Here are the notes for the chapter Riders to the Sea by John Millington Synge for students studying in Class 10 under Nagaland Board of School Education (NBSE). However, the notes/solutions should only be used for references and should be modified/changed according to needs.
Summary
Riders to the Sea written by John Millington Synge revolves around a tragic family which has lost a number of its members to the sea.
The play begins with two sisters Nora and Cathleen talking about a bundle containing the clothes of a dead person which they received from a priest and wondering if it was their brother Michael who went missing some time ago. After Michael, they had now only one male member in the family, their brother Bartley, who was planning to go to Connemara to sell a horse. Their mother Maurya, however, didn’t like the idea of him sailing there and said that she would soon have no sons. Bartley, nevertheless, decided to sail and the two sisters sent their mother after him to give him her blessings.
After Bartley and Maurya left, the two sisters opened the bundle and confirmed that the clothes indeed belonged to their brother Michael. Soon after, Maurya returned and mentioned to the two sisters in horror that she saw the ghost of Michael following Bartley. Towards the end of the story, a few people entered their house with the dead body of Bartley, who had also drowned in the sea.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. The play is set in…
A. a village on the Irish coast B. Dublin, Ireland C. an island off the Irish coast D. the Irish town
Answer: C. an island off the Irish coast
2. Nora makes her entry in the play carrying with her…
A. turf B. a bundle of clothes C. rope D. white board
Answer: B. a bundle of clothes
3. The main character of the play is…
A. Michael B. Maurya C. Nora D. Bartley
Answer: B. Maurya
4. What is the symbol of death in the play?
A. the sea B. horses C. white board D. turf
Answer: A. the sea
5. In the play, what represents fate?
A. the horses B. the sea C. the rope D. the cake
Answer: B. the sea
Reference to Context
1. They’re all gone now, and there isn’t anything more the sea can do to me…I’ll have no call now to be up crying and praying when the windbreaks from the south, and you can hear the surf is in the east, and the surf in the west, making a great stir when the two noises and they hitting one on the other. I’ll have no call now to be going down and getting Holy Water in the dark nights after Samhain, and I won’t care what way the sea is when the other women will be keening.
a) Who is the speaker?
b) ‘They’re all gone now’. Whom does ‘they’ refer to here?
c) ‘I’ll have no call…and I won’t care’… What is the emotion expressed in these lines?
d) What is keening? Why would the other women be keening? Why won’t the speaker keen anymore.
Answer: a) The speaker here is Maurya.
b) Here, ‘they’ refers to the loved ones of Maurya, particularly the male members of the family.
c) Here, Maurya is heartbroken after all the deaths that she has seen of her loved ones. Over the years, she has had prayed without ceasing for her children, husband and other members of her family so that they could stay safe in the sea. But all her prayers proved futile as the sea consumed each one of them. Previously, she would constantly be thinking about the condition of the sea as her loved ones’ safety depended on it, but now since all of them have died, she does not care about the condition of the sea anymore. Maurya is emotionally drained and exhausted.
d) Keening means wailing in grief for a dead person. The other women will be keening because they have their loved ones still alive and death is approaching them and the grief of their death is still to haunt them.
The speaker won’t be keen anymore because all her loved ones in the sea have died and she has suffered all the grief there was.
2. Why wouldn’t you give him your blessing and he looking round in the door? Isn’t sorrow enough is on everyone in this house without your sending him out with an unlucky word behind him and a hard word in his ear?
a) Who is the speaker? Who does ‘you’ refer to?
b) Why did ‘you’ send him out with an unlucky word?
c) What is the relationship between the speaker,’you’ and ‘him’?
d) Explain ‘hard word’ in this context. What was the hard word spoken?
Answer: a) The speaker here is Cathleen. Here, ‘you’ refers to her mother Maurya.
b) Marya sent him (Bartley) with an unlucky word out of frustration because she did not want him to go to the sea out of fear of his death but he would not listen to her.
c) The relationship between them is of mother-son. Here, ‘you’ refers to Maurya while ‘him’ refers to her son Bartley.
d) In this context, by the ‘hard word’ the speaker meant the macabre speech Maurya made to keep Bartley from going to the sea. The hard word spoken was that he would be drowned and die like the rest of the others.
