Get summaries, questions, answers, solutions, notes, extras, PDF and guides for play/drama Riders to the Sea: WBCHSE Class 12 English Literature textbook A Realm of English (B) Selection, which is part of the Semester IV syllabus for students studying under WBBSE (West Bengal Board-Uccha Madhyamik). These solutions, however, should only be treated as references and can be modified/changed.
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Summary
This story is a play set on the Aran Islands, off the coast of Ireland. It is about a family’s struggle against the powerful sea. The author, J.M. Synge, was inspired by a true story he heard while visiting the islands. A man’s body had washed up on a distant shore, and he was identified by his clothes, just like in the play. The story shows how the islanders live with the constant danger of the sea. Their beliefs are a mix of their Christian faith and older superstitions about the power of nature.
The play introduces a family living in a small cottage. The mother, Maurya, is an old widow filled with grief. She has already lost her husband and five sons to the sea. Her daughters, Cathleen and Nora, receive a bundle of clothes from a priest. The clothes were taken from a drowned man found far to the north. They worry the clothes belong to their brother, Michael, who has been lost at sea for nine days. They decide to hide the bundle from Maurya to protect her from more sorrow. At the same time, Maurya’s last son, Bartley, prepares to sail to the mainland to sell horses.
Maurya pleads with Bartley not to go. She has a terrible feeling that the sea is too rough and that he will not return. Bartley insists he must go and leaves the house without his mother’s blessing. His sisters feel this is a bad sign and convince Maurya to follow him to the shore. They want her to give him a piece of bread for his journey and say a kind word to him. Maurya goes, but she returns to the cottage in great distress. She tells her daughters she saw a terrible vision. She saw Bartley riding his red horse, and riding a gray pony behind him was the ghost of her dead son, Michael. This vision of the dead riding with the living is a sign that death is near.
While their mother was gone, Cathleen and Nora confirmed the clothes belonged to Michael. After Maurya describes her vision, villagers begin to arrive at the cottage. They carry the body of Bartley, which they lay on the table. The gray pony had knocked him into the sea, and he drowned. Maurya has now lost all the men in her family. She looks at her last son’s body and feels a strange calm. She says the sea can do nothing more to her. She finds peace in knowing her sons will have proper burials. She accepts that no one can live forever and that her long time of worrying is finally over.
Questions and Answers
1. Who is Maurya? What has she endured in her life?
Answer: Maurya is the central character of the play, presented as a grief-stricken old widow and mother living on the Aran Islands. She is the mother of eight children and has spent her life in a state of continuous suffering and loss.
Her life has been a hopeless struggle against the impersonal and relentless cruelty of the sea. She has endured an unimaginable amount of tragedy, having lost her husband, her husband’s father, and all six of her sons to the sea. She recounts how some of their bodies were found and buried, while others were lost forever. This constant bereavement has left her weary, fatalistic, and, as she says, an old woman looking for the grave. Her existence is a powerful representation of the harsh life of the islanders and their unending battle with nature.
2. How do Cathleen and Nora initially handle the news of Michael’s possible death?
Answer: Cathleen and Nora handle the news of Michael’s possible death with a careful blend of sorrow and practicality, driven by a deep concern for their mother, Maurya. When Nora arrives with a bundle from the priest, containing a shirt and stocking from a man who drowned in Donegal, they understand it could be their brother, Michael.
Their immediate priority is to protect their mother from another devastating shock. The priest had warned them that the news might cause her death from crying and lamenting. Therefore, they decide to hide the bundle in the turf-loft so that Maurya will not see it. They plan to wait until she is out of the cottage to examine the clothes and confirm whether they belonged to Michael. This cautious approach shows their love for their mother and their attempt to manage the grim situation with as little immediate pain to her as possible.
3. Why does Bartley insist on leaving despite Maurya’s warnings? What reasons does he provide?
Answer: Bartley insists on leaving for the sea despite Maurya’s warnings due to his strong sense of duty and the pressing economic needs of his family. As the last surviving son, he is now the only man in the house responsible for providing for his mother and sisters.
He provides several practical reasons for his journey. He explains that he must go to the horse fair in Connemara because he has heard it will be a good fair, implying a chance to earn much-needed money. He also points out the urgency of the trip, stating that the boat he needs to take is the only one sailing for two weeks or even longer. He clearly understands his role, remarking that from this day on, the family will be “hard set” with only one man to work. His decision is not one of defiance but of necessity, as he must fulfill his role as the family’s provider.
4. Why is Maurya convinced Bartley will not return? How do her daughters react to her premonitions?
Answer: Maurya is convinced Bartley will not return because her life has been a long series of losses to the sea, and she has become completely fatalistic. Having already lost her husband and five other sons, she sees the sea as an unbeatable force that will inevitably take her last son as well. She observes omens in nature, such as the wind rising and a star against the moon, which confirm her fears. As Bartley leaves, she cries out that he is gone and that by nightfall, she will have no son left in the world.
Her daughters, Cathleen and Nora, react to her premonitions with frustration and impatience. Cathleen scolds her for sending Bartley off with an “unlucky word” and a “hard word in his ear” instead of a blessing. They view her constant talk of death and sorrow as the senseless ramblings of a grief-stricken old woman. They do not share her belief in omens and feel that her negativity only adds to the sorrow already present in their home.
5. Maurya sees something at the spring well. What does she see? How does this vision affect her?
Answer: When Maurya goes to the spring well to give Bartley a blessing, she sees a terrifying supernatural vision. She tells her daughters that she has seen “the fearfulest thing any person has seen.” She describes seeing Bartley riding by on the red mare, and immediately behind him, on the gray pony, was the ghost of her son Michael. She notes that Michael, who had been drowned for nine days, was wearing fine clothes and new shoes.
