Riders to the Sea Themes

Riders to the Sea depicts a devout community of Catholics for whom faith is a stabilizing force amid the harsh realities of their lives. Allusions to God are threaded throughout the play as characters bless one another, pray, and plead for mercy. However, Catholicism is not the only spiritual tradition in this community; the characters rely on a blend of Catholicism and pagan beliefs native to the Aran Islands in order to grapple with the…

In Riders to the Sea, the community’s fragile existence depends on their young men’s ability to make a living from the sea—the very force of nature that often takes their lives. Because of this, Riders to the Sea is centrally concerned with past deaths and the threat of death in the future. Maurya and her family struggle to retain a hold on the lives of the young men that they still have, though they…

The sea’s vast natural power, which takes the lives of all of the family’s men, is a constant threat to the play’s characters. The dangers of the sea are unavoidable, however, since the men of the Aran Islands must brave the water in order to trade, fish, and obtain essentials for their families to survive. The sea—a source both of nurture and of anguish—comes to seem more powerful than God in the play. It is…