British rule in Ireland, Riders to the Sea play  by John Millington Synge

 

The British rule in Ireland lasted a long time and had a big impact on the Irish people life and culture during the 19th century. Ireland was paralyzed culturally by the British. During the same period of life, The Irish people were living a primitive life whereas the British were living a modern one. To express their independence from the British, J.M Synge who is considered the greatest playwright of the Irish literary revival, came to revive their native theater, culture and language through writing his play “Riders to the Sea”.

 

Literary revival took place at the end of the 19^th century and the beginning of the twentieth century. Theater is one of the tools the Irish people used to revive their culture, history and language. They relied on the theater to rebel against the colonizer. J.M Synge and other playwrights as W.B Yeats, G.B Shaw and L. Gregory, they all participated to the creation of the Irish National Theater “The Abbey Theater” in 1904. The Abbey Theater has always been an arena for art and ideas to revive the national literature, culture and to bring upon its stage the deeper emotions of Ireland.

 

In this play, J.M Synge portrays different aspects of the Irish culture. Through telling us the tragic story of Maurya, her two daughters, and the lost men of the family, he sheds light on their sufferings, traditions and rituals. As an example, when Bartley; the youngest son leaves home, his mother Maurya doesn’t give him her blessing and sends him off in anger, and this is thought to be unlucky. This example shows one of their beliefs that must be respected which is the high value of the mother and her precious blessing that should be taken before leaving her. By depicting the cultural side, J.M Synge plays a major role in keeping alive the Irish or Gaelic Culture. This play is a real representative of the Irish people’s lifestyle, Culture.

 

In addition, the language used in this play is too specific; “The Gaelic Language” . J.M Synge uses this language to show their independence from the English, their uniqueness and that are pride and patriotic. Synge himself spent time listening to and recording the manner of oral expression; accent, pronunciation and so on of the Aran Islanders, where he got inspired to write this play. Synge characters produce phrases and sentences that are seen bizarre to us as modern readers as they are seen to audiences in 1904 from Dublin and London. For instance, “The young priest is after bringing them”, according to the Irish  syntax and grammar this example means “The young priest brought them”. Another example, “Herself does be saying prayers…” which means “She says prayers …” These examples are good illustration of Synge’s dialect that relies strongly on imitating the Irish  syntax. Synge wrote English with Irish syntax and grammatical rules.

 

The British rule in Ireland lasted a long time and had a big impact on the Irish people life and culture during the 19th century. Synge, through his play “Riders to the Sea”, portrays different aspects of the Irish culture showing us how Ireland was paralyzed culturally by the British. And this play is as an attempt to revive their national literature and express their Independence from the British.