Discuss Riders to the Sea as an ideal specimen of a one-act play

A one-act play is a dramatic work consisting of one act. A one-act play is generally limited in the number of characters as well as changes of scene. In a one-act play, a single incident is presented without any complicating sub-plots. It is a general rule that a one-act play has only one or two characters. The normal playing time of a one-act play is an hour or so. The climax of such plays usually occurs in the closing moments of the play. Thus, it is a short play of one act that concentrates only on one theme and practices economy in style, setting, and plotting. The writing of such plays has received impetus in Europe and the United States from the "little theater movement," which aims at producing experimental, non-commercial plays.

A one-act play is one that can be acted out in an hour or so. So it cannot afford to deal with the entire life. Riders to the Sea deals only with the tragic aspect of the lives of the Aran islanders, which is the result of the sea's malignancy. They have to go to the sea in order to maintain their family's existence. And they are often drowned while catching fish or sailing over to the mainland. The sea has devoured all the menfolk of Maurya, her six sons, their father and grandfather,

Riders to the Sea is complete in itself as a one-act play. It has the beginning, the middle, and the end of the exposition, complication, climax, and denouement. The opening conversation of Nora and Cathleen, the indication of Michael's drowning, and Bartley's decision to go to the Galway Fair constitute the exposition of the play. The complication consists of Bartley's insistence on going to the Galway fair. The vision of the ghosts of Michael and Bartley's deaths marks the climax of the play. The denouement consists in the carrying in of the dead body of Bartley and the 'keen' kept by the women of the neighborhood.

In Riders to the Sea, the characters are as few as in a one-act play. In the play, Maurya is the main character, who is fully drawn as a true mother. Bartley is drawn in the play as a man of few words and of duty. Cathleen and Nora are portrayed as sympathetic women who have great concern for their mother and great love for their brother.

In Riders to the Sea, Synge maximizes the dramatic effect by employing perfect economy in the use of language. "He rarely uses a superfluous word; indeed, he uses the pruning knife too ruthlessly. Every word or sentence in the play either takes the action forward, reveals character, or helps to build up the atmosphere of darkness, mystery, or fatality.""

Riding to the Sea Broad Question

As a one-act play, Riders to the Sea arouses a tragic catharsis of pity and fear. In the play, our pity is aroused at almost every step. At the very beginning of the play, our pity is aroused by the suspicion of Michael's drowning, and our pity deepens when Bartley leaves home for the Galway Fair, ignoring his mother's entreaty. Our fear is aroused when we think of Bartley's approaching death by drowning. Our fear reaches its climax when Maurya gives her daughters an account of her vision of the ghost of Michael on the grey pony chasing Bartley on the red mare, because it forebodes the death of Bartley.

A one-act play must conform to the three essential unities of drama: the unities of time, place, and action, and these unities have been scrupulously maintained in Riders to the Sea. The unity of time demands that the action of the play occur within the single revolution of the sun, and the events in Riders to the Sea take place in about an hour. The unity of place demands that the action of the play take place in a single place, and the action of Riders to the Sea takes place in the kitchen of Maurya's cottage. The unity of action. demands that the play have only one plot, and Riders to the Sea has only one plot; there is no sub-plot or mixture of comedy and tragedy.

Thus, Riders to the Sea is an ideal example of a modern one-act play in every aspect.