CHAPTER FOUR :

HIS TRAGI-COMEDIES :
A CRITICAL ANALYSIS
 HIS TRAGO-COMEDIES : A
CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Synge’s two plays, Riders to the sea and Deirdre of the

Sorrows- the latter unfinished and published posthumously- are lyrical
tragedies in a cassical style, and the respective heroines, Maurya, a
brave old peasant woman, Deirdre, a passionate young queer',
confront their tragic conditions with noble and stoical control. Neither
of the two have the traditional five-act structure. The former is a one
act play and as several critics agree perhaps the only perfect tragedy
written in one act. Deirdre had four acts by the playwright himself but
left unrevised due to his early death. Synge was actually attempting
to condenseths plays into two-acts for the American edition of his
%

plays and poems when the impatient hands of Death flicked him away
from the midst of human beings. His two tragedies if an extremely
small number to draw inferences bout an author’s tragic vision
especially when he has produced a few more comedies quantitatively
in comparison to the tragedies.

Lady Gregory one of the mentors of Synge, felt that he had a

flair for comedies and after Synge joined the Abbey Theatre group.
She gave up writing comedies in favour of the young dramatist. The
playwrights first attempt, The Shadow of the Glen is humorous and
farcical both, but critics do not agree to its status as a pure comedy.
 141

It is a tragi-comedy. The basic theme being loneliness and frustration.

The play was not recieved well by the audience too.

Synge’s next play, Riders to the Sea is’perhaps one of the

most talked about plays of the twentieth century. Critics have either
praised its tragic intensity and structural perfection or else they have
tried to find fault with its lack of ‘magnitude’ in the Aristotelian sense.
Raymond Williams, for example feels that :
Riders to the Sea is a tragic chorus which draws
its strength from the quality of acceptance
which Synge had discovered in the Islanders among
whom he lived. It moves on a limited plane; the
inevitability of the conflict between men and sea
and the inevitability of the men's defeat. 1

Those who have tried to follow a middle critical path have

described it as the last act of an Atlic or Shakesperean tragedy,
structurally complete in itself. However, I feel that critics have
consistently ignored the emphasis of the tragic potential it seif of the
corpus selected by Synge. This has somehow itiated a clear
perspective of Synge’s criticism as a whole.

Riders to the Sea presents the poignant tragedy inhernt m

V

the life of fishermen on an island west of Ireland. Inspite of the thinness

of the plot and the limitation of the one-act structure of the play, Synge
has successfully created the tragic atmosphere within the framework
of the rules of drama. The dialogues, the setting, the characters
(especially that of Maurya, the protagonist) are carefully designed and
developed to transform an ordinary situation into successful dramatic
t

play. In is an almost non-controversial play of Synge and has! been

popular among audience and readers and favourite of dramatic critics.

1. WILLIAMS, RAYMOND : Drama from Ibsen to Brecht, p.143.

 142

The play has its symbol too, the very title amounting to one and it
is surprizing and creditable both that the dramatist could provide a
dose of so many meaningful symbols in a really ‘short’ play.

Therefore, it sounds strange as to why did Synge not follow

up with other similar tragedies. Critics have not tried to find any anwer
to this question. A clue to the probable reason may be found in the
following statement found in T.R. Henn’s edition of The plays and
poems of J.M. Synge :
Synge is also a preacher, agnostic and a moral whose text (as Yeats has said) is tn,-
living world. It is a world which concerns the tragedy of the common people and particularly oi
women, yet its tragedy may be dissolved or accented, momentarily by laughter and imagination
2
nourished by its humour.

Thus, Synge had a mission as a writer, as a dramatist to

highlight the Irish peasant life, to acquaint the world with the plight
of the Irish rustics and to popularise the Irish folk lore and language.
This life he found to be tragic full of suffering and brooding and
extremely lonely and isolated.

At the same time he had to face personal crisis and tragedies.

He had rejected to sustaining force of religion quite early in life,
suffered physically an$ mentally due to and incurable disease and
finally a prolonged love affair of conflicts, doubts, postponements of
matrimony leading to his death as a bachelor. So, Synge did realize
that he had an inborn flair for tragedy-writing but he did not wish to
indulge in more ‘tragic atmosphere’ than it was necessary and fated.
Therefore, the playwright consciously confined himself to
comedy-writing. He laughed and wished the world to laugh with, him
in order to forget the personal grief and to divert himself and cither
from pedestined tragedies of Irish peasantry especially the Aran
people.

2: HENN. T.R. : The Plays and Poems of J.M. Synge p.20-21

 143

This is the reason that inspite of the tremendous stage success

of Riders to the Sea, Synge did not attempt writing another tragedy
till Deirdre of the Sorrows. When he knew that death would embrace
him soon and ironically. In other three comedies of Synge between
Riders to Deirdre, one can find a permanent undercurrent of pathos,
a hidden vein of loneliness and a constant fluttering of the shadow
of suffering.

J.M. Synge’s Riders to the Sea in probably one of the shortest

and most concise plays in the language. The story of the play is
drawn from the actual life of the islanders who extract their sustenance
from the sea. which is thus the symbol of life for them. But the irony
of their life is that the sustainer is also the destroyer. Synge himself
describes the setting and the people thus:
The sun seldom shines, and day after day a cold South Western blows over the ciffs
bringing up showers of hail and dense masses of cloud..The sons who are at home stay out
fishing whenever it is tolerably calm from about three in the morning till after nightfall yet they
earn little, as fish are not plentiful... The old man fishes also with a long rod and ground-ban
with very little success....and women look after calves and do spinning...... 3

Synge goes on to describe the harsh life on the Islands

illustrating it with a description of the burial of a young man drowned
in the sea and later :
As they talked to me and gave me a little poteen and
a little bread when they thought I was hungry, I could
not help feeling that I was talking with men who were
under a judgement of death. I knew that every one of
them would be drowned in the sea in a few years and
battered naked on the rocks, or would die in his own
cottage and he buried with another fearful scene in
the graveyard I had come from 4 ,

He also gives a description of deening of keening and says:

This grief of the keen is no personal complaint for the death of one woman over eiqnty
years, but seems to contain the whole passionate rage that lurks some- where in every nat vt.

3. Skleton, R. el. J.M.Stnge = The Aran Islands P. 229

4. Ibid, p. 230
 144

of the Island. In this cry of pain the inner consciousness of the people seems to lay itself bar
for an instant, and to reveal the mood of beings who feel their isolation in the face of univers-
that wars on them with winds and seas. They are usually silent, but in the presence of ch at:
all outward show of indefference or patience is forgotten, and they shriek with pitiable desga '
before the horrer of the fate to which they are all doomed.5

The story of this play relates to the struggle for survival and
the resultant suffering of the fisher-folk finally. It is not merely the
hardship of earning a living which makes the life of the fishermen
miserable. The sea is a perpetual and an insatiable monster devouring
the male members of the fisherman’s families, and thus leaving the
mothers utterly destitute of sons. Women folks are aware of trie,
uncertainity, that their men may return or may not but they also have
to allow them to go fishing as a necessary evil, as something
inevitable. Synge has aptly described this dilemma:
The maternal feeling is so powerful on these islands that it gives a life of torment tc
the women. Their sons grow up to be banished as soon as they are of age. or to live here n
continual danger on the sea; their daughters go away also, or are worn out in their youth witl
bearing children that grow up to harass them in their turn a little later. These people live it
perpetual fear of death and are subordinated to the instincts of the family. 6

Synge visited Aran Islands first in 1897 on being advised by

W.B. Yeats to do so. The young writer was shocked to find one of
the most primitive of European communities residing in the islands.
However, Synge had a good knowled of Gaelic and his temperament
suited that area and he became a ‘popular friend’ of the natives. He
was obviously shocked at such a primitive life, but it is also true that
he found the area as a perfect canvas for practising his dramatic art
'especially as the life of the people of Aran Islands would be truthfully
'Irish’. Eulogising Synge’s involvement with the area and its life and
people Lady Gregory aptly remarks: j
i
i

5. Ibid. p. 235
6. Ipid. p. 231
 145

The people of this plays were the real people among whom he lived and that his dream,
look come from this. 7

Lady Gregory also writes in detail about Synge spending s

great deal of time wandering in the woods of Coole, where he was
at home with the shy creatures of the wood and the lake. As a resul:
of these exposures we find Irish people, Irish culture and Irish nature.-
expressed realistically in the plays of Synge.

It will not be far from the truth to postulate that Synge expectea
an intimate knowledge of the life of the fisher-folk for the proper
understanding of his play. Hence, a little imaginative amplification of
setting becomes of great significance to prepare our minds to react
to the life that he is going to present in his play. The setting on the
one hand, richly suggests a simplicity of life, while on the other it is
an unambiguous commentary on the extreme poverty of the people.
This offers a glaring contrast with the contemporary drawing ’room
plays with decor and external paraphernalia deliberately forcing their
significance on the meaning of the plays. In this sense Synge
compares well with Sophocles or Shakespeare where the tragic action
is characterised by economy and directness. Like the opening scene
in Hamlet-as soon as the first sentence is uttered by Nora, the action
is set in motion: (in a low voice); Where is she ?
Cathleen: She’s lying down, God help her, and may be sleeping, if she's able.8

The play opens in a typical Irish, fisherman’s cottage kitchen

which has nets oilskins, spinning wheel, in addition to same new
boards’ standing by the wall. The kitchen also has a ladder, a turf
behind the gable of the chimney, a pot over and’ a new rope hanging
on a nail by the white boards. The routine work of the girls in the
7. Ibid
8. HENN.T.FLThe Plays and Poems of J.M. Synge,
 146

cottage is kneading cake, spinning, collecting turf and ‘getting up

weed’ enough for another cock for the kelp’ and looking after sheep.
Their routine anxieties and worries are about storing enough wood
for fuel, and making some provision for buying food in the event of
the bread-winner being away from home or lost to the sea.

