Evaluate Maurya as a tragic character.

According to Aristotle, the tragic character is the one whose a tragic suffering arouses pity and fear in us and whose misfortunes are the result of his own misdeed or error of judgement. Moreover, a character must be above the common run of mankind But the most remarkable trait of the tragic character is his indomitable spirit, which is not crushed by the repeated blows of misfortunes.

 unde fratelle But Maurya does not fully conform to the Aristotelian conception of a tragic character. She is not a mighty person, not above the common run of mankind, but belongs to common humanity. She is a petty fisher woman worrying over the safety of her near and dear ones out on the sea. Like an ordinary mother, she passes sleepless nights in praying for the well-being of her men-folk.

 Maurya is a tragic character because she is destined to tragic fate. She has suffered one disaster after another in the play. She had given birth to six children. But the sea wallowed them up and at the end she was left only with her two daughters. The sea also took the lives of her husband and her father-in-law. 

Maurya is essentially a good woman. She has done the sea no wrong, but she has suffered, blows from the sea. The sea has devoured all her men-folk for no fault on her part. Her sufferings, is like those of a tragic character, arouse our feeling of pity. Our whole heart melts with pity for her when she says-

 "In the big world the old people do be living things after them for their sons and children, but in this place it is the young men do be leaving things behind for them that do be old."

 A tragic character undergoes a change and development. Within the short compass of one-act tragedy, Synge has succeeded in showing the inner development of Maurya. Her change begins to take place when she sees the hallucination of dead Michael riding on his grey pony behind the red mare of Bartley, which makes her sure of the death of Bartley on the sea.