Riders to the
sea is John m.Synge''s most famous one-act play.It records a simple & a deeply authentic reaction of the women of a family of fisher-folk of an Aran Island .Cathleen,a girl of about 20,is in the kitchen of the cottage from which her brothel Michael has been missing for 9days.The younger sister ,Nora,slip into the kitchen with a small bundel of clothing which village priest had given her with the thought that they might be indentified as belonging to Micheal.They had been removed from the
body of drowned man. The two girls are afraid to examine the clothing at the moment,for their mother
Maurya is sttiring about in the next room and might possibly enter before they have finished the melancholy task.They hide the bundle in the loft.Bartley,another brother enters looking for a piece of rope to lead a horse which he wishes to take to mainland to sell.The mother pleads with him to stay ,as a
man will be needed to make a coffin of Micheal''s body should be washed up.But Bartley gallops off on the red mare, leading the
gray pony.Maurya goes out to the spring to give him a package of bread as he passes towards the coast.Meanwhile the girls have examined the clothing and determined that they belong to their brother .When the mother returns,She says that she has seen Michael mounted on the gray pony riding away with Bartley.The girls tearfully tell her that she had been seen the spirit for Michael had drowned already.Maurya stoically related the events of her life.Both her husband and her father together with her 5of her 6 sons have been given up to the sea.As she finishes the sad relation
old women files slowly in crying a body covered with a sailcloth.It is the body of Bartley who has been knocked into the surf by the gray pony .as the play closes old maurya seems to feel a great weight being lifted from her.She
remarks that the sea has done every thing to her that it can She can rest now and sleep at night for she has no other son to worry about .There are boards of coffin but a neighbor man remarks that it is careless & forgetful of old women not to have nails handy.Catheleen remarks her mother is old and forgetful and must be excused for not remembering all the necessities The old women doesn''t hear them as she seems almost happy as she sprinkles holy water on Bartley body.She remarks that now all man of family are together in heaven.they all lived clean lives and died clean death.Man can not live forever and women who are left behind should satisfied with their lot the play presents the contented life of the people of the Aran Island
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