The scene opens, dealing with the death of Michael, the fifth
son of Maurya, who has already lost her four sons and her husband
and husband’s father to the ‘sea’. Two sons, Michael and Bartley are
left along with two daughters, Cathleen and Nora. While Maurya is
resting, Nora, one of her daughter enters softly in the kitchen with a
bundle containing Michael's clothes under her arms, for the final
identification of the drowned Michael. Cathleen, the sister of Nora had
still some hope that these were not Michael’s clothes :
How would they be Michael's, Nora? Haw would he go to
the length of that way to the far North?9

Nora, is more realist, who says:

The young priest says his known the like of it. “It is's Michael's they are. "
says he, “you can tell herself he's got a dear burial,
by the grave of God, and if they’re not his let no one
say a word about them, for she'll be getting her death,"
says he, “with crying and lamenting. "10

Between this conversation of the two sisters we realize that

they have another anxiety. They feel that the presence of their only
brother, Bartley is urgent near the wailing mother. Bartley is about to
leave for Galway fair. They also think that like other male members
of the family, he may also not return alive. The tragic intensity in
heightened by a faint hope in the power of the Almighty who should

9. T.R.Henn. p.96
10. Ibid.p.96
 147

not be so cruel as to snatch the last thread of hope from the old
woman.
NORA: "I won't stop him." says he; "but let you not
be afraid. Herself does be saying prayers half through
the night, and the Almighty God won't leave her
destitute", says he, "with no son living".11

The suspence of action and a permeating gloom in the family

are effectively created through their conversation ‘A gust of wind, 'the
great roaring in the west,’ the tides turning to the wind, “lend
significance to the setting both by their auditory and their visual
impacts conveyed so effectively through the verbal medium. Against
this atmosphere of menace, ominousness and almost palpable gloom
the girls try to open the bundle containing the clothes of a drowned
man to identify whether they indeed belonged to their brother. But
the efforts are abandoned because they hear that ‘She’s moving about
on the bed, she’ll be coming in a minute. We have already got enough
inkling into the miserable condition of ‘Maurya’ who has not yet
appeared in front of us. Cathleen puts the bundle in the turfloft ‘the
way she won’t know of them at all; while as is won’t with her, she
.will be going down to^see, should he be floating from the east’ the
girls can resume their efforts to identify the clothes.

As soon as Maurya appears, she does not talk of her

bereavement but of the routine of daily life.
Isn’t it turf enough you have for this day and evening ?12

The utter materialism and down-to-earth attitude to life in the

face of death and suffering give an impression of a somewhat
dehumanised folk, their lack of sentimentality, occupation witfr the
immediate needs of life and such other sordid concerns, side by side
11 Ibid.
12. ibid, p.97
 I HO

with familiar sufferings which might bring a surprise to a reader who

has not acquainted himself well with the actual life of the people of
Aran Island. Synge himself gives a hint of their attitude to life whicf
was shaped by the constant dangers of the sea which surroundec;
them and which would have made emotional wrecks of other people:
This continual danger which can only be escaped
by extraordinary personal dexterity, has had
considerable influence on the local character.
as the waves have made it impossible for clumsy,
13
foolhardy, or timid men to live on these islands.
Bartley is about to go Connemara within a short span of time
and Cathleen is baking a cake in the fire for him. Maurya becomes
almost panicky at the news because she knows the rough sea would
drown him too. Her only solace is that ‘the young priest would stop
him surely’. The futility of her hope is as abundantly clear to us as
it is to her daughters because the priest has already failed to do so.
Meanwhile, Bartley hurridly comes in and begins to make a halter for
one of the horses so that he can ride it while the other trots behind.
Maurya is still bemoaning the persumed death of Michael. Bartley
assures her that the men have searched the shore everyday for nine
days and found no trace of his body. But this logic of Bartley also
?-

cannot dissuade the mother from her preparedness to give a deep

burial to her son.

Maurya’s mind now gets occupied with her last son. She tries
to hold Bartley back from death, who must sail to the mainland
because of the ecessity to keep the family going. The emotional values
of life seem to be out of place in the context of the life of these
people.

13. Aran Islands. P. 237.

 149

Maurya’s almost archetypal expression of motherly sentiment

is lost in the din of the anxiety of daily existence :
If it isn't found itself, that wind is raising the sea. and there was a star up against 7 f;

moon, and it rising in the night. If it was a hundred horses .you had itself, what is the price •;
a thousand horses against a son where there is one son only ?14

The loss of the male bread winner has a two-fold edge-one

emotional and the other utilitasion. For the mother, the son is her
most precious possession, whether it is one or .more sons-each is
precious to the mother because she expereinces the same pain at
the birth of every son. Their deaths, one after the other, must seem
intolerably to her :

I have had a husband, and a husband’s father, and six sons

in this house-six fine men, though it was a hard birth. I had with
every one of them and they coming to the world-and some of them
were found and some of them were not found, but they’re gone now
the lot of them....There were Stephen, and Shawn, were lost in the
great wind, and found after in the Bay of Gregory of the Golden Mouth,
and carried up the two of them on one plank......15

This is an almost intolerable picture of a mother’s sufferings.

The other edge to the problem of the loss of males in the family is
a utilitarian one. The death of the last bread-winner will make the
already-hard life of the females almost impossible to contiue. Maurya
harps on this aspect of the loss more than she does on the other
aspect- the emotional one.
i
i

Before his final exit to Connemara, Bartley advices his sis'ter.

Let you go down each day, and see the sheep aren’t jumbing on the

14. T.R. Henn. P. 98.

15. Ibid. P. 103.
 150

rye, and if the jobber comes you can sell the pig with the black feet
if there is a good price going. His detailed instructions to his sisters
for managing the routine activities of his family during his absence
against the background of a bewailing mother surely gives us a ■
impression of Bartley’s callousness, and unless we refer to Synge's
description of life in Aran Islands, Bartley’s behaviour would loos
unconvincing. As Synge remarks :
although these people are kindly towards each other and to their children, the.'
.............

have no feelings for the suffering of animals, and little sympathy for pain when the person Mi •
feels it is not in danger,16
Even without relying exclusively on Synge’s Aran Islands as a
source of our interpretation, we can see the bitter realities of life where
the sole concern seems to be the mere existence on a day to day
basis, Bartley’s cruelty is in keeping with the mission of life, Synge
wants to present. Moreover, Bartley is the sole bread-winner of the
family and his lack of sentimentality can perhaps be the only source
of his strength for struggle. Maurya’s anxiety at its climactic point yields
to her almost a prophetic vision. The death of Bartley appears to her
a foregone conclusion :
It’s hard set well be .surely the day you're drowned with the rest. What way will I I <

and the girls with me, and I ah old woman looking for the grave ?17

The two anx'ieties-emotional and utilitarian-are thus fused in

such a way that Maurya’s life seems in the nature of one prolonged
agony. In fact the utilitarian anxiety intensifies the emotional and
maternal one. The repeated shocks perpetrated on her by the sea
have already considerably weakned her. It is Cathleen who explains
the reality of life in response to Maurya’s sentimental apprehension:

16. The Aran island. P. 300.

17. T.R. Henn. P. 98.
 151

It’s the life of a young man to be going on the sea, and who would listen to an ' t

woman, and she holding him from the sea ?18

Bartley then leaves without Maurya’s blessings. Maurya’s agony

reaches to its climax as Bartley departs and she utters a prophetic
statement which is totally without apprehension :
He is gone now. God spare us, and well not see him again. He's gone now. and wt i‘i
19
the black night is falling I'll have no son left me in the world.
This omission is further intensified when we learn that the caxt-
which was baking for Bartley’s journey has not been given to him
Nora’s and Cathleen’s immediate concern is of a mundane and
superficial nature, Bartley may have to perform the journey without
food. But cake as a symbol of life, contributes to the impending gloom
which is going to overtake the family.

Meanwhile Maurya, bowed over the turf fire, is visibly

distressed, and the girls, partly in the hope that seeing Bartley agair
and giving him her blessing may console Maurya, and partly in ordei
to get rid of her, advise Maurya to go out to the spring well. She
goes out slowly and painfully, saying, with great pathos, as she takes
Michaels stick:
In the big world the old people do be leaving things after them for their sons mu,
children, but in this place it is'the young men do be leaving things behind for them that do n>
old20

The suspense with which the play began and which we had
almost forgotten in the midst of a more immediately threatened
catastrophe, is revived. Cathleen and Nora take ‘the bundle of clothes
got of a drowned man’and open it. From the stitches on the bit of
the shirt recovered and its matching with the flannel of the shirt Bartley
had now put on, the girls infer that the clothes were Michael’s. To

18. Ibid. P. 99.

19.
20. Ibid. P. 100
recall the instructions of the priest, hes ‘It it’s Michael’s they are....
you can tell herself hes got a clean burial by the grace of God. It is
worth noting here that Bartley who has gone out with the rope mean
for Michael’s burial has also put on Michael’s shirt. We know from
Synge’s account of the superstitions of these people that such
happenings forebode sure death. Synge says:
Before he went out on the sea that day his dog came up and sat beside him on 'm
rocks, and began crying when the horses were coming down to the ship and old woman .sn1
her. son. that was drowned a while ago. riding on one of them. She didn't say what she r..i-
after seeing, and this man caught the horse, he caught hiis own horse first, and then he can jh
this one, and after that he went out and was drowned.2'1

