sea
with them. Yet the community must remain strong. The neighbors rally around Maurya to help
complete the burial traditions, and an elderly neighbor agrees to build Bartley's coffin, taking only
the cake as payment. In this way, Synge suggests the community will go on to support and
strengthen each other to the bitter end, an end they are as powerless against as Maurya is
powerless to fight the deadly sea.
Fate

Everyone in the community, Maurya especially, is powerless to stop death. Maurya has tried
everything, from Catholic devotion to secular superstition, to keep death from claiming her family
members, yet it comes for them time and time again. Maurya prays, crosses herself, casts blessings,
and pleads with holy men (the young priest), but the sea claims Bartley, Michael, "Sheamus and
Patch, and Stephen and Shawn." Despite her best efforts, Maurya seems to know she cannot stop
fate, which is why she buys the coffin boards and why she puts up little fight to stop her last living
son from going to sea. When Bartley dies, Maurya feels a sense of relief that, finally, her men are "all
together this time," and notes, "No man at all can be living for ever, and we must be satisfied." She
views early death as the fate of all young men, a fate she's powerless to stop, which is why she lets
Bartley leave without her blessing. Maurya even senses it will do him no good in the end.

The presence of death on stage also reminds audiences that death is their fate as well—the coffin
boards lean against the wall, and Maurya uses Michael's walking stick; all of these objects suggest
that death lurks in our lives. Finally, the ghost scene suggests that the dead desire to be joined by
those still living. Maurya sees Michael's ghost riding alongside Bartley on a gray pony, not as
protection, but as an omen of his imminent death. Indeed, the old woman who sees Bartley drown
says, "[t]he gray pony knocked him into the sea."