3. Michael has a clean burial in the far north, by the grace of the Almighty God. Bartley will have a fine coffin out of the whiteboards, and a deep grave surely. What more can we want than that? No man at all can be living forever, and we must be satisfied.
a) What is the tone of the speaker in the above lines?
b) Explain the significance of the line ‘What more can we want than that?’
c) According to the speaker, with what should they be satisfied?
Answer: a) The tune of the speaker in the above lines is of remorse and at the same time of accepting the tragedy as a way of life.
b) The line ‘What more can we want than that?’ precisely sums up the significance of how insignificant our needs are as we die. We live life trying to get everything we need, but no matter what amount of treasure we gather, after death all becomes meaningless.
c) According to the speaker, they should be satisfied with whatever they have had and the time they had spent with their loved ones when they were alive as no one can live forever and thus they should be contented with how life treats them as they cannot change a thing.
Read and Write
1. Why did Bartley try to take the pony to Connemara in spite of his mother’s warnings?
Answer: Bartley tried to take the pony to Connemara in spite of his mother’s warnings because he wanted to sell the pony in a fair at Connemara and he had heard people saying that it would be a good fair for horses.
2. Why was the mother unable to bless her son, Bartley?
Answer: Maurya was unable to bless her son Bartley while he was in the house because she wanted him to not go into the sea fearing for his life, but when she went after Bartley to bless him, she couldn’t say anything to him as something choked the words in her throat. Also, she was terrified of seeing Micheal upon the grey pony riding behind Bartley.
3. Why did the priest refuse to stop Bartley from going to the Galway fair?
Answer: The priest refuses to stop Bartley from going to the Galway Fair because according to him, God would listen to the old woman’s prayer not to leave her destitute with no son living. The priest believed that God would not be so merciless that Maurya would not have any son left.
4. What do the sisters try to hide from their mother?
Answer: Nora and Cathleen wish to hide from their mother a bundle which had been handed over to Nora by the priest for identification whether the bundle, which contained clothes, belonged to their brother Michael. The clothes were recovered from a corpse.
5. Was it possible that Michael pushed Bartley off the rocks? Support your answer with logical reasoning.
Answer: No, it wasn’t Michael who had pushed Bartley off the rocks. Micheal was already dead by the time Bartley was going to Connemara and therefore it couldn’t be him. Some other circumstances might have led to Bartley’s death and the perception that it could be Michael arises solely because of Maurya’s superstitions which shouldn’t be taken seriously. She was emotionally exhausted and whatever she saw could be her imagination and the death of Bartley soon after could be purely coincidental.
6. Briefly characterize the following: Maurya, Bartley, Cathleen, Nora.
Answer: Maurya: Maurya is the most tragic character in the play. She has seen the deaths of her six sons, husband and husband’s father. She is a woman of prayers, and yet largely superstitious. Over the years, the consecutive deaths have beaten her down and she is full of grief. At the beginning of the play, she tries desperately to make her last son, Bartley, stay away from the sea but she fails and her fears of his death come true. Towards the end, she becomes receptive of how life has treated her and declares that no man can live forever and they must be satisfied.
Bartley: Bartley is the last living son of Maurya in the play and like the other male members of the family before him, he is not afraid to go to the sea. He is determined to provide for his family despite all the grief inside him after losing so many people. He is a man who feels responsible for the needs of his family and therefore, despite repeated pleading by his mother, he still decides to go to the sea. He eventually dies.
Cathleen: Cathleen is the older daughter of Maurya and she is about twenty years old. She takes care of the daily chores of the house along with her sister as all the deaths have broken her mother Maurya’s spirit much. With the deaths of her brothers, Cathleen has become emotionally matured and is burdened with more responsibilities and she carries them gracefully. She but also believes in traditional gender roles and that is why when Maurya tries to stop Bartley from going to the sea she remarks that it is his duty as a young man to go on the sea.