Maurya returns home with the cake in her hand and starts
keening. She has ‘seen the fearfullest thing’. She saw ‘the grey pony'
behind him and Bartley riding the red mare’. Maurya’s conclusion is
explicit and categorical when she mentions the very commorly
believed superstition of these people, i.e. ‘Birde Dara seen the dead
pp
man with the child in his arms’ Maurya also sees Michae riding
the grey pony. Besides the implication of the superstition of the
company of the dead with the living, the colour symbolism can hardly
escape our attention. Red is the symbol of life and grey is the symbol
of death. Mauyra’s hallucination of Michael riding the grey mare
becomes frighteningly ominous when Macbeth- like she feels a
choking in her throat when she tried to say ‘God speed you’. He went
by quickly; and'the blessing of God on you’, says he. ‘and I could
say nothing.’
The family is destroyed from this day surely. Nora tries to
, console the broken-hearted Mauyra, but her premonition of disaster
cannot be silenced even by Nora’s attempt to comfort her with

21. The Aran Islands. P. 144.

22. T.R. Henn. P. 102.
 153

assurances of divine mercy, ‘Did’nt the young priest say the Almighty
God won’t leave her destitute with no son living’. Here religion seems
to be mere ritual-more formal than real-and paganism is unmistakably
clear though not frankly pronounced. Maurya, without showing her
distrust in God, talks of her personal experiences and knowledge of
the destructive sustainer- the sea, the tangible, terrible reality- ‘it's
little the like of him knows of the sea’, etc. She means to say, ‘Let
people ask me what the sea is like, because it is she who have
suffered at the rapacious hands of the sea. I know its ways better
than anyone.
Her anxieties now seem to have reached a climax, and Maurya
feels that she will be unable to bear this final stroke,’ Bartley will be
lost now, and let you call in Eamon and make me a good coffin out
of the white boards, for I won’t live after them’. But her desire for her
own death is immediately drowned in her nostalgic reverie when she
surveys the past of her family and the suffering caused it by the sea's
snatching away all the male members one after the other. It is this
reverie which seems to give her the strength to face the climax of
the prolonged tragic drama which is her life.

As soon as Maurya has returned seeing the fearful sight, tic:

more suspense is possible and the play, infact, ends thereafter. Now
Maurya’s bereavement is complete. But then, Maurya would remair.
a pitiable creature without attaining any higher vision of life through
suffering. Dennis Danoghue argues :
Riders to the Sea is not a tragedy because it lacks a significant equivalent of the vuk^<
nf fails to give a sense of heightened life; Maurya is a unconvincing protagonist because nt ■
23
sufferings are determined by forces which do not include her will or character

23. DONOGHUE. DENNIS. Synge : Riders to the Sea; A study. P. 57.

 154

Dennis is very far from the truth because as we have seen

and will see-Maurya is the kind of tragic protagonist who rises above
common humanity in her perception. Further the argument that Denn s
presents in terms of ‘the valued’ is untenable because significant
‘value’ in this play is tenable when we consider that Riders to the
Sea deals with the tragedy of humanity struggling for survival arid
livelihood and archetypal problem.

Owing to Mauyra’s earlier anxiety and fret to hold her last son
from death the expected experience of a broken-down mother does
not appear. Maurya knew the sea too well and never for a moment
forgot its rapacity.

But now she throws a challenge to the sea which appears

defeated- They’re all gone now, and there is’nt anything more the
pA
sea can do to me........ The monstrous sea seems here to be
completely defeated because the sea has been inflicting sufferings
on Maurya through the destruction of her sons, her hushand’s father,
none of whom is alive, Maurya experiences a peculiar relief and calm
of mind after the last male member of her family has been claimed
by the sea.
I'll have no call now to be up crying and praying when the wind breaks from the sct/n
and you can hear the surf is in the east, and the surf is in the west, making a great stir v. u
the two noises, and they hitting one on the other. I'll have no call now to be going down ■ if.
getting Holy water in the dark nights after Samhain and I won't care what way the sea is n' ■ i
the other women will be keening25

Maurya, the protagonist, not only acts as the spokeswoman of

Irish fisherwomen but she also represents the religious faith of the
islanders. The fisherman suffer, face the adverse circumstances

24. T.R. Henn. P. 105.

25. Ibid.
 155

bravely and stoicly. Nevertheless they never lose their faith in Gcd
We find that Maurya observes the formalities of Christian rights until

the end. She does not blame the lack of mercy of God at any stage.
But the futility of such prayers can be deduced from the words which
Synge puts in Maurya’s mouth, perhaps with his tongue in his cheek
It isn’t that I haven't prayed for you Bartley, to the Almighty God. It isn't that I hav* "

said prayers in the dark night till you wouldn't know what I'd be saying: but it's a great re>t
QC
have now. and it's time, surely.
Her faith in God has, on the other hand, made her patient and
instead of being cynical and sceptical, she faces life with a sense of
holy resignation. She realizes that life is fleeting and temporary ana
death is a necessary end to it. Various tragedies merely strengthen
her faith in God and she accepts the various death as an essential
part of the Divine plan.

With remarkable balance of mind, Maurya then supervises the

preparation of the coffin for Bartley’s body. Ironically, the reference
to the cake appears again in the play. The cake now is to be given
as refreshment to the coffin makers. Maurya follows the other Christian
rituals of burial, like sprinkling of holy water over the dead body, etc.
The cake symbolism, can further be extended to admit a further
interpretation, that the cake is no longer important or needed since
life in the family now is finished for good.

Maurya attains what Milton calls in Samson Agonistes, “calm

of mind, all passion spent” when she declares :
It's a great rest I'll have now. and it’s time, surely. It’s a great rest I'll have now. mu:
great sleeping in the long nights after Samhain, if it's only a bit of wet flour we do have to t .r
07
and may be a fish that would be stinking.

26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
 156

The above utterance combines the tragic vision of Macbeth in

his realization of the utter futility of life’s struggles and that of King
Lear in his perception of the essential man in the storm scene. The
mystical relaxation which Maurya experiences is not the result of
exhaustion but that of the perception of a higher truth of life. It apppear
that critics who have interpreted Maurya’s calm of mind as a result
of her exhaustion have been misled by Cathleens’ appraisal of her
situtation :
..... An old woman will be soon tired with anything she will do, and isn't it nine da/*
herself is after crying and keening, and making great sorrow in the house T28

Maurya, throughout her life, has had only continual suffering.

Her calm of mind is the result of her stoic endurance and can tie
equated with W.B. Yeat’s concept of ‘tragic gaiety’ and is analogous
to the laugh of King Lear while dying. Maurya eventually transcends
her personal concern and assures the role of a priestess in her wishing
good for all :
...... May the Almighty God have mercy on Bartley's soul, and on Michael's soul, anu
on the souls of Sheamus and Patch, and Stephen and Shawn..... and may be have mercy v
my soul. Nora, and on the soul of every one is left living in the world.29

Her final vision of life may sound banal and rather of a popular
V

exiomatic nature, ‘No 'man at all can be living for ever, and we must
be satisfied. If we look at this last concluding sentence of this play
in isolation, the meaning can hardly be very impressive. It is a
proverbial truth taught to all right thinking people from their childhood.
But the simplistic and allegedly banal utterance has profound tragic
validation in the context of Maurya’s long journey through suffering
to philosophic calm of mind.

28. Ibid. P. 106.

29. Ibid.
 157

This analysis shows that both Maurya’s struggle to hold her

sons from death and her attaining of a final transcendant calm appear
to be related solely to herself. Nowhere in the play does she mention
the worries and sufferings of other women except when she tries to
-generalise her own situation. But her personal anxieties and sufferings
become universalized when we take into account the nature of conflict
in the play. Maurya is in conflict with a cosmic force symbolised by
the sea. This force is malignant, sadistic and monstrous and can be
likened to the Immanent Will in Hardy’s novels. It is as inscrutable
as it is inexorable, and closely corresponds with Fate or the Moral
order of the universe in the great Elizabethan tragedies. Similarly, it
is as merciless and uncontrollable as Heredity, Environment, the
human Sub- conscious or Social Institutions as presented in the plays
-of Ibsen, O’Neill and Galsworthy. Unlike other tragic protagonists,
however, Maurya appears to be passive sufferer and the important
tragic ingredient 'character is fate’, seems to be missing from tier
character.
The major question concerning Riders to the Sea is whether
it can be judged as h proper tragedy or not. The fact is that it is
perhaps the only one-act play which may fulfil the requirements of a
proper tragedy though some critics feel that the play is too fatalistic
to be a real tragedy. Howe has another reason for rejecting the play
as a proper tragedy. His argument centres around the lack of
probabality. The critic feels that the :
Action of the play does not succeed, in advancing step by step with reality for in ts
half hour's occupation of the stage we are asked to suppose that Bartley should be knocked
over into the sea, and washed out where there is great surf on the white rocks, and his Lk,I\
recovered and brought back again, when he himself allows half-back again, when he himsek
allows half-an-hour to ride down. This unreality is an undesireable difficulty in the theatreT

30. HOWE. P.P. : J.M. Synge. P. 97.

 158

This improbability is true, but allowances must be made for

the fact that it is a one-act play and hence all the requirements ol
‘proper’ tragedy can not be fulfilled due to the limitation of time-span
and yet, it can not be denied that the play does have several
ingredients of a good tragedy.

Another objection against the Riders to the Sea is that it has

a fairly simple story, its charaters are ot properly developed and the
play has no scope for conflict because the characters seem to be
entwined into the inevitable wheel of destiny right from the beginning.
The critics opine that the obvious tragic end and the resigned attitude
of Characters show the loss of religious sensibility and prove the
failure of God even before the prayers are offered.

Such negative views are not wholly justified. A conflict analysis

.of the play reveals that the tragic tone of the play lies in its simplicity.
It reminds us of several Greek tragedies like Antigone and Oedipus
Rex or as the playwright has suggested that the play is simple but
it has the depth of Scottish ballade, viz. The Wife of Usher’s Weil.'

