literature has always reflected contemporary issues that...

Conclusion

Literature has always reflected contemporary issues that affect the world. The world of

literature throngs with works dealing with beauty and power of nature. However, the concern for

ecology and the threat that the continuous misuse of our environment poses on humanity has

only recently caught the attention of the writers. It is this sense of concern and its reflection in

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literature that has given rise to a new branch of literary theory, namely Ecocriticism. The view

that culture is produced by human beings and is therefore separate from nature bypasses the fact

that all human culture resides in the natural world. Human beings owe their very existence to its

processes. Therefore, every action taken by human beings toward the natural world is eventually

an action toward oneself and toward one‘s culture.

At present ecocriticism is in full swing and is a readily accepted theory worldwide. It is

said to be the study of the relationship between literature and the environment. Its practitioners

explore human attitudes toward the environment as expressed in nature writing. It is a broad

genre that is known by many names like green cultural studies, ecopoetics and environmental

literary criticism, which are some popular names for this relatively new branch of literary

criticism. Literary criticism in general examines the relations between writers, texts and the ―the

world‖. In most literary theory ―the world‖ is synonymous with society. Ecocriticism expands

the notion of ―the world‖ to include the entire ecosphere. Ecocriticism takes an earth-centred

approach to literary criticism. Ecocritics and theorists are concerned with the questions if the

nature is being represented in a piece of literature or if the physical setting has a role in the plot

or if the values expressed in the work are consistent with the ecological wisdom or if in addition

to race, class and gender, place should become a new critical category and in what ways and to

what effect the environment crisis is seeping into contemporary literature and popular culture.

Ecocriticism is one such approach which has been there for a very long time but its

importance has been realized only recently. In this age of global warming and the rapid depletion

of natural resources it is only natural that people turn to the concept of ‗Back to Nature‘. Writers

felt that it was their moral duty to bring about this awareness in the minds of their readers and so

the relationship between the physical environment and human beings are given more importance.


Teaching and studying literature in this modern age has become almost impossible without

referring to the natural conditions depicted in the text.

Ecocriticism not only lays emphasis on the ‗harmony‘ of humanity and nature but also

talks about the destruction caused to nature by the changes which take place in the modern world

for most of which man is directly responsible. Here the critic explores the local or global, the

material or physical, or the historical or natural history in the context of a work of art. An

ecocritical approach views man‘s relationship with nature by his interaction with nature because

it supports the idea that nature, as a literary subject, surrounds all parts of life. What has largely

been explored in literary theory concerning the environment does not focus on human work in

the environment as a positive endeavour; instead, many authors employ environmental standards

to push a political agenda that attempts to criticize or explain the importance of nature in a

culture that continually destroys it. Therefore, ecocriticism is a necessary part of literary

scholarship because literature cannot separate characters from nature that they domesticate either

destructively or productively. Ecocritics encourage others to think seriously about the aesthetic

and ethical dilemmas posed by the environmental crisis and about how language and literature

transmit values. The progress earlier was not very significant, and the writers were not

scientifically aware to understand and write about something the significance of which the

human society had not yet realized. So, it had to be limited to the landscape and the changes that

occurred with time at the places described and in nature.

The plays of J.M. Synge have been specifically chosen for this research as Synge‘s

works are suitable for an ecocritical reading because of his obsession with nature and the

physical environment. When one analyses why Synge is such a popular Irish dramatist, one finds

that Synge in all his plays speaks of his own experience of Ireland. Synge as one who lives


among the people grows to be one of them, identifies entirely with them, and voices their

thoughts and emotions, and interprets their every movement. In the Preface to The Tinker’s

Wedding Synge gives his views on Drama. He says:

The drama is made serious not by the degree in which it is taken up with problems

that are serious in themselves, but by the degree in which it gives the

nourishment, not very easy to define, on which our imaginations live. We should

not go to the theatre as we go to a chemist‘s or dram-shop, but as we go to a

dinner where the food we need is taken with pleasure and excitement. This was

always nearly so in Spain and England and France when the drama was at its

richest – the infancy and decay of the drama tend to be didactic – but in these

days the playhouse is too often stocked with drugs of many seedy problems, or

with the absinth or vermouth of the last musical comedies. (179).

