The famous Irish play Riders to the Sea explores the themes of resignation and reconciliation in the relationship of the mother to the sea and to her own heartbreak. When a body washes up on shore, Maurya and her daughters know that it is likely her husband. When it is finally revealed that it is in fact her husband, she resigns herself to the tragedy that has happened. Maurya also argues vehemently with her son Bartley about his departure to sell a horse. She asks him not to travel on the sea, because it will kill him—the sea has cursed Maurya and is taking all of the men from her life. When Bartley nonetheless departs, she resigns herself to his ultimate fate, and she is proven correct when he falls from his horse and drowns in the sea.
In the end, Maurya reconciles herself to her loneliness, to God, and to the sea. She is broken-hearted, but she knows now that the sea can do her no more harm. She "forgives" it, in a sense, knowing that it has no more power over her after all of the men are deceased. She reconciles herself to God, after being angry with him, by bringing out holy water and praying over her own life and the souls of her sons and husband, and in the end, she accepts the solitary life that has befallen her.
Monday, February 26, 2018
How does the play Riders to the Sea fulfill the themes of resignation and reconciliation?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What is the theme of the chapter Lead?
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
The statement "Development policy needs to be about poor people, not just poor countries," carries a lot of baggage. Let's dis...
-
"Mistaken Identity" is an amusing anecdote recounted by the famous author Mark Twain about an experience he once had while traveli...
-
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
De Gouges's Declaration of the Rights of Woman was enormously influential. We can see its influences on early English feminist Mary Woll...
-
As if Hamlet were not obsessed enough with death, his uncovering of the skull of Yorick, the court jester from his youth, really sets him of...
-
In both "Volar" and "A Wall of Fire Rising," the characters are impacted by their environments, and this is indeed refle...
No comments:
Post a Comment