Excavating Eco-feminist Paradox in Synge's Riders to the Sea

Abstract

This paper excavates John Millington Synge's a seminal work (one-act play), Riders to the Seas to examine how human life is extremely controlled by natural entities viz. seas, storms and tides. Deploying a theoretical tenet of environmental determinism (in general) and applying a conceptual framework of eco-feminism (in particular) it scrutinizes how the destructive forces of nature make human survival a tough nut to crack. Furthermore, it looks for the contrasting characteristics between nature and male members of a family. The paper examines nature and female figures as strong and influencing agents, to cause to extinct the male figures in the family, disregarding conventional ecofeminist scrutiny. Adverse weather conditions and women are charactered as stronger agents to gear up weak patriarchy. Being a tragic figure and the protagonist of the play, elderly Maurya suffers the loss painstakingly. However, her stoic endurance against the misfortunes brought about by the death of her husband and sons makes her psychologically stronger. She remains constant in consoling herself, "No men at all can be living forever"(14). As a finding, the text undertones destructive forces of nature against innocent male characters of the play can invite a threat to entire existence of humanity. Therefore, understanding and tolerance with the intimidating forces of nature can avoid downfall of patriarchy to make human existence sustaining.