J. M. Synge, no doubt, is one of the greatest playwrights not only of Ireland but also of

the entire world who loves to read literature in English. A profound study has been done by

discussing all the six plays of the Synge. Wordsworth was Synge‘s favourite poet and was

greatly influenced by his poems. Wordsworth in his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads puts forth his

view when he says what follows:

The principal object, then proposed in these poems was to choose incidents and

situations from common life, and to relate or describe them throughout in a

selection of the language really used by men, and at the same time to throw them

a certain colouring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented

to the mind in an unusual aspect…humble and rustic life was generally chosen

because in that condition the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in


which they can attain their maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a plainer

and more emphatic language. (Wordsworth 35)

Synge following the instructions of Wordsworth fashioned his plays in the same manner.

Synge goes in search of his themes directly to the humble peasant life, the life of the ―common

man‖. Synge also uses the actual language spoken by these men taking pains to use the same

diction and syntax used by the peasants of Ireland. Synge sprinkles some of his imagination here

and there in order to make his real life stories suitable for his dramatic creations. Though

Wordsworth in his poems consciously makes use of the nature around him all his works are man-

centered. But Synge‘s plays are always more nature –centered though he does not consciously

make use of nature nor does he praise nature anywhere in his plays. Without any conscious effort

one finds that all the characters in Synge‘s plays have nature in their vocabulary. Synge had the

landscape of the Aran Islands when he wrote his plays and it is very much evident in the setting

and the background of each of his plays. Synge was trying to find a way to express his own

identity and also the identity of the Irish people when he wrote The Aran Islands. When The

Aran Islands is first read it reads like a travelogue or a documentary. But when his plays are

read, the reader finds that all the actual occurrences recorded in the Aran Islands have found

expression in story, theme, setting and even the language in his plays. The researcher then goes

on to discuss Synge‘s plays with reference to the different landscapes portrayed in each of his

plays.

Ecocriticism gives a lot of importance to landscape. The chapter entitled ―Roots of

Ecocriticism‖ gives a brief history of the gradual growth of Ecocriticism as a modern literary

approach. Ecocritics lay emphasis on the preservation of landscape in order to save the human

race. Ecocriticism not only lays emphasis on the ‗harmony‘ of humanity and nature but also talks


about the destruction caused to nature by the changes which take place in the modern world for

most of which man is directly responsible. Culture depends on the geography of a particular

region and geography is nothing but the specific landscape of a place. These changes are brought

to light with the help of modern concepts like Cultural Geography and Cultural landscape. The

dominance of nature is found in all his major works and his writing has a lot of intensity and

boasts of multiple layers of meaning which the researcher is compelled to dwell into more

deeply.

The Aran Islands forms the major source for most of Synge‘s plays and Synge talks of

several incidents in the book which has contributed to the main theme of Synge‘s plays. For

example the play Riders to the Sea is based on the incident of the boy who was drowned in

Donegal. Synge also talks about a young man who sought refuge in the village claiming to have

killed his father and that story formed the basis of the plot of The Playboy of the Western World.

The story of the man who pretended to be dead in order to catch his wife‘s immoral activity is

also narrated in the Aran Islands. The other sources for his plays are found in the works of great

writers with which Synge was associated with when he was struggling to be a writer. Thus the

chapter entitled, ―Landscape created by the mindscape‖ records all that Synge went through in

his formative years which had contributed a great deal in his works of art.