Nora: Nora is the youngest child of Maurya. She helps take care of her mother Maurya and assists her sister Cathleen in household tasks, even as she copes with all the deaths happening around them. Nora is more confident in the Catholic priest than her elder sister Cathleen or her mother Maurya, though, at the end, when Bartley dies, her confidence in the priest proves misplaced.
7. Trace the change in Maurya’s attitude from the beginning of the play to its end.
Answer: Maurya remained a tragic yet strong character throughout the play ‘Riders to the Sea’. At the beginning of the play, she is very much insecure and unstable compared to the end. When the play starts, her one son is missing and she’s certain that he has died and therefore she sounds emotionally unstable and wants to stop Bartley from going to the sea fearing he might face a similar fate, though Bartley needs to go to as he is the only provider in the family now. Maurya is peevish and superstitious and wants to control things but she fails and this makes her visibly frustrated. Spiritually, in the beginning, she is more in alignment with Catholic sentiments. Towards the end, however, when Bartley dies, she feels like a burden of uncertainty has been lifted from her and she reaches a stage of emotional stability as her worst fear is now over. She declares that no man can live forever and they must be satisfied. She also appears to be more leaned towards pagan beliefs.
Think and Answer
1. Compare and contrast the life of the characters in the play of Riders to the Sea to your own life.
Answer: The lives of the characters in Riders to the Sea are so different from mine here in Nagaland! They live on this tiny island off the coast of Ireland, totally dependent on the sea. It’s like their whole life revolves around fishing, and the sea is this powerful force that gives and takes away. Imagine losing so many family members to the sea, like Maurya did. It’s heartbreaking.
Here in Nagaland, we’re surrounded by hills and forests, not the sea. Our lives are more connected to the land, and our traditions are different too. We don’t have that constant fear of the sea taking our loved ones. I can’t even imagine the strength Maurya has, facing so much loss.
But even though our lives are different, I think there are some things we share. We both value family and tradition. We both respect the power of nature, whether it’s the sea or the mountains. And we both understand that life can be tough sometimes, but we have to keep going.
2. Bartley was the last surviving male member of the family. With his death, what do you think will happen to the family?
Answer: With Bartley’s death, the family is left without a breadwinner and protector. The women will have to fend for themselves, and their future is uncertain. They may have to rely on the charity of others, or they may be forced to leave their home and seek work elsewhere.
3. Riders to the Sea is steeped in the folk traditions of Irish folklore. What is the relationship between the grey pony and death? What is the significance of a ghost on a horse? Is there a conflict between religious beliefs and superstition in the play? Discuss.
Answer: In Irish folklore, the grey pony is often seen as a harbinger of death. The appearance of a ghost on a horse is also a bad omen. In the play, Maurya’s vision of Michael on the grey pony foreshadows Bartley’s death. There is a conflict between religious beliefs and superstition in the play. The priest represents religion, while Maurya’s vision represents superstition. At times, the two seem to mingle, as when Maurya says that she has prayed to God for Bartley’s safety but that she still fears the sea.
4. ‘People whose lives are lived in hardship and uncertainty are bound to be fatalistic.’ Do you agree with this statement? Why/ why not?
Answer: The statement that people whose lives are lived in hardship and uncertainty are bound to be fatalistic is a complex one. There is no easy answer, as there are many factors that can contribute to a person’s outlook on life. However, it is possible that people who face difficult circumstances may be more likely to believe that their fate is predetermined. This is because they may feel that they have little control over their own lives and that their circumstances are beyond their power to change.
Extra questions and answers
1. What are Nora and Cathleen discussing when the play opens?
Answer: When the play opens, Nora and Cathleen are discussing the shirt and stockings that the priest had handed over to Nora to verify whether those belong to Michael. Since their mother is at home, they are worried about verification.
8. What are the two main themes of the play Riders to the Sea?
Answer: The two main themes of the play Riders to the Sea are provider and destroyer. The people who live on the seashore depend on the sea for a living but also at the same time are at the risk of the angry sea. While the sea provides the people with a livelihood, it also takes the lives of the men.
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