In both the above traditions, the essential conflicts related tc

life are known and the characters have an attitude of resignec
acceptance towards things especially the adversities. This helps the
playwright or the singer to ignore detailed exposition of plot or avoic,
unnecessary delineation of characters. The existence of God, of Fate
of the powerful Nature, of the supernatural interference in human life
are accepted to be important ingredients of a tragic play as much as
the plots or characters are. Thus the human protagonist gets read\
to face almost an unbeatable opponent. Shakespeare writes
consciously and firmly about this unequal fight :
 159

As flies are to wanton boys we are to gods. They kill us for their sport.31
Omar Khayyam expressed the same idea more elaborately. The Moving Finger writes
: and. having writ. Moves on : nor all thy Piety nor wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a L .<e
Nor all thy Tears wash out a word of it32

Nevertheless, man does not give up. He faces life in the

oo
Brownigian term : “I was ever a fighter so one fight more’’ and this
fight (struggle for existence) is the best fight which continues till death.

In Synge’s Riders to the Sea, we encounter such an attitude

in Maurya, in her daughter and in the other islanders. Their conflict,
however, becomes more meaningful as the calamities do not divert
their minds away from God. Prayers are regularly offered, worship
continues and the priest gets his due respect. Thus, suffering may
be fatalistic, still it is accepted with religious patience in the same
.spirit as we find in Yeats’ The Contess Cathleen.

J.L. Styan examined the elements of a great tragedy in Riders

to the Sea and comes to the conclusion, that it has “the felt authority
of a great drama.” The eminent critic comments “tragedy is lyrical in
origin and at its great moments it reverts to type.”34

The play abounds in several symbols. These symbols are

simple, rustic and domestic, but they are meaningful and significant
to the situation where they are employed. As Styan feels ‘household'
symbols “elevate the play to a great tragedy and set the mind
wandering from idea to idea, from emotion to emotion.'' These
symbols, though simple, are used in such a manner that they take
up, archetypal shapes. Some such symbols are-sea in its manifold
moods, the drowned man, the horse etc. The most important symbol

31. ‘King Lear', Act. iv. SC.I.

32. 'Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam', tr. by Edward Fitzgerland, English Verse, Vol. 5, P. 56.
33. 'Prospice'. English Verse, Vol. 5., P. 218.
34. STYAN. J.L. : The Elements of Drama, P. 32.
 160

is that of horse. It signifies power, fear and strength and it is a>so

related to the title.

The title of the play is quite striking and is connected to the

main theme, that is, conflict between the puny human beings and the
mighty sea. The cruel sea is a powerful horse, a sort of bucking broncc
and the fisherman of Aran Islands are its riders who constantly make-
efforts to take on this mighty force but always lose and pay for their
arrogance by death.

The title is also symbolical having a deeper Christian

.significance. Its background can be traced to The Old Testament
and its culmination may be found in The New Testament. The
following extract from the book of Exodus is meaningful :
For when the horses of Pharoah with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea
the LORD brought back the waters of the sea upon them : but the people of Israel walked ,v
dry ground in the midst of the sea. Then Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, toon a
timbrel in her hand: and all the women went out after her with timbrels and dancing. And Mirmn
sang to them : "Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider
has thrown into the sea.'36

Thus Pharoah’s horseman pursuing the Israelites to the Sea

are themselves devoured by the sea and perish. The episode from
The Old Testament’ shows that the soldiers of Pharoah were cursed
'by God and become riders to the sea ultimately meeting death.

The reference from 'The Old Testament’ on the other hand, is

used as a symbol to reveal two things, man’s helplessness in the
hands of the natural forces such as the mighty sea and secondly,
the sea as a destroyer. The title also suggests that the menfolk of
Maurya have a sealed destiny. She has become conscious of this

35.
36. THE HOLY BIBLE, P. 53, EXODUS', 15-,19-21.
 161

too and hence tries to prevent Bartley from going which she had not
done in the case of others. So, the male members ride to the sea
full of hope and confidence like the soldiers of Pharoah but do not
return alive and perish in the sea.

Death riding a horse is mentioned in the ‘New Testament’ also:

I looked, and there before me was a pale horse;
Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him3'

The above quotation clarifies that the images of horse and

riders are not used as any curse but they are meant to symbolise
death. This death and deprivation were embedded in the whole play
and Synge begins the play at a stage where all the male members
of Maurya’s family except Bartley are already drowned in the sea as
if to instil the readers mind with the very significance of the title to
an extent that they should not miss it.

Undoubtedly, Riders to the Sea is one of the master-pieces

of our modern theatre. It is simple, but grand in its simplicity. The
'scene is a lonely sea-coast cottage. Outside the ocean roars hungrily
for its toll of humarv lives. Within Maurya sits remembering with
bitterness the six male members who have fallen prey to the greedy
monster. There is no news of the seventh, Michael and so she broods
about Bartley’s visit to the horse fair to the mainland because he is
the last surviving male member. The darkness gradually settles around
the cottage and Maurya’s sun also sets finally with the deaths os
Michael and Bartley. j

We are shown the struggle between helpless and frail man on

the one side and the powerful and undefeatable elemental force, the

37. The Book of Revelation. P. 6:8

 162

‘Sea’ on the other side, in this play. The ‘Sea’ becomes a living force,
a demon hungering after men, but the persons in the Cottage-Maurya.
Nora and Cathleen, weak as they are (having also the disadvantage
of being women), face the physical power of the ocean and are titanic
in their courage and patience.

Their tragedy goes back to primal emotions, to the struggle of

man with nature and reminds the reader of simlilar unequal conflicts
in future, thereby giving the play, a universal colour, strength and
majesty.

The language of the play, which is an imaginative

reconstruction of the Anglo-Irish dialect is well modulated to suit the
tragic rhythm of the play. It has a Shakespearean richness and variety
: which ranges from quick colloquiolism in the conversation of the two
girls to lyrical intensity in Maurya’s reminiscent dirge quoted earlier
in this chapter. It is this quality which has led some critics to
say-“Riders to the Sea may indeed be more poem than tragedy.”38

! Synge’s second tragedy Deirdre of the Sorrow is his las play,

which remianed ‘unrevised’, not fully completed, and published
posthumously. The play could not be revised by Synge and leaves
a sense of incompletion in the readers. Documents reveal that in
August, 1906, Synge tranaslated some of Patrarch’s Sonnets to Lauya
in Death into ‘Cadenced’ prose. The language of Deirdre was modellea
on this prose though upto this stage the dramatist had no intention
of dramatising the story of Deirdre.

38. LUCAS, F.A. : Chekhov, Synge, Yeats and Perandello.

 163

The first indication of Synge’s plans about Deirdre are found

in December, 1906 through a letter to Moly.” My next play must be
quite different from the Playboy. I want to do something quiet and
stately obviously refers to Deirdre because he had send the boo*
Cuchulain of Muirthemne to Molly in November and had desired her
to read the dpisodes realted to sons of Usnach.

Synge’s Deirdre seems much more Vividly alive than the play
by Yeats and A.E. on the same story; “It avoids almost wholly that
collouquial modern vulgarity too often shed by writers like Shaw airj
the figures of the past like Jeanne D.Arc, and to often thought,
on
poignant by modern translators of the classics”. As we know synge s
habit was to rewrite his plays servreal times. He was in the habit of
adding and altering till the structure had become as strong and vaired
as we have seen in the other plays. W.B. Yeats has also regretted
its structural deficiency. He has remarked that ;
.... had he lived to do that, 'Deirdre of the sorrows’ would have been his mastewoik
so much beauty is there in its course, and such wild nobleness in its end, and so poignant ■>

an emotion and wisdowm that were his own preparation of death. 40

Here Synge has tried his hand on a Saga theme instead of
an ‘Aran Story’ as he has done in his other plays. The note of sadness
resulting from the passing of youth and the approach of old age, witn
horrer of death, which is mostly an undercurrent in the themes of his
earlier ‘comedies’, becomes pronouncedly dominant and untying strain
in the present play. Sygne’s prolonged illness, his depression resulting
from frustrated love and the popular disapprobation of his hanlding
through the Playboy riots, may be some of the potent reasons for h s

39. LUCAS. F.L. : Chekhov. Synge, Yeats and Piraldllo. P. 228.

40. YEATS,W.B.:Preface to Deirdre of the sorrows, Ann Saddlemayer (ed.) J.M. Synge’s Plays. P n 5
 164

luring to Saga. Deirdre as it were, provides a relief to the writer himsek

by his restating the Villon theme of the passing of love, the onset of
old age and his own acute realization of his personal situation. Though
the play has been found ‘unrevised’ and structurally weak in many
ways it exemplifies Synge’s maturity as an artist in handling the
legendary sources; his mastery over ironices and his sense o:
exaltation in tragedy which is counterpointed by the usual brutality
and violence we have noticed in his earlier plays.

This Cuchulain Saga was earlier tried by a number of exper

hands, prominent among whom are Sir Samuel Fergusson (Poem),
Yeats,. A.E. and Lady Gregory, This sage from the muth of Cuchulair
is considered as one of Ireland’s great love stories. Synge retains
the broad outline of the legendary story, and keeps the atmosphere
of the original. Though legendary, the story of the play, which has
an apparent classical simplicity, is archetypal. It is the story of the
hopeless passion of age for youth where the young girl is taken awa\
in flight by a young man. The girl returns to her old ‘Lover’ only for
the destruction of the lovers and the town, as an Irish Helen. The
V

Trojan echo, contributing to the 'archetypal import of the story, is

unimistakably present in the fable.