The chapter on ―Cultural Geography‖ deals with the Cultural Geography of Ireland and

how it is incorporated in the plays of Synge. It deals with how culture relates to the different

spaces and places. For example the main occupation of the islanders is making of kelp and that is

portrayed clearly in The Aran Islands and it is also found in the Riders to the Sea. The keening of

the women in the funeral is a practice unique to the people of the Aran and one is able to read

about this peculiar culture in the Riders to the Sea. Fear of old age and loneliness is also a


common trait seen among the people of Aran and this same sentiment is echoed by Nora in the

play In the Shadow of the Glen and by King Conchubar in Deirdre of the Sorrows. The above

mentioned elements are found in the culture of the people of Aran and it is also reflected in

Synge‘s plays. Certain other features like the Irish Wake and the Irishman‘s love of storytelling

which is an inherent part of the Irish culture is showcased. A thorough study of the life and

culture of different characters found in the six plays of Synge is seen in this chapter.

The chapter on ―Cultural Landscape (Visual and Emotional Landscape)‖ discusses the

Geography of Ireland and also justifies the reason for considering Synge‘s plays as most suitable

for this kind of study. Though Ireland is a land filled with scenic beauty it also has its fair share

of nature‘s cruelty with bitter cold and harsh winds. In Synge‘s time that nature was unspoiled

and yet unexplored by the modern man. The Irish landscape was of great importance to Synge

because of his intense sensitivity to nature. The chapter explores the various definitions of

landscape as landscape is a very complex term which has a number of meanings and

interpretation. Many of these definitions stress on the visual aspect as well as the territorial

aspects. Descriptions of a landscape will be the same but what that particular landscape means to

them will definitely vary from person to person. Landscapes reflected also the habits, customs

and values of those who shaped them. Han Lorzing is a writer who associates landscape with

geography and in his work, The Nature of Landscape: A Personal Quest, he devotes the entire

book to the study of landscape and the relationship between man and landscape. Lorzing is of the

view that there is a certain relationship between human being and the landscape that surrounds

him. Human beings affect landscape and at the same time are also affected by it. Lorzing also

talks about four levels of interaction between man and landscape (i.e.) layer of intervention, layer


of knowledge, layer of perception and the layer of interpretation. It can also be termed as man-

made, factual, visual and emotional respectively.

Of the four different landscapes only the last two are taken into consideration for this

study, (i.e.) layer of perception and layer of interpretation (visual and emotional landscape

respectively). Each play is dominated by either one of these landscapes or in certain plays both.

These two levels of interaction between the human race and landscape as said by Lorzing are

clearly evident in all his plays. Riders to the Sea, In the Shadow of the Glen, Deirdre of the

Sorrows and The Well of the Saints are four of the plays in which the readers find both visual and

emotional landscape in equal measure. Lorzing also calls this as layer of perception and layer of

interpretation. Riders to the Sea is a play where the visual landscape and emotional landscape are

clearly portrayed. The turbulence of the sea and the inner turmoil of the characters is perfectly

juxtaposed. In The Playboy of the Western World the landscape is purely visual. Christy Mahon,

the protagonist literally, sees, hears, smells and feels the place in which the action is taking place.

The characters in the play by their constant talk of the outside world bring the landscape in the

mind‘s eye of the readers. The Tinker’s Wedding is treated as a comedy and the role of landscape

here is very minimal. The setting is similar to the other plays but Synge does not give much

importance to the landscape. The landscape that is seen here is entirely visual and there is no role

for emotional landscape in this play. The other two landscapes that Lorzing speaks of are factual

and manmade landscape. The Well of the Saints is a play where the reader finds both visual

landscape and emotional landscape in equal measure. The Douls who are a blind couple regain

their sight for sometime and they see the outside world. But they are so disappointed because the

real world was not as they had imagined. They become so disillusioned that they do not want to


regain their sight anymore. In the Shadow of the Glen and Deirdre of the Sorrows also shows

both visual and emotional landscape through their female protagonists.

In each of the plays of Synge one finds that the characters are flawed whereas nature is

pure and remains undisturbed as such without the interference of man. In The Riders to the Sea

the readers find that the characters defy nature and finally they succumb to nature‘s will. Bartley

is so confident about his duties that he fails to realise the enormous power of nature. Only the

mother Maurya is scared of the sea. Maurya is sure that Bartley will certainly drown if he goes

against the force of nature. When Maurya warns Bartley not to go out into the sea as the tