The Universal Appeals of Edmund John Millington Synge’s Tragic Play “Riders to The Sea”

Abstract

This paper explores the universal appeal in Edmund John Millington Synge’s tragic play “Riders to the Sea”. The subject matters in this study e.g. suffering, supernaturalism, and death are the representative of the universality of literary works. The sense of universality in literature is disposed to the relationships among human spirit, hope, emotion and social beings. Literature goes beyond national boundaries, time barriers, gender disparity and even historical grounds. The story Riders to the Sea is centered on the protagonist, an old woman, Maurya, who lost all her male family members of her family. All her male family members have drowned at sea. The sea becomes a secreted enemy never giving a chance for her to live a life of peace.The study was conducted by means of descriptive qualitative method. Synge succeeds in transforming the lifestyle of the peasents through a realistic representation into a universal worldwide appeal.