Mythical, Mystical and Psychological Implications
of
Riders to The Sea: A Play by John Millington Synge
Written by Linda S. Munson
"And when the folk there spy me,
They will all come up to me,
With here is the fiddler of Dooney!
And dance like a wave of the sea."
W.B. Yeats
The play Riders to The Sea is a seemingly simple story of the toll that the sea had taken on one family,
but beneath the surface of this apparent simplicity lived the sum of all Synge had seen and been, all that he had heard and
studied.
In the play, the main character Maurya is the head of the family, having lost her husband, father-in-law, and all
her sons, save one, to the sea. She has two daughters who live with her. Bartley, her last living son, is soon to perish.
The setting of Riders to The Sea is set during one day in their lives.
The invaders of
Ireland, among them the Celts and the Norsemen, and their mythology play roles in Riders to The Sea.
There are many sub-themes, some of them archetypical as in Jungian psychology, as well as Christian symbolism that contributed
to the making of the play.
One group of invaders was called the Firbolgs.
"In another account, the Firbolgs were driven from the mainland,
but they continued to rule in the Aran Islands and built the fort of Dun Aonghusa on Inishmore..." (Fleming, 53).
Synge visited the Aran Islands several times
and observed the unique and isolated culture. During these visits, J.M. Synge wrote The Aran Isands.
This helped him understand the island and the people.
Impressed with the cadence of the Irish language
as spoken by the people on the Aran Islands, the rhythm of the sea, tides, and harmony with the villager’s lives
on Aran, Synge combined all of these, wove them with the Islander's belief in Christianity and wrote a
remembrance of the old ways. Synge found the raw material from which he constructed his
play, Riders to The Sea.
Aran Islands
Inis Mor
Synge
was born in Newtown Villas, Rathfarnham, County Dublin on 16 April, 1871. He was Ireland's child. He began looking for
a place in the literary world and first sought it by living abroad in France.
It was there that he met W.B. Yeats who advised him to return to Ireland
and learn from the people there.
John Millington Synge
He
left France, but not before he had been exposed to new schools of thought in psychology,
literature, and the great awakening of interest in spiritual and occult matters. He journeyed to the Aran
Islands where he settled for a time, learning the Irish language. There
he submerged himself in the culture of Inismaan, played the fiddle while the neighbors danced, listened to the stories about
the little people, the banshee, and the ancient Irish kings.
He added this wealth of information to his store of knowledge from his university studies
and from his travels. Overcome by the feeling of having experienced it all before,
he felt that there must be a psychic memory attached to the village for him. He
wrote:
"These
people of Inismaan seem to be moved by strange archaic sympathies with the world...their ancient Gaelic seemed so full of
divine simplicity that I would have liked to turn the prow west and row with them forever"
(http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=2501428).
During the same period he wrote also of the "plaintive intonation of an old race that
is torn with sorrow"
(http://www.bored.com/ebooks/British_Literature_New/synge/aran%20islands.html).
At first reading, Riders to The Sea seems to be a short and simple play. Since it is a short play,
each word in the play has to count for a lot and be filled with meaning. The play was embraced by its
first audience and got favorable reviews.
The play calls
for more than just a surface reading. There are literary archetypes found in it.
An important
psychological influence in the play can be understood by studying Carl Jung.
Jung
theorized that the collective conscious was quite different from individual memory and was, in fact, inherited. Portable
Jung, reads:
"This
collective unconscious does not develop individually but is inherited. It consists of preexistent forms, the archetypes, which
can only become conscious secondarily and which give definite form to certain psychic elements" (Campbell, 60).
Concerning codes of civilization and ideas that are perceived
through symbols such as archetypes, one author wrote this:
"Such devices may be used to convey discrete but complex ideas often
expressed in the form of allusions or iconographic references. Many of these remain recognized within communities
or where continuity has been provided by religious faith or a shared set of values but, equally, many have been obscured by
the passage of time" (Lunde, 177).
