J. M. SYNGE’S MODERN TRAGIC FLOW IN RIDERS TO THE SEA

Abstract

J. M. Synge’s one-act play Riders to the Sea (1904) reconceives the tragic mode for the modern stage by relocating the tragic burden from aristocratic fallibility to the quotidian endurance of a peasant community exposed to indifferent natural forces. This article reads Riders as an exemplar of “modern tragic flow”: a movement of dramatic intensity characterized by structural compression, ritualized language, communal rather than heroic catharsis, and the anthropomorphizing of nature as the primary tragic agent. Through close reading of key moments—Maurya’s laments, the exchange of symbolic objects, and the final realization of irrevocable loss—and by situating Synge within debates about modern tragedy (Williams, Eagleton), the study argues that Synge both preserves and displaces classical tragic dynamics to produce a tragic that is existential, ecological, and social. The paper concludes that Synge’s tragic flow offers a model of tragedy particularly resonant for modernity’s anxieties: the erosion of traditional protections, the loss of human agency before systemic forces, and the dignity of ordinary suffering.