The central theme of the play is the tragic helplessness of tire

love of age and youth. Though the story is considered to be an integral
part of the old heroic sage of Ireland, the theme itself is archetypal.
The tragic intensity of the central theme results from the profundity
of passion of an old king bent upon marrying a young pretty girl whose
natural urges compel her to be wooed by a young handsome man
and live in the open mountains rather than be confined within the
 165

walls of a palace. The other themes of the dread of old age. Loneiness
and defiance of fate and death are subtly interwoven with the central
theme. In handling these Synge once in his dramatic career, decided
not to use the actual, realistic, topical material with which he was so
familiar. The measure of difference of tragic gexius of Syngs from
those of his other contemporaries lies in the intensity and hero c
suffering of his protagonist when she is placed beside her other
creators like W.B. Yeats. Lady Gregory and E.M. Hull, A.E. etc.

Before taking up a detailed analysis of Synge’s Deirdre of the

Sorrows, it will be worthwhile to examine the main parts of the
treatment of this theme by the three different persons who influence
Synge the most, W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory and E.M. Hull.

W.B. Yeats’ Deirdre begins with the following prologue-like

utterance of the First Musician :
Some dozen years ago, kind Conchubar found A house upon the hillside in this wo ;c/
And nobody to say if she wre human, Or of gods, or anything at all Of who she was or r./?>
she was hidden there, But that she'd too much beauty for good luck. He went up thither da.,y
till at last She put on womanhood, and he lost peace And Deirdre’s tale began. The king
,old A month or so before the marriage day, A young man, in the laughing score of his youth
Nadise, the son of usna, climbed up there And having wooed, Or. as some say, been wocec.
carried her off.41

The play ends when Deirdre decieves the king, stabs hereself
and dies falling on the dead body of Naise.

Lady Gregory, on the other hand, begins her prose work from
the very root, i.e., the time when there w3as a prophecy about the
ruin and destruction to be caused by Deirdre. Cathbad, the Druid hac
foretold that the beuatiful daughter born to the wife of Fedlimid, the
story-teuer would bring bloodshe, death and destruction in Ireland.

41. Collected Plays of W.B. Yeats.

 166

He is present later in the feast for the daughter’s celebration. King

Conchubar is also invited, the Druid renews the earlier prophecy with
the girl-child in his arms :
Let Deirdre be her name, harm will come through her. She will be fair, comely
brighthaired; heroes will fight for her, and kings go seeking for her..... there is harm in you face
for it will bring banishment and death on the sons of kings.
In your fate, O beautiful child, are wounds, and ill-doings and the shedding of bloccl
You will have a little grave apart for yourself, you will be a tale of wonder for ever
Deirdre A2'

Lady Gregory’s account continues through the episodes of

deirdre’s nature as a foster-child under Lavarcham, her elepement
and ultimate suicide after Naisi is killed at the hand of Conchubar.

E.M. Hull’s book, the Cuchullin Saga in Irish Literature (1898;

is more vivid and has greater details of Deirdre’s tale in comparison
to Lady Gregory. Synge was much impressed by that episode from
Hull which shows the preference of Deirdre for her future husband
These lines are quoted beiow :

Once on a snowy day it came to pass that her fosterer killec

a calf for dinner; and when the blood of the calf was poured upoen
the snow, a black raven swooped down to drink it. When Deirare
took heed of that, she said to Lavarcham that she would desire a
husband having the three colours which whe beheld, namely, the
colour of raven on his hair, the colour of the calf’s blood on his cheeks.
4q
and the colour of the snow on his skin.

Synge has used the above imagery but he makes Deirdre tc

express her desire to conchubor in defiance and teasing and not tc
Lavarcham, Deirdre speaks :

42. Cuchuiain of Muirthemne, PP. 105-6

43. P. 24
 167

/ would not Conchubor. A girl bom the way I'm is more likely to wich for a mate wh> a
be her likeness.........A man with his hair like the raven, may be, and his skin like the snow am.
his lips like blood split on /f.44

While analysing Synge’s Deirdre of the Sorrows, it is revealed

that though Lady Gregory’s book was the main source of inspiratio
for the playwright, yet he was depeneded heavily on Hull for various
crucial episodes. For some other legends, he is indebted to a few
poems of W.B. Yeats as well, Yeats’ play Deirdre doesn’t appear to
have influenced him much except for the \heme of the plot.

The entire movement of the plot of the play is well modulatec

along a typical tragic pattern, It has clearly marked movements
showing the hand of a master craftsman. Act I of the play, foi
’examples, has got three clearly defined stages of movement where
the action moves swiftly and necessitates its further development
towards a tragic catastrophe. The setting of the opening action is.
unlike that of the other plays, more sophisticated, The surrounding
physical environment assumes the rustic moorings of the action. As
we have noticed earlier the opening of the action is Synge’s plays is
dramtically as well $s theatrically effectve. It creates the tragic
atmospere and mood as it proples the plot inot immediate and swT
movement.

The play opens at a curcial stage in the life of Deirdre. The

opening dialogue of the old woman (Deirdre’s attendand) anc,
Lavarcham (Deirdre’s cook and foster mother) creates our suspense i

and, with a choric function, introduces the main burden of the tHeme
Deirdre has been away in the mountains and has not returned home;
until late in the evening when the weather the threatening to be

44. HENN. T.R. : The Play and Poems of J.M. Synge, P. 236.
 168

dangerously rough. The sons of usna are reported to be around

“Chasing horses for two days or three”. Deirdre might meet them in
the mountain and thus help the fulfilment of the fate told about her
that she will be the ruin of the sons of usna. with admirable dramatic
clarity and economy the story of Deirdre’s past prophecy and future
course of action have been presented by the conversation of the twc
women. She has been kept away from ulster, in the midst of nature
by the High king so that she could grow inot an uncontaminated,
natural beauty, something like the luck of wordworth. The king
conchubor would marry her when she would come of age. to aver:
the tragic fats told about her that she would be the ruin of the sons
of Usna and also to gratify his passion for her.

Conchubor is ‘middling settled in his year’s and Deirdre has

grown into a tender beauty in the open freshness of the air. The olci
man’s passion for the young Deirdre is so strong that he ‘would be
jealous of a hawk, would fly between her and the rising sunm. It is
in this context of threatening fear, the Old woman’s anxiety:There'H
be trouble this night conveys ominous forebodings the nature of
which is still enwrapped in mystry. Lavarchm’s anxiety is long-drawn
and her hope.of its end can only envisage its inevitability. ‘It’d be
best of all, if he.....made an end quickly....’

The pace of the action is kept up by conchubor’s arrival and

immediate enquiry, ‘where is Deirdre?’ Lavarchm’s reply to this
underlines ‘indifference’ and individual freedom-which is recurrent in
almost all the plays of Synge, conchubor’s fear of might with thunder
coming’ and Deirdre’s being away is at once allayed by Lavarcham:
 169

she's used to every track and pathway, and the

lightning itself wouldn't let down its flame
to sing the beauty of her like.45

This speech is important in as much as it concerns the idyllic-

life theme and hints at the mystic bond between nature and man.
The richness of the speech is further evinced by the implied moth
and butterfly imagery of the last part of it. In these speeches the
Influence of Pre-Raphalites on Synge can be easily detected.

The conversation between Lavarcham and conchubor about

Deirdre’s growing ready for her life in Emain' advances the main theme
by pointing to the reality of the situaion. conchubor reprimanos
Lavarcham for not keeping the place arranged in a fitting fashion
considering the futuer status of Deirdre as the queen of Emain Macha.
Conchubor’s impatience to possess Deirdre as his wife which he has
longed all these years while Deirdre has been growing into
womanhood amidst the mountains is ironically opposed by Lavarchm's
reminder to him of the big gap in the ages of the king and Deirdre.
However, Lavarcham has no more control over the way Deirdre has
been feeling free of late. She does not need to be trained by
Lavarcham. She confesses frankly to conchubor..that Deirdre has :

.....little call to mind an old woman when she has the birds tc
school her, and the pools in the rivers
where she goes bathing in the sun. I'll tell you
if you seen her that time, with her white skin, and
her red lips, and the blue water and the ferns
about her, you’d know, may be and you greedy
itself, it wasn't for your like she was born ,
at all,46 i

45. Ibid, p.233

46. Ibid, p.234
 170

The themes of epic fatalism and idyllic life are both pushed
forward interconnectedly-one threatening the existence of the other
Further suspense on this accound cannot perhaps be desirably
continued by the dramatist; Conchubor commands unequivocally : 'It's
little I heed for what she was born, she’ll be my comrade, surely’.
The action at this point is very dramatically interrupted by Lavarcham's
very important speeches which sum up the compleity fo the themes
of the love of age for youth, idyllic life, and fatalism :

I’am in dread so that were right, saying she’d bring destruction

on the world, for it’s a poor thing when you see a settled man putting
the love he has for a young child, and the love he has for a full
woman, on a girl the like of her; and it’s poor thing, conchubor, to
see a High king, the way you are this day, praying after needless
and numbering her lines of thread 47

The hopelessness and impropriety of the love of age for youth

are brought out emphatically by Lavarcham who stands for life's
experience. The ‘greedy’ conchubor blinded by his passion cannot
respond to the wisdom and mature attitude to life exemplified by
Lavarcham. Deirdre, so far indifferent to the troubles foretold is now
becomes aware of that. We have to see whether the ‘dread of death
or troubles would tame her like’ who is ‘light and airy’- implying ‘grace,
waywardness and irresponsibility’. After the tragic mood of threatened
catastrophe is fully established, Deirdre enters “with a little bag and
a bundle of twigs in her arm”. She is dismayed at the presence of
Conchubor in the house but talks with him in a ‘quite self-possessed’

47.Ibid,p.234
 171

manner. Conchubor’s annyance with her rustic manners is respondec

to by Deirdre with defiance and frank rejection of his courting of her:
Deirdre : ..... A girl born the way I'am born is more likely to wish for a mate who'c.
be her likeness..... A man with his hair like the raven, may be, and his skin like the snow nnc,
his lips like blood spilt on it48

Conchubor tries to coax her in his favour, failing which he

asserts his authority and threatens Deirdre with the ultimatum of taking
her to Emain in two days or three. Conchubor’s converstion with
Deirdre alternates between threat and self-pity at his own life passing
to old age. Conchubor has all along been lonesome with the wheel
of the chariot of time rattling behind him. He does enlist our sympathy
by the intensity of his passion and the hopelessness resulting from
the passage of time. Before it is too late he wants to have Deirdre
as him ‘mate and comrade’, Deirdre’s loneliness has been no less
gloomy and she too has desired a comrade-not an old man like
Conchubor but a young man like Naisi.