Grief and anger often go hand in hand. Synge may have known that he
would die early in life, and this may have added to his sympathy for the "war-torn race". Synge seems to have cast his
fate with the people with whom he lived.
Synge makes references
to these ferry boats in the play:
"NORA. He went down to see would there be another
boat sailing in the week, and I'm thinking it won't be long till he's here now, for the tide's turning at the green head,
and the hooker's tacking from the east."
The Galway Hooker
In Riders to The Sea, Maurya
seems to anticipate the deaths of her family members with weary resignation as a woman of an ancient race. All
the history of her people has brought her to this attitude. Yet, she is not without hope or comfort, for the remarkable
events in the lives of Odin and Christ could teach her that there is redemption after death, life after the even the worst
suffering. "Death is accepted, so is battle, the
loss of a spouse, even the dying of children. Tragedy seems indigenous to the land "(McCourt, 55).
Though Synge doesn't give his audience a history lesson, it helps to
understand the harsh realities of those times and the even harsher times of the Viking days.
In Riders to the Sea, there are these stage directions: "(Nora sits down at the chimney corner,
with her back to the door)".
Also, after Maurya sees her vision of her sons on horseback she behaves in this way: "Maurya begins to keen softly, without turning round." At the conclusion of the play the stage directions describe the physical action of the
mourners, the women who enter the cottage:
"The old women begin to come in, crossing themselves on the threshold and kneeling down in front of the stage with
their backs to the people, and the white waist bands of the red petticoats they wear on their heads just seen from behind".
This scene might seem sinister to some or seem as if something was lurking beneath the surface. Like
the daughter-waves of Lir, these women mourners convey the idea that there is more here than simply meets the eye. The
play ends in the same manner as the previously described funeral rites, with backs to the people.
Was there something going on behind their backs? Of course.
In earlier times in virtually all places and cultures, the threshold of the door was considered of great symbolic importance.
"Spirits were thought to gather around a doorway, and there are hints of a tradition in pagan Scandinavia for the
threshold of the home to be the actual grave of the founder of the homestead, who guarded the door against evil influences."
(http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/wedding.shtml)
This may be related to the fact that many later buildings, especially Christian churches in a newly converted land, were
built on previously pagan sites where temples had stood. In some places, archaeologists have discovered layers of sacred buildings
built upon older sites previously considered holy to a former culture.
One custom that is still practiced in modern times is carrying the bride over the threshold by the groom. In an article
in the The American Journal of Philology called "The House-Door in Greek and Roman Religion and Folk-Lore" it states:
"To prevent the bride from stumbling on the threshold thus to avoid the bad omen is one of the reasons given by the
ancients to explain the Roman custom of lifting her over the threshold of her husband's house..."
(https://www.jstor.org/stable/288616?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents).
Stumbling Over the Threshold of the Door Was A Bad Omen
In the play, there are a couple of instances when there is a mention of keeping one's back to the door or audience
just as the twig-bearers in a Viking wedding did.
.
Talking together like magpies, Cathleen tells Nora to conceal the bundle from Maurya. she says, "Keep your back
to the door the way the light'll not be on you." She means it is a dark secret, and something to be hidden
from Maurya.
In a wedding, the bride and groom face the threshold as they begin their new life together. In a funeral, the end has come
and the back is turned upon that life.
| Their backs are always turned. |
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| The San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts |
There is an old tradition about the birth of St. Brigid that involves
the symbolism of thresholds. Brigid, or Brigit, was the daughter of a Druid. Neither of her parents were Christians.
"This account says that Brigit was born as her mother brought milk into
the Druids house at sunrise, but Broiseach had one foot on the threshold and one outside so that the child was born 'neither
within nor without the house'. This 'neither nor' motif was a favorite recurring theme in Celtic mythology" (Ellis,
103).
The Druids were a religious group that functioned to officiate in religious ceremonies.
They also made predictions by divination and made judgements in disagreements. Most Druids were men, but there were a few
women admitted to their group.
Among the pagan Norse, woman functioned mostly as diviners and made predictions.
There were a few men in this group, but the ability to forsee the future was considered feminizing.
Synge makes use of symbols found in simple items of everyday life in
the play. He also uses different colors.
Since there is
so much symbolism found in Riders to The Sea, it might be a good idea to try to find as many references as possible to
simple key words found in the play, to help work out as many puzzles as possible.
Rope
was one item mentioned in conversation among Maurya's children.
A rope figures importantly in the play. Rope is
an everyday work item, but it deserves attention since it is part of a one-act play.
It appears that Synge is expecting his audience to
travel to a different visionary level. We find these lines within the play:
"BARTLEY (comes in and
looks round the room. Speaking sadly and quietly). Where is the bit of new rope, Cathleen, was bought in Connemara?
CATHLEEN
(coming down). Give it to him, Nora; it's on a nail by the white boards. I hung it up this morning, for the pig with the
black feet was eating it.
NORA
(gives him a rope). Is that it, Bartley?
MAURYA
You'd do right to leave that rope, Bartley, hanging by the boards. (Bartley takes the rope.)
BARTLEY
(beginning to work with the rope.) I've no halter the way I can ride
down on the mare, and I must go now quickly..."
These few lines seem reminiscent of Odin's refrain from the windswept tree. Is
it the Trinity or Odin's three days that they think of, or both?
Synge, Yeats, Lady Gregory, and the Occult
These three had an interest in the occult, as many
people did during that period in history.
Man, Myth & Magic, Volume 20, gives an account
of Mrs. Willet, the séance name of a Welsh woman who was typical of many occultists of her day. She was an active member
of her community, while at the same time showing an avid interest in spiritualism. She was considered “a most remarkable
non-professional medium" (Cavendish, 2804).
Like many spiritualists, her interest in the occult
was motivated largely by deaths in her family, specifically two of her children. Other spiritualists had the same deep desire
to try to find out if there was life after death and if so, they wanted to contact what they believed were their intelligent
communications with the living.
In Riders to The Sea, Maurya experiences
death in her family and may have shown some of the characteristics of a medium in a trance.
Seeing for the people
Seidr
There was a surge of interest in the occult around the turn of the 20th
century. This interest continues through the turn of the 21st century. One strong reason that many people sought out
information from spiritualists then and now was loss of a loved one in death.
"One of the bundles of sticks I encountered as I researched psychic events was the
number of brilliant people who have believed that reality might include spirits, talking dead people, meaningful coincidences,
or other strange events" (Wicker, 98).
The book Lily Dale tells about a philosophy from a modern
day spiritualist community:
"'Learn everything you can while you're on this earth plane,' she said,
'and remember this: you take your bundle with you. Everything you learn here goes into the next world for you to use'" (Wicker,
76).
In
the play, Maurya talks about the men in her family: "There were Stephen, and Shawn, were lost in the great wind, and
found after in the Bay of Gregory of the Golden Mouth, and carried up the two of them on the one plank, and in by that door.
"
"Bay of Gregory
of the Golden mouth" is probably a reference to Lady Gregory.
Beautiful Lofty Things by William Butler Yeats
In the
play, Maurya's daughters have a bundle retrieved from the ocean that they want to open to see if it contains the personal
effects of their drowned brother, but it has a strongly tied knot in it that will be difficult to untie, so they decide to
cut it with a knife:
"CATHLEEN (trying to open the bundle). Give me a knife, Nora,
the string's perished with the salt water, and there's a black knot on it you wouldn't loosen in a week.
NORA (giving her a knife). I've heard tell it was a long way to
Donegal."
The bundle, which the
reader can imagine is cast up from the sea by the wave-daughters, was brought to Maurya's
cottage by the young priest. Cathleen remarks to Nora: "Give me a knife, Nora, the string's perished with the
salt water, and there's a black knot on it you wouldn't
loosen in a week" (Reinert, 583).
