1- Setting and Themes in Riders to the Sea

Setting and Themes in Riders to the Sea
J.M. Synge s Riders to the Sea (1904) is a brief, one-act play, and its action is starkly straightforward. Synge s play is short and mysterious, like a fairy tale. It engages the reader with questions of how forces as big as historical change and as intimate as grief affect individuals and families.
The sea is significant throughout the play; the family is dependent on it for their livelihood. The sea has also brought death: Maurya, the mother, has lost her husband and six sons to it.
Plot Summary: Memory, Fear, and Hope
In an island cottage off the coast of Ireland, three women wait for news. Maurya is resting in an inner room. Her daughters, Cathleen and Nora, work on household tasks. Michael, their brother, has been missing for days. As readers learn from Nora, Michael is only the latest of Maurya s sons to be lost to the sea that also claimed her husband. Cathleen and Nora identify a drowned man s clothes as Michael s but hesitate to tell their mother the dark truth.