As Conchubor realises a threat to his dream by Deirdre's

outright rejection of his proposal of matrimony, Deirdre’s dream of
living in the midst of nature and being wooed by a young handsome
man is also threatened to crumble by conchubor’s order that Deirdre
would have to become his wife in two days. Deirdre’s pleading with
Conchubor to allow her some more time to live in the Glen is of no
avail because conchubor is obsessed with ‘a fear in the back of my
mind I’d miss you and have great trouble in the end.’ Conchrubor s
fear is subtly fused with his intense passion and sense of authority:
I’m ripe man and in great love, and yet, Deirdre, I’m the king of ulster’.
Singnificantly enough, at the time of conchubor’s leaving the place,

48. Ibid. pp.235-36

 172

‘there is a storm coming’ and ‘the floods are rising with the rain’. This
exit of conchubor which threatens the demoliton of the dreams of
Deirdre as well as himself marks the first movement of action in the
first Act.

The second movement begings with Lavarcham’s fearful

concern with Deirdre’s future fate. Deirdre discusses with Lavarcham
whether any person would be able to protect her from conchubor's
consuming passion. Realising the futility of thinking in that direction,
Deirdre, because of deep despair and strange sense of determination
starts behaving as if she is distracted, while the weather outside the
house is stormy and ‘the stepping stones are flooding’ she asks
Lavarcham to prepare her room with all the beautiful luxurious things
she had been given by Conchubor in the past and which she had all
along disdained to use. ‘Skillets of silver and the golden cups’ with
‘two flasks of wine’ are laid on the table in the room where the rich
tapestries have been rearranged. She dresses herself with the
luxurious clothes and ‘Jewels....sent from Emain’. Lavarcham is
!

confused with Deirdre’s unusual, distracted behaviour and her

‘outburst of excitement’. In an incomprehensible manner she explains
to Lavarcham her present behaviour :

I will dress like Emer in Dundealgan or Maeve in her house

in connaught, If conchubor’II make me a queen. I’ll have the right of
a queen who is a master, taking her own choice and making a stir
to the edges of the seas....And maybe from this day I will turn the
man of Ireland like a wind blowing on the heath.49

49. Ibid. p. 240

 173

Deirdre’s this demeanour and newly assumed imperiousness

and pride appears too much mysterious to Lavarcham and the olo
woman.The reaction to this of Lavercham and the old woman is that,
Deirdre is ‘raving’, more than raving in her mind’. While Lavarcham
understands her predicament and endorses her'right to have he;
pleasure’ and is convinced that ‘it’s her like will be the master till the
end of time’, the old Woman’s understanding of the whole situation
is limited and superficial. In fact, Lavarcham’s vision of the doom goes
beyond the immediate context: ‘It’s more than conchubo’ll be sick ano
sorrry, I’m thinking, before this story is told to the end’. It is a this
juncture that ‘a loud knocking on the door’ is heard, and Naisi ano
his brother arrive in the cottage. At first it appears as if some
supernatural power has brought these ‘doomed’ vicitims into the net.
They have come to the house seeking shelter against the stormy
.weather outside. As Naisi and his brothers arrive. Lavarcham’s and
the Old Woman’s responeses are notable. While the ‘Old Woman
claps her hands in horrer’-denting her helplesness, Lavarcham
paradoxically takes more positive steps to avert the doom. She stope
them from stepping in to the cottage and tells them a lie. There :s
no one let in here, and no young girl with us. ‘she tries her best to
hold Deirdre from the foretold doom by telling Naisi that the girl of
his description lives in the mountain at a distance and not there in
the house. Being forced by the physical necessity of seeking shelter
Naisi and his brother force their entry into the house, and make
themselves comfortable with the wine kept ready on the table.
Lavarcham now realises that Deirdre had met these people earlier in
the evening and her preparation of herself as queen is no more an
 174

enigma for her. Naisi notices the ‘golden mug’ with the High king’s
mark on its rim. He suspects that the young girl whom they have met
in the mountain has connection with conchubor. As Lavarcham seems
to be oh the weak verge of almost succeding in keeping Naisi away
from Deirdre, the apparently improving situation veers round to its
opposite, ‘Deirdre comes in royally dressed and beautiful’. She tells
Naisi that she is ‘Deirdre of the Sorrows’ and implores for his
coradeship. Naisi at the sight of a now transformed Deirdre is
‘transfixed with amazement’. All the radiance and destructiveness of
beauty is at once conveyed through these words:
And it is you who go around in the woods making the thrushes bear a grudge agan st
the heavens for the sweetness of your singing50

The new imperious tone of Deirdre ‘overawes’ Lavarcham,

Deirdre is a queen now ‘sitting in the high chair in the centre’ and
offering ‘the stool’ to Naisi. while by Deirdre’s order Lavarcham takes
Ainnle and Ardan into the little hut used for dining, Deirdre left alone
with Naisi discloses her identity to him alone with Naisi discloses her
identity to him along with her parentage and the troubles which are
foretold about her that she will be the ruin of the sons of Usna and
have a little grave by herself, and the story will be told forever’. Deirdre
tells Naisi about her loneliness, dread of Emain and her search for
shelter from her fear. Deirdre proposes to bury the fate foretold about
her in ‘the sweet life’ she would have in the company of Naisi and
to enjoy ‘what is best and richest if its for a short space only. Naisi's
first impulse is hesitation, not because of any lock of bravery on his
part, but because of the tragic Consequences the fulfilment of
Deirdre’s dream would bring her. But because when he is told that

50. Ibid.p.243
 175

Conchubor’s messengers are coming to take her to Emain 'to be his

mate’, Naisi immediatily aquiesces to take Deirdre away from that
place to Alban, where Conchubor may not be able to discover her.
With a sense of great regret of loss Deirdre leaves the place where
she has lived and grown Deirdre wants to get married before leaving
for Alban with Naisi. Lavarchm hesitates to perform this cermony.
Which is performed by Ainnle with which the Act ends. Thus, the
tragic tension created in the beginning of the Act comes to an ena
with strong foreboding of a much stronger tension on two counts; first
conchubor’s reaction to Deirdre’s marriage with Naisi in the context
of his furius passion for her, and secondly, the doom foretold about
Deirdre at the time of her birth.

The Second Act is set in Alban. It opens with a somber, noteon

an ‘early morning in the begining of winter’ denoting the passing of
seven years of happiness which Deirdre and Naisi have had. The
dialogue opens with ‘light’ speeches which soon change to
‘seriousness’ threatenig the end of the happy idyllic life of Deirdre.
Fergus, Conchubor’s ‘friend and warrior of the Red Branch of Ulster,
a well-meaning person, is reported to have come to Alban with
messges of peace from Conchubor to take Naisi and his brother back
to Emain. Lavarcham, thinking that she could overtake fergus and
reach Alban earlier than him to warn Deirdre and the sons of Usna
against Conchubor’s trick in his ‘message of peace’, tells Deirdre not
to be trapped. But Fergus has already arrived and is seen persuading
|

Naisi to accept the offer of peace from Conchubor. Lavarcham sees

clearly the doom closing in on Deirdre and the sons of Usna as
prophesied. Deirdre too knows her doom but she speaks ligh
 176

theartedly to Lavarcham. And during their discussion of conchubor's

plans it becomes apparent that this gaiety is only Deirdre’s habitual
mask. Underneath there is anxiety and a complete absence of hope.
Happy as she has been, she knows that there is no escaping the
inevitable end; thought she has been successful in concealing her
dread from Naisi and his brothers who think she is never anything
but gay. With a philosophic unconcern Deridre tries to brush aside
-Lavarchm’s warning :
There’s little power in oaths to stop what's
coming, and little power in what I'd do,
Lavarcham, to change the story fo Conchubor
and Naisi and the things men foretold 51

Lavarcham reprimands Deirdre’ for her cowardly acquiescence

to fate. Deirdre, however, takes solace in the seven years of happy
and undisturbed life that she has had with Naisi in the forest. But
even these seven years have not been wihtout streaks of
apprehension and forebodings,
It’s lonesome this place, having happiness like ours,
till I’m asking each day, will this day match
yesterday, and will tomorrow take a good place beside the same day in the that's gone
and wondering all times is it a game worth playing living on until you’re dried and old, and out
joy is gone for ever. j.
Lavarcham finds that her plan of keeping, Naisi and Deirdre
away from the ‘gamey king’ has not succeed, she ‘despairingly’ says,
Tm late so with my warnings, for Fergus’d talk the moon over to take
a new path in the sky.’

The pace of the action is now realized imperceptibly by Synge's

introduction of the almost enigmantic and highly concentrated
character of owen, The dramatic effect of Owen’s character is of the

51. Ibidn.. p.248

52.Ibid.
 177

‘grotesque’ which Yeats feels Synge failed to weave properly in the

fibre of the play. Owen’s role is that of a tempter, which, in a sense
is also the role of Lavarcham as well as Fergus. He has come to
ensure that fergus’ mission succeeds. He is entrusted with the job of
killing Naisi on his way to Emain and thus making Deirdre free foi
Conchubor’s wooing, owen himself has been suffering from consuming
passion for Deirdre. He tries to convince Deirdre that she should go
with him and bring a new freshness in her life and not stay for a
great length ‘with the same man snorting next to you at the dawn of
day! He tells Deirdre that if she rejects his proposal she is destined
to rot either with the stale and weary’ passion or with Conchubor
taking pride in his ‘swelling belly and eyes falling down from his shining
crown’. Owen himself has been dreading old age and admires Deirdre
for realizing the reality of time as a great distroyer of beauty and
youth:
Queens get old, Deirdre, with their white and long
arms going from them, and their backs hoping,
I tell you it's a poor thing to see a queen's
nose reaching down to scape her chin.53

Deirdre has no reply to this bitterly caricatured picture of a

queen which has, nonetheless an electrifying effect on her. The point
made here is that Owen’s realism is altogether more worth taking
seriously than any other kind exhibited in the play. The whole point
of the situation representing queens getteing old is that such a fate
can and should be avoided. The very decision of Deirdre to leave
confirms the force implied in Owen’s suggestion, The significant point
in note is that it is owe’s realism-rather than Fergus’ or Lavarcham's
sentimentalism-which sways Deirdre. Owen’s importance lies in his

53. Ibid., p.251

 178

being as an index of the path which Deirdre must follow; the path of
self-preservation-the only way to preserve youth and beauty forever,
the way which Deirdre Naisi’s death-that lies through the grave. In
this connection Owen’s suicide is in itself, powerfully suggestive and
forges stronger links between himself and Deirdre.

Fergus now appears on the stage, who is wise, persuasive

and, as we have said before, a well meaning person. He tries to
convince Deirdre with logic and guardian-like authority that it is in the
interest of Nais and his brothers to accept Conchubor’s offer of peace
and return to Emain. He chides Deirdre on her obstinate to accept
the proposal and tells her that he would blame Deirder for obstructing
her husband on his path to kingly glory ;
It's easy being fearful and you alone in the woods
yet be a poor thing if a timid woman could turn
away the sons of Usna from the life of kings. Let you
be thinking on the years to come, Deirdre, and the
way you’d have a right to see Naisi a high
and white haired Justice beside some kings of
Emain. Wouldn’t it be a poor story if a queen
the like of you should have no thought but to
be scraping up her hours dallying in the sunshine
with the some of kings.54

Deirdre gives-in and leaves the choice to Naisi.

But she warns Fergus that he would be held responsible if the

propsal of peace turns out to be a treachery;
Yet you’d do well Fergus to go on your own way,
for the sake of your own years, so you'll not be
saying till your hour of death, maybe it was
yourself brought Naisi and his brothers to a grave
was scoped by treachety.55

However, Fergus firm assuance of security is declared by him.

54. ibid., p 260.

55. Ibid, p.252
 179

Fergus now turms to Naisi to pursude him to accept

Conchubor’s proposal Fergus is not only intelligent and practical but
is also a clever psychologist. He handles naisi differently fron Deirdre.
He tells him that a stage of satiety comes even in love which may
result in hardness:
You’d do well to come beck to men and women
are your match and comrades, and not be lingeing
untill the day that you'ill grow weaty, and
hurt Deurde showing her the hardness will
grow up within your eyes....
you're here years and plenty to know it’s
truth I'am saying. 56

Naisi confesses to Fergus that:

There have been days a while past when I've been
throwing a live for salmon or watching for the run
of hares, that I've a dread upon me a day'd come
I'd wean,' of her voice, and Deirdre'd see I'd wearied. 57

Naisi goes on ‘with confidence’ that Deidre has had no thought

of the reality of time and fear of weainess:
Deirdre's no thought of getting old or wearied;
it's that puts wonder in her ways, and she with spirits would keep bravery and laughter
in a town with plague. 58

Dierde overhe Naisi’s confession ‘with stormy wonder’.

It is Deirdre who now comes forward with her decision. This

decision of Deirdre is liverating on two counts. In the first place it
represents the end of illusion in Deirdre-Naisi relationship and is, to
that extent, salutary, though painful. It relieves Deirdre of the need
to pretent a gaiety which she does not truly feel, and enables her to
raise with Naisi, Openly and honestly, the question which now clearly
confronts both of them. How to keep their love from waning. Naisi’s
own sustaining ‘dream’ of Deirdre’s inherently ‘joyous’ nature is

56. Ibid.
57. Ibid, p.253
58. Ibid.
 180

shattered once for all, but the gains of clear singth if not of
happiness-are a relative compensation. The second count on which
the revelation is positive rather than negative is further-ranging, and
is brought out fully only at the end of the play.

Deirdre makes the job of Fergus easier by assuming the ro;e

of a pleader for the peace offered by Conchubor. Her line of trsument
is as logical as it is fatalistic, she tails Naisi that if one’s end is to
come it will come anyway;
And it’s in the quiet woods I’ve seen them digging our grave,
59
throwing out the clay on leaves are bringht and withered.
she further argues :
..... isn't it a better thing to be following
on to a near death, than to be bending the
head down, and dragging with the feet, and
seeing one day blight showing upon live
where it is sweet and tender?60

Deirdre’s argument wins Naisi over and he accepts

Conchubor’s proposal.

Owen appears again in the scene with a clear warning against

Conchubor’s treacherous intention in the whole deal, which is rejected
by Fergus as ’raving’. Deirdre comes out dressed in, significantly
enough, in a dark clock’. Ainnle’s and Ardan’s premontion of a
traeacherous trap in Conchubor’s ‘message of peace’ is done away
with be Deirdre’s claim on them of obedinece ot her, Deirdre explains
candidly the reason underlying her decision to take Naisi to Emain
where death is awaitipg her. Deirder’s behaviour in the present
i

situation may appear as that of a wilful, obsinate woman. But this

59. Ibid, p.255

60. Ibid.
 181

wilfulness or obstinacy is explainable if we imaginatively respond to

Deirdre’s reactions to Naisi’s confession to Fergus which she had
overheard. In the fullness of joy and bliss of life Deirdre had forgotten
the reality of the rapacious hand of time. She assumes a heroic stature
when she determines to prove the proverbial truth of time as destroyer
of beauty and youth. By the end of the play she does retains
permanence of youth, beauty and love through death. She triumphs
over the destructive role of time as she frustrates Conchoubors
treacherous moves, the success of which would have compelled
Deirdre to yield to the reality of time. It is not that Deirdre’s deicision
is without a dread of death, but the attenuating factor is that she had
such bliss in life, though for a short space only, which can well match
with Cleopatra’s ecstatic confession ‘Eternity lay in our Kisses’.

The second act ends with a conjuction of satisfaction and dread

of loneliness and death to which Cynge himself could never get rid
of all his life.

The third Act is set in Emain. The place which is prepared to

lodge Naisi, and Deirdre is as bizarre as it is soaked in tragic
implications. It is a tent a'with shabby skins and bencjes’ with handing’
covering of freshly dug grave which is wide and deep. This also
suggests the trapping of Deirdre and Naisi in the net of death. The
* scene opens with the old woman’s anxiety to'set her eyes on Deirdre
if she’s coming this nighbas well as Conchubor’s ‘impatience’ to
‘recive’ Deirdre for ”a wedding or a burial, or the two togrther’ at once
bring a pace in the action. This pace is accelerated when Conchubor
is anxious’ to know is Fergus stopped in the north’ Lavarcham, who
foresaw the ‘plot’ earlier, has now made her way to Emain suspecting
 182

foul play by Conchuber. she warns Conchubor against his designe

on Deirde who would not become his embrace and is suitable only
for moving amid the beauty, of the woods. Conchubor, with a
fierceness of maddening passion and rather unholy impatience rejects
Lavarcham’s pleading for keeping the tenderness of youth away from
the destructive passion of old age. Lavarcham is wise enough to
understand Conchubor’s passion.

But when she finds Conchubor as impercious to her advice,

she draws back hopelessly and says, Then the gods have pity on us
all! once the voice of selfpreservation has been rejected, destruction
is the only alternative.
At this dramatically as'well as theatrically crucial moment ’men
with weapons come in’ they inform Conchubor that Naisi and Deirdre
are coming, and also that Lavarcham has sent a horse boy to call
Fergus from the North in case the ill fated lovers need his help for
their protection from death. Lavarchm’s loyalty to Deirdre is as sincere
as it is to Conchubor. She who nursed Deirdre from Childhood would
desire to ‘tend her if a bad end is coming. Lavercham is put under
arrest and Cochubor l^aces the scene with instuctions to lodge Naisi
and Deirdre in the tent.

The apparently ‘joyous’ and ‘gay’ spirit of Deirdre’ altered to

her sombore and resigned spirit’, is further subdued through ‘sorrow’
to one of unconcern, as it were combined with irony which at first is
unconscious. Naisi’s ‘It’s a strange place he’s put us camping and
we come back as his friends is answered by Deirdre’s.
He’s likely making up a welcome for us,having curtains shken
out and rich rooms put in order; and it’s right he’d have great state
to meet us, and you his sister’s son.
 183

Both are shocked at the ignominous shabbiness of the lodging.

But they gathers up patience and would not mind spending the night
in the ‘shabby, ragged place ....... with frayed rugs and skins are
eaten by the months. The plot of Conchubor becomes clear to them
when they discover ‘new earth on the ground and the trench dug’,
which conchubor has prepared as a grave for Niisi. The sight of the
grave unnerve Deirdre for a moment and she says to Naisi, ‘Take
me away----- Take me to hide in the rocks, for thnight is comming
quickly62. But Naisi realizing his loyalties for his battle comrades

declares not to run away for his and deirdr’s security, leaving his
brothers behind to be killed by conchubor’s men: It is at this critical
moment that a bitter exchange of words takes place between Naisi
and Deirdre Naisi Feels that ‘When I’m in that grave it’s soon a day’ll
come you’11 be to wearied to be crying out, and that, day’11 bring
you peace.63 Naisi’s words are ‘worse than death’ for Deirdre. They

become harrowingly agonizing for her when he imagins that Deirdre

would, soon after his death, take a fancy to some other man. He tells
to her , ‘If, a day comes in the west, go on keening always.’ Deirdre
knows her mind and is aware of her resolve: if Naisi dies she will
join him immediately in the grave. The bitter alteration between the
lovers may appear a bit jarring within the context of the most crucial
moment in their life.

