Introduction

Maurya is the protagonist and the most memorable character in Synge’s Riders to
the Sea. The whole play turns round her bereavement and calm resignation. The sea
has been devouring her near and dear ones down the years and causing her unbearable
mental agony. It has already doled out deaths to her five sons, her husband and father-
in-law. The fate’s malignancy has broken her, but failed to bend her spirit. The
character of Maurya resolves itself into the following characteristics.

Maurya: An Affectionate Mother

Maurya is an affectionate mother. She loves her children dearly and is deeply
concerned about their well-being. She passes sleepless nights praying for the safety of
the son who might be out on the sea. She is painfully acquainted with the risk of
sailing on the sea in the face of the rising storm. That is why she shudders to hear that
Bartley, her last surviving son is sailing over to the Galway fair to sell horses. She
asks him to postpone his journey because going to the stormy sea is but the other
name of death. To her nothing is as precious as the life of her son. She says to Bartley,

“If it was a hundred horses, or a thousand horses you had itself, what is the
price of a thousand horses against a son where there is one son only?”
She is not only worried about the well-being of her living son, but also at pains to
ensure peace to the departed soul of her dead son by giving him a deep burial with the
coffin made of costly white boards. She is a poor woman eking out a meagre
existence, but she bought costly white boards in Connemara for Michael’s burial.
Though overwhelmed with grief she does not forget to perform all the funeral rites for
Bartley. She sprinkles holy water on Bartley and keens over him.

Also Read:

 Supernaturalism in Riders to the Sea

 Symbolism in Riders to the Sea
Maurya is not a mere private mother; she is a universal mother. After the death of
Bartley she rises above her selfish concern for her near and dear ones and thinks of all
men. Thus she invokes the blessing of God not only on the souls of her sons, but also
on the soul of everyone left living in the world. T. R. Henn rightly says, “In her
elegiac blessing of the living and the dead Maurya attains the stature of a priestess”:

“May the Almighty God have mercy on Bartley’s soul, and on Michael’s
soul……..and on the soul of every one is left living in the world.”
She brackets the fate of her menfolk with that of all men who are subject to the
tyrannies of the forces (like the sea) they little understand. On taking Michael’s stick
to assist her steps on the stony path she says:
“In the big world the old people do be leaving things after them for their
sons and children, but in this place it is the young men do be leaving things
behind for them that do be old.”
Maurya: A Pious Christian

Maurya is indeed a symbol of the universal mother. Her concern and worries for her
near and dear ones become a mother of all ages and places.

Maurya is a pious Christian. She believes in the power of prayers to ward off evils,
specially death. She passed sleepless nights praying for the safety of her menfolk out
on the sea when the storm broke from the south. In order to save Bartley, her last
surviving son, from the jaws of death she said prayers to the Almighty God in the dark
night even when he fell asleep and could not hear her pray. She said a prayer when she
stood at the spring well to give Bartley bread and blessing. But all her prayers could
save none of her menfolk. Still she does not desist from prayers. She prays softly for
the peace of Michael and Bartley’s departed souls.

Though a devout Christian, she does not take the words of the young priest to be a
gospel truth. She speaks slightingly of his assurance that “the Almighty God won’t
leave her destitute with no son living.” She dares to say, “It’s little the like of him
knows of the sea.” Maurya is well ahead of the other islanders in her attitude to
religion and religious sentiments. It is really a wonder of all wonders that a woman of
a primitive community seeks to filter her religious views through her observations and
reason.

Maurya: A Superstitious Woman

Maurya shares superstitious beliefs with other islanders. Like them she believes in
portents, omens and signs etc. She believes that the appearance of a star close to the
moon is an ominous sign portending a violent storm in the sea. She shares the
common belief that the sight of a dead man pursuing a living man forebodes the death
of the living man. When she finds the dead Michael riding the grey pony behind
Bartley on the red mare, she is left with no doubt that Bartley will soon join the
company of Michael in the world of the dead. She also believes in the efficacy of the
Holy Water got in the dark nights after Samhain.

The superstitions of Maurya can be traced back to the sea ceaselessly devouring her
menfolk one by one. When a people are constantly haunted by the fear of death
coming from the malignant natural forces which they live off and as such cannot keep
away from, they, specially their womenfolk develop superstitious beliefs and practices
to give death the slip.

Maurya: A highly emotional woman

Maurya is a highly emotional woman. It is emotion which stirs her whole being and
shapes her utterances. When Bartley tramples on her solicitude not to go to the
Galway fair across the stormy sea and departs hastily, she is overpowered with an
emotion of agonized fear and bursts into an ominous prediction like Cassandra :

“He’s gone now, God spare us, and we’ll not see him again. He’s gone now,
and when the black night is falling I’ll have no son left me in the world.”
Her lament, after the dead body of Bartley is laid on the table, scales the height of the
emotional speech :

“It isn’t that I haven’t prayed for you, Bartley, to the Almighty God. It isn’t
that I haven’t said prayers in the dark night……..but it’s a great rest I’ll
have now.”
Almost all the speeches of Maurya are emotionally charged.

Moving transformation of Maurya

The character of Maurya undergoes a moving transformation in the final episode.

With the dead body of her last surviving son brought to her cottage she ceases to be a
pathetic, querulous woman. The horizon of her mind is widened. She rises above her
selfish consideration only for her near and dear ones, and thinks of all who are left
living in the world. Her concern about the whole living humanity deepens her tragedy
brings out her dignity and makes her magnificent amidst her colossal defeat at the
hands of inscrutable, relentless destiny.

She now realizes that the very fact of birth consigns all living to inevitable death. If
Michael and Bartley did not die just now, they would have surely died sometimes in
future. She also sees all her men-folk lost their lives in order to maintain their family’s
existence and to fulfill themselves. Going to sea is as inevitable as death. This
realization leads to her resignation to her lot and she says like a philosopher,

“No man at all can be living for ever, and we must be satisfied.”