Question- Write a note on the use of symbols in Riders to the Sea.

Answer -

As a poetic dramatist, Synge was fully aware of the possibilities of his theatre. In Riders to the Sea, he has employed various symbols verbal and visual, to sustain the major thematic strains and to evoke the vision of a world perpetually threatened by disaster. Visual and verbal symbols are made to supplement each other and thereby heighten the intensity of the tragic experience the characters pass through.

Symbolism in the Setting of Island

Riders to the Sea teems with symbols and images. The very island where the play's scene is laid is itself a symbol. It represents any place where humans feel their isolation in the face of auniverse that wars on them with winds and seas. Even the title is symbolic. The 'riders' has two levels of significance. On the surface of it, it refers to the human and superhuman riders the living Bartley on the red mare and the dead Michael on the grey pony. On the symbolic level, the 'riders' stand for the islanders or rather the people who are subjected to the malignant forces of nature.

Symbolism of White Boards: The central theme of the play is death, indicated by the very title. Synge, therefore, uses several devices to heighten the atmosphere of death and sorrow in the play of these, the 'White Boards' are introduced early in the play and made to preside over the action. The opening stage direction reads:

'Cottage kitchen with nets, oilskins, spinning wheel, some new boards standing by the wall etc.'

Whereas all other things naturally belong to a fishermen's cottage, the white boards appear out of place. But they are a visual reminder to the audience that the house is visited by a shadow of death.

The nails which Maurya forgot to buy along with the white boards suggest pain and finality.

Symbol of Red Mare and Grey Pony

There are other symbols in the play. The red mare Maurya sees Bartley ride symbolises strength and virility, while the grey pony ridden by the ghost of Michael death, for red colour belongs to strength and virility, grey colour to death. Michael riding the grey pony, with new clothes on him and new shoes on his feet is a resurrection image Donna Gersten berger observes, 'In Maurya's vision of Bartley on the red mare, followed on the grey pony by Michael, already nine days drowned in the far north.'

Symbolism of Michael's Clothes: Another reminder of death in the house is the bundle containing Michael's clothes, indicating what has been left of a man who was a greet rower and fisher. As indicated earlier, the horses red mare and the grey pony become the symbols of death, first in the vision that Maurya sees at the spring well and subsequently when the grey pony pushes the red mare, and with it, the rider Bartley into the sea.

Symbol of the forgotten cake: The bread Maurya takes for Bartley is a symbol of life, but she cannot deliver it to him as he rides away fast. The forgotten cake means Bartley's farewell to life, because bread symbolices life.

Symbol of Keening: Supplementing these visual symbols is the arrival symbol of keening which informs the whole play very early in the play, we are told that Maurya would kill herself with keening and lamenting should she see Michael's clothes. Her keening after her return from the spring well and subsequently the keening of women ritualistically symbolize the unspeakable tragedy that has destroyed all the male members of the house.

Number Nine As A Symbol: The use of number nine is symbolically significant in the play. Michael was missing for nine days. Maurya, like Niobe, wept for nine days for her lost son. Maurya herself recalling the drowning of Patch reports that she 'saw two women and three women and four women coming in.' This adds upto nine again as do the numbers mentioned by Bartley himself when he says optimistically that he will be coming back in two days, or in three days or may be in four days if the wind is bad. Eight men have been drowned of Maurya's household, her father-in-law, her husband and six sons. The ninth-death which is soon to occur will be Maurya's own.

Symbol of the Dropped Stitches: The dropped stitches of the stocking reminds us of the Three Fates and the thread of life and perhaps Donne's image. The water on the bodies of Patch and Bartley is a symbol of the way by which death comes from the sea straight to the house of the family.

The Symbol of Holy Water

The Holy Water symbolizes purification, sanctity and traditional Catholicism. It is benevolent water and it stands in contrast to the powerful water of the sea.

Symbol of Rope: The rope symbolizes Bartley's imminent death. As the fashions a halter for the horse, he is actually fashioning a halter for his neck. The rope was always intended to lower a coffin into the grave, and now that grave will be of Bartley.

Symbol of Spinning Wheel and Hearth: Cathleen is always involved with the spinning wheel and the hearth and they are symbols of women's work and the pervasiveness of gendered labour. This is notable in a play so concerned with the traditional separation by gender. Bartley is the provider Cathleen is the baker and so on. Spinning wheel is symbolic of the time period this play is set in and reflects the difficulties of the life this family lived. The whirring of the wheel and its sudden silence generate an ominous interplay of tension and urgency, intensified by the sister's anxiety over the dead sailor's clothes.

The Sea As a Symbol: For see Long Answer Q.No. 6

Conclusion: The symbols and the images, set in their matrix of rhythmical speech of great subtlety, permeate the whole play. They dissolve, coalesce, combine in tension to give depth of irony. They set the imagination in motion and extend it beyond the bounds of the apparent simplicity of the plot. The symbols and the images help greatly to build up the atmosphere of gloom, mystery, terror and foreboding and evoke a sense of the precariousness of human life on earth.

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