But its relevance can be appreciated only if we take Naisi's

point of view into consideration. It is the mortal’s tenacious clinging
i
to wordly life and his Jealous concern of his beloved in beinig left

62. Ibid, p.263

63. Ibid
 184

alive in the world when he has gone on his -journey to the other world.
He syas:
... It’s hard and bitter thing leaving the earth, and a worse and harder thing leaving
yourself alone and desolate to be making lamentation of its face always 64
The bitter conversation between the lovers is interrupted by
the appearance of conchugor on the scene, who very dramatically
comes in and ‘bids’ him ‘welcome’. The simister irony of the welcome
in the context hardly needs any explanation. Conchubor’s ‘plot’ now
is clear to Naisi and so is his intention: ‘ I’ve come to look on Deirdre'
In this situation while Naisi loses self control out of anger, it is Deirdre
who demonstrates her presence of mind and equanimity. Her ironic
mention of ‘three lonesome people near the grave’ Which includes
Conchubor, is interpreted by the passion-blind ‘lover’ as the first
friendly word’ ever spoken to him by Deirdre. While Naisi and
conchubor are on the verge of engaging themselves in a scuffle, cries
of Ainnle and Ardan are heard from outside. The brothers of Naisi
are obviously trapped in an ambush. Naisi must go to help them
leaving Deirdre behind in the tent. Deirdre, montivated by her
selfishness, is once again ‘broken hearted’ as Naisi rejects her
beseeching’ and declares his bond with his brothers in fighting to be
stronger than that in iQve. ‘He throws her aside almost roughly’ and
the hardness of death’ that has come between them most pitiably
and almost harrowingly distances them from each other. Naisi ‘looks
at Deirdre aghast’ Deirdre’s ‘cruelty’ in sending Naisi to death ‘ with
a hard word form her lips in his ear’ demolishes his earlier confidence
in his love. He like Antony, blames now, both love and woman:
They'u not get a death that's cruel, and they with men alone. Its women that have
loved are cruel only.65 .

64. Ibid.
65
 185

Deirdre is as disillusioned at Naisi’s bitterness as Naisi is

destroyed by her cruelty. Deirdre’s disillusionment is followed by the
hardening of her heart:

We’ve had a dream, but this night has waked us surely. In a

little while we’ve lived to long. Naisi, and isn’t it a poor thing we would
miss the safety of the grave and we trampling its edge.

It is now Deirdre who encourages the hesitant Naisi to go into

action to detect his brothers, ‘Have you no shame loitering and
r

talking, and a cruel death facing Ainnle and Ardan in the woods?
Naisi goes out with these hard words from (Deirdre’s) lipsin his ear’.
Naisi blames Deirdre for the whole affair ending in a disaster for his
family. Deirdre’s reaction is naturally one of bitterness: 'I’m well
pleased there’s no one in this place to make a story that Naisi was
a, laughing-stock the night he died’67 Without any reapproachment

between the lovers, Naisi goes out leaving Deirdre’ bewildered and
terrified’ when conchubbor appears again before her to take her as
his queen. Deirdre, having registerd an ebb in her earlier heroic stature
now rises again, in her complete and brutal rejection of conchubor’s
plea for pity for him. She is broken down completely with the
realization that sent Naisi out with cruel words on her lips, and is left
desolate and helpless. The brief conversation between Deirdre and
conchubor, before the play ends reemphasizes the theme of despair
at ‘ being old and lonesome’, one sorrow (which) has no end surely’
conchubor emerges as an object of pity at his hopeless condition.
But more effective than this is his self-pity at being frustrated in his
long cherished yearning to have Deirdre as his wife.

67. Ibid.
 186

Fergus, who was sent by conchubor to the North so that

conchubor can have his way with his trecherous plans of destroying
the sons of usna, has come back and ‘is setting fire to the world’
‘Emain is in flames’, and conchubor is required to meet this situation
immediately and conchubor goes out.

While conchubor is away, lavarcham and the old woman again

appear, before the play ends to persuade Deirdre to go away to a
place of safety. But Deirdre has no will to live after Naisi’s death and
spend her lifetime in the world growing old. She will prefer the security
of the grave which will ensure the popularity of her story of a woman
who never grew old. Deirdre is now in a mood to welcome death
which alone can offer her immortality.

Conchubor returns again and this time Deirdre becomes

‘imperious’ above 1 crowns and Emain Macha’. Her transfiguration is
complete when in a commanding tone, she expresses the realized '
eternity’ of her love-thus bringing the theme of time to a philospohic
conclusion, permanence and eternal youth are seen under the
mundane conception of tiem: ‘withered grasses’ covering Naisi.
Deirdre’s stature is elevated perceptibly because of her new
awareness and conchulbor remains subjected to the mundane
conception of time and to average human understandig, ‘for in this
place your are an old man and a fool only’. His greedy tenacity is
answered by deirdre’s ‘imperious’ command:
Do not raise a hand to touch me68
He is fighting a battle which he has already lost. He is ‘defeated’
and ‘old’ while Deirdre has made herself triumphant and eternally

68. Ibid.
 187

young by frustrating the designs of time on her-by espousing the quiet

and safety of the grave and thus in a sense completely arresting the
passage of time. Deirdre’s ‘sorrow’ is over now. She feels death as
her quardian ensuring her freedom form this dirty world of tricks and
treachery, and the mortality of her youth and love:
I have put away sorrow like a shoe that is worn out and muddy, for it is I have had
a life that will be envied by great companies. It was not by low birth I made kings unesay, and
they sitting in the halls of Emain. It was not a low thing to be chosen by conchubor. sho wa.s
wise, and Naisi had no match for bravery. It is not a small thing to be rid of qrey hairs, and the
loosening of the teeth...... It was the choice of lives we had in the clear woods, and in the grave
6 ^
we're safe surely.... It was sorrows were foretold, but great joys were my share always...

And thus, she puts an end to her life for immortal union with
her lover and goes to the grave with a sense of joy and victory, without
any regrets.

The play ends in the manner of Shakespeare’s

Romeo and Juliet, where Fergus and Conchubor bury their

hatchet to mark a new beginning of calm in their kingdom. But this
end is too feeble to brighten the gloom which has engulfed the lives
of people and is expressed by Lavarcham in the concluding utterance
in the play:
Deirdre is dead, and Naisi is dead; and if the oaks and stars could die for sorrow. It’s
a dark sky and a hard and naked earth we’d have this night in Emain70'

At this Juncture it is pertinent to take note of the comment of

A.E. Malone. He says, Synge’s view of that humanity which has its
feet in the mire and its head among the stars is nowhere better
exemplified than in Deirdre, and the final scene.
Where Deirdre kills herself on the body of Naisi, shows synge at his highest as a tragic
' artist71
Lennox Robinson has high praise for the last Act of Deirdre which, he feels, places
synge in a higher position than Lady Gregory and W.B. Yeats. He concludes: Probably nothing

69.
70. Ibid, p. 273
71. Malone. A.E. : The Irish Drama', p. 154.
 188

created by these three is as great as the last act of deirdre, it might be the supreme justification
of that austere discipline they had imposed on themselves 72

The end of the play is equally praised by Una-Ellis Fermor,

who finds in Deirdre’s self- inflicted death a victory of love over over
death. It also strengthens the idea that when one gets compromised
to the reality of death, life tends to be more enjoyable, and worth
while:

Synge’s triumph is a paean of triuph where love and immortality

break through the grave and death, as in the fourth movement of
Brahm’s first symphony.

Deirdre’s keen over Naisi befor eshe kills herself is a song of

life, not of death 73 so if tragedy leads to catharsis the end od Deirdre

of the sorrows is a successful complotion of a fine tragic play. It makes

man to compromise to the great truth, the necessary evil! known as
‘Death’.

Whereas most of the critics praise the end of the play due to
its theme and philosophy of life and death, Alan price moves away
from the common interferences and dinds the last part of the play
equally impressive in techique, imgery, rhythm and language. He
explains:

The closing of this play is perhaps the finest thing Synge ever
wrote Here his technique and his exuberance of phrase and fancy,
are purified and directed to one end, eachword, each gesture is
functiona; and serious.

72. The Irish Theatre', p.50

73. The Irish Dramatic Movement ,p.184
 189

The speech defies analysis in the last resort but it clearly owes a good deal to the
wonderful rhythmic flow and to a great fastidiousness in the choice of words. 74
On the epic level it is a tragedy of fate of a statcrossed girl,
of a compulsive closing of the net that drives Deirdre to fulfil the doom
that was prophesied at her birth. Here synge keeps to the high-road
of his fable introducing only his invented character of owen, the
‘grotesque, whom (according to yeats) he had intended to bring in
also in Actl. Nor did he succeed in his intention "to weave ....... a
grotesque peasent element throughout the play", and we may question
yeats’ suggestion that he would therreby have made Deirdre into "a
world- famous masterpice",for he himself had called it-all but the last
Act-"a Master’s unginished work, monotonous and melancholy". It
.seems likely that much of the economy, concentration and unity of
tone would have been lost. As it stands, the play reveals considerable
depth and subtlety of characterization.

Synge has been censured for simplifiying the plot of Deirdre

of the Sorrows, a charge which is not correct. Deirdre’s story as found
in the saga is a simple tale and synge had no intention of Symbolising
the lore. It is creditable on the other hand, that he transformed a
simple tale of love intrigue, bloodshed and deception into a beautiful
and enjoyable tragic play.

74. Synge and Anglo-Irish Drama,p205