This vision has a devastating effect on her. It shatters any remaining hope she might have had and confirms her deepest fears. She returns to the cottage completely broken, stating that her heart is broken from this day. The vision solidifies her belief that Bartley is doomed and will be the next to be taken by the sea. It moves her from a state of anxious fear to one of certain resignation, as she now knows that the loss of her last son is inevitable.
6. What role does “second sight” or supernatural visions play in the narrative?
Answer: “Second sight,” or the ability to see supernatural visions, plays a very important role in the narrative, serving as a key element that foreshadows the play’s tragic conclusion. The story is set in a community where the characters are deeply religious Catholics but also hold on to older Celtic folk tales and superstitions. The play explores this blend of beliefs, where the characters are wary of the supernatural characteristics of natural elements.
The most significant instance of second sight is Maurya’s vision of her dead son Michael’s ghost riding a pony behind her living son, Bartley. This vision is not treated as a mere hallucination of a grieving mother but as a genuine and terrible omen. It confirms for Maurya, and for the audience, that Bartley is fated to die. The title of the play itself, “Riders to the Sea,” comes from this vision, which symbolizes death claiming the last of her sons.
7. Why do the daughters initially hide the bundle of clothes from Maurya? How do they later confirm the clothes belong to Michael?
Answer: The daughters, Cathleen and Nora, initially hide the bundle of clothes from Maurya out of a deep sense of compassion and a desire to protect her from further grief. The young priest had given them the bundle, warning them that the shock of confirming Michael’s death might be too much for their mother to bear. To spare her this pain, Cathleen decides they should put the bundle up in the turf-loft, out of sight, until they can examine it privately.
They later confirm the clothes belong to Michael through two key details. First, they compare a piece of the shirt’s flannel to a bit of material from one of Michael’s old shirts and find that it is the same stuff. The definitive proof, however, comes from the stocking. Nora, who knitted it, remembers the specific details of her work. She recalls that it was the second stocking of the third pair she made, and that she had “put up three score stitches, and… dropped four of them.” When Cathleen counts the stitches and finds the number to be correct, they know for certain that the clothes are Michael’s.
8. What happens to Bartley? How does Maurya respond when his body is brought home?
Answer: Bartley’s journey ends in tragedy, fulfilling his mother’s worst fears. Despite his determination, he is unable to escape the fate that has claimed the other men in his family. The villagers who bring his body back report that the gray pony knocked him off the cliff into the sea. He was then washed out by a “great surf on the white rocks” and drowned. The men of the village carry his corpse into the cottage on a plank, covered by a piece of a sail.
When Bartley’s body is brought home, Maurya’s response is one of profound and calm resignation, not the loud wailing her daughters might have expected. Her grief has been exhausted. She looks upon her last dead son and states quietly, “They’re all gone now, and there isn’t anything more the sea can do to me.” She has reached a state beyond sorrow and fear. She calmly performs the final rituals, sprinkling Holy Water on his body, and speaks of the “great rest” she will now have, finding a strange and final peace in her complete loss.
9. What final peace does Maurya find after losing Bartley? How does she articulate this sense of closure?
Answer: The final peace that Maurya finds after losing Bartley is a peace born from absolute loss. With all her sons now dead, the constant, lifelong anxiety she has felt is finally over. She has nothing left to fear from the sea. This peace is a form of bleak resignation, a quiet state that comes after the storm of grief has passed.
She articulates this sense of closure in her final speeches. She says she will have a “great rest” now and will no longer need to be up at night “crying and praying” when the wind rises. She finds comfort in the small certainties of death, stating that Michael has a clean burial and Bartley will have a fine coffin. Her final words, “No man at all can be living for ever, and we must be satisfied,” express her ultimate acceptance of mortality. She has reconciled herself to her fate, and in that reconciliation, she finds a tragic but profound sense of peace.
10. Maurya speaks bitterly about the rope Bartley takes. Why does she object to him taking the rope? How is her objection symbolic?
Answer: Maurya objects to Bartley taking the new rope because, in her mind, it is already destined for a different, more somber purpose. She tells him he should leave the rope hanging by the white boards she has bought for a coffin. She is certain that the body of her son Michael will soon be washed ashore, and she insists that the rope will be needed to lower his coffin into a “deep grave.” Her objection comes from her preoccupation with death and her belief that the tools of their life are now only for burying the dead.
Her objection is highly symbolic. The rope represents the central conflict between life and death. For Bartley, the rope is a tool for his journey, for leading a horse to the fair—it is an instrument of life and work. For Maurya, however, the rope is an instrument of burial. This shows how, in her world, the line between life and death has blurred. The tools meant for living have become inseparable from the rituals of death, symbolizing how their entire existence is overshadowed by the constant threat of the sea.
29. In her final speech, Maurya says, “there isn’t anything more the sea can do to me.” What does she mean?
Answer: When Maurya says, “there isn’t anything more the sea can do to me,” she is expressing a profound and heartbreaking truth about her life. She means that she has reached the absolute limit of suffering. The sea, which she views as a cruel and active force, has taken everything from her: her husband, her husband’s father, and now all six of her sons.
With the death of Bartley, her last son, there is no one left for the sea to take. Her life has been a long, agonizing cycle of fear, prayer, and loss. Now, that cycle is finally broken. The statement signifies that she is finally free from the torment of anxiety and the false hope that another son might be spared. It is a declaration of total loss, but it is also a statement of bleak liberation. The sea has won its war against her family, and in her complete and utter defeat, she finds a strange and final peace.
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