the play is straightforward but sublime and universal And the message of the play that is akin to Greek tragedy is No man at all can be living forever and we must be satisfied Attainment of Unique Tragic Grandeur The play has the magnificence of a classical tragedy in its attainment of a unique tragic grandeur The tragedy of Maurya is unforgettable though she is an old superstitious and peevish woman It is factual that Maurya has nothing of the brilliance or personality of Lady Macbeth and Cleopatra but she touches our hearts with pathetic feelings She loses her husband and all six sons to the sea Technical Standpoint From the technical standpoint Riders to the Sea also comes closer to classical tragedies The principle of the three unities unity of time place and action of the classical tragedy is carefully followed here The play has a single plot of the acute suffering of an old mother The duration of the play does not cover more than an hour The action of the play is laid in a lonely seacoast cottage Role of Chorus This play has no conventional chorus of the classical tragedy However the conversation between the two sisters Cathleen and Nora represents the prosaic chorus of the play She is lying down God helps her and may be sleeping Thus it is akin to Greek tragedy in the modern context Role of Fate Greek tragedy is out and out fate-based Like Sophocles Oedipus Rex Riders to the Sea is a fate-based tragedy All the visible or invisible characters are forced to submit themselves before fate The tragic figure of the play Maurya has lost her six young sons husband and father-in-law who were helpless The supernatural agent of the play Sea symbolizes inscrutable fate Dramatic or Tragic Irony Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows something the characters do not know It has been used in this play to create tragic anticipation Bartley says the very opposite of what will happen He says he will return from the Galway Fair in two or four days Similarly there are uses of premonitions and forebodings that appeal to our senses of pity and terror A more straightforward but still classical use of foreboding speech occurs when Maurya says to Bartley What way will I live and the girls with me and I an old woman looking for the grave When Bartley leaves Maurya makes another foreboding comment which suggests that the sea or fate is working against her and Bartley will be killed 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 It is clear from the above discussion that in a tiny canvas Synge has successfully constructed the effect of his modern tragedy akin to the craft and convention of Greek theatre Besides it is not merely a tragedy of an individual old woman but a tragedy of those seashore people who struggle for survival against the heavy odds of life