Importance of the setting of the play "Riders to the Sea".

"Riders to the Sea", a one act play by J. M. Synge, written in the inspiration of W. B. Yeats, opens in a cottage kitchen, with nets, oil-skins, spining wheels and some new boards which are standing in the wall.

           The setting of the play has many symbolic significance. Though the drama deals with the life of the Aran Islanders, but symbolically it represents lives of all people.As the sea is the controller of the Islanders,similarly we are the puppets in the hand of fate or destiny.

           J.M. Synge gives a glimpse of this symbolic reference in the very setting of the play. Here "cottage kitchen" suggests the village life and also the dominance of the female member in the house. "Nets" indicate the occupation of the islanders i.e. fishing as well as the relation of the people of the island to the sea and their dependence on the sea to earn their livelihood. "Oilskins" also indicate their occupation, relation to the sea and the dependence on the sea.

          The word "spining wheel" is very muvh important. It is used to make food. But it indicates the wheel of fate or fortune which is the ultimate destiny of all people. Apparently, this compound word suggests the life because it helps to make food but inherently it indicates death, as to earn this food, they have to go to the sea and people loose their lives. So it suggests the close relation of life and death. Life is intimately connected to death. No one can escape frm the hand of death.

          "New boards" also suggest death in Aran islands, death is a very common matter. To them, the important thing is to bury cleanly. So they always keep new boards to make coffin. Thus suggests their concern for fresh and proper burial.

             Thus the setting of the play says all things which are going to be happened as "morning shows the day". Synge very brilliantly uses all these words to give a fine idea of the coming tragedy in this play.