Study on John Millington Synge (I) : Search of the two opposing worlds in Riders to the Sea and The Shadow of the Glen

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John Millington Synge (1871-1909) was a leading figure of the modern Irish dramatic movement. In a brief life of 39 years he wrote six famous plays, including Riders to the Sea (1902), The Shadow of the Glen (1902), The Tinker's Wedding (1904), The Well of the Saints (1905), The Playboy of the Western World (1906) and Deirdre of the Sorrows (incomplete). When 17 years old, Synge refuses to go to Church and loses the support of the Church. Since then he has held anticlericalism. After leaving Trinity College, he doesn't get any regular job and travels around the countryside of Ireland. In his closing years he leads a lonely life in the mountains. Now I wonder why he was a lonely traveler throughout his life. What did he keep looking for in the wandering life? It seems to me that it is possible to find out the answer as a consistent theme through the six plays. I think I must make the answer clear as one of those who love his way of living and his works. In this monograph I treat only two plays, Riders to the Sea and The Shadow of the Glen, for which he obtained the subject matters in the Aran Islands.
2004-02-28