The knot functions as an impediment, keeping the
girls from discovering the contents of the bundle right away and also serves as a pun, since knot can mean a riddle that one must untie to understand the meaning.
The Norse of old were particularly fond of
riddles, and of course, sailors' knots were intrinsic to the business of seafaring men.
Bundling, an old German
custom, with an easily surmountable barrier between the couple, is a possible reference to the bundle the sisters have, although
we don't know if Synge implies this.
Riders To The Sea, Knots and Riddles
Untying the Gordian Knot
Knot Pictures
The Word Museum tells about locks of hair tied by
the elves; "elflocks Knots of hair twisted by elves. [Walker] It was supposed to be a spiteful
amusement of Queen Mab or her subjects to twist the hair of human creatures, or manes and tails of horses, into hard knots
which it was not fortunate to untangle [Nares] SEE tazzled, witch's-stirrups (Kacirk, 64).
As for symmetry
and balance, encompassed within this story is the idea of duality, that which seems to be and that which is. Complicating
the idea of duality, the constant counterbalance of opposite forces, was the fact that the Norse universe consisted of
nine worlds, Midgard or Middle Garden being the realm of humans.
"The name middangeard occurs half a dozen times in the Old English epic
poem Beowulf, and is the same word as Midgard in Old Norse. The term is equivalent in meaning to the Greek term Oikoumene,
as referring to the known and inhabited world.
The concept of Midgard occurs many times in Middle English. The association
with earth (OE eorðe) in Middle English middellærd, middelerde is by popular etymology; the continuation
of geard "enclosure" is yard. An early example of this transformation is from the Ormulum:
þatt ure Drihhtin wollde / ben borenn i þiss middellær...that
our Lord wanted / be born in this middle-earth" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midgard).
Ormulum
Midgard, Wickipedia
Midgard wasn't necessarily a good place like the Garden of Eden. The bundle
in the loft, like Pandora's Box, is a container that will inevitably be opened, bringing them woeful proof
of death. An overview might see the events of the play as a bundle which would reveal the hidden contents as the
events unfolded.
Nora and Cathleen have this conversation shortly before they discover the contents of the
bundle:
"CATHLEEN. Is the sea bad by the white rocks, Nora?
NORA. Middling
bad, God help us... "(Reinert, 580).
These foreboding sentiments are echoed at the end of the play by Maurya who says: "...may
He have mercy on my soul, Nora, and on the soul of every one is left living in the world "(Reinert, 588).
These words ring out like a blessing and imploring for recovery from the disastrous preceding
events, as well as for the inevitable future. They may be also asking for forgiveness because they forgot Bartley's bread
and blessing.
When the Old Norse riddle-stories were told, the contest was also put to the hearer to
guess what the riddle of the story was before it were told, to untie the knot before the end of the story.
In another of the riddle-stories, Thor encountered a drinking match in the City of
Illusion. Thor is unchallenged when he "raises the horn",
but he loses the contest in the City of Illusion,
because the drought is symbolic, a riddle meaning the ocean, and, although his tippling causes the sea to subside, Utgard-Loki
tells him after the fact that:
"When you drank from the horn, the wonder grew till I could not trust my own eyes, for
the other end lay out in the ocean itself. If you look closely you can see how the level has sunk; that is what we call ebb
tide" (Munch, 64-65).
He could not "believe his own eyes." Could they be playing tricks on him?
Symbel, the Beer Sacrifice
Eden/Odinn
It
can only be guessed how many riddles Synge might have had in mind in his play. Consider the Icelandic fable of Loftur
the Sorcerer. Loftur attempted to use his sorcery skills to resurrect some ancient bishops from their graves. In
Icelandic legend, one of the Yule Fellows was named Baggi which means bundle. The words Loftur
and bundle are associated with the Icelandic people. Could this be an ancillary tale to Odin's? Perhaps lost
to the Irish conscious mind, Maurya's ancient memory contained a similar theme to this.
Loftur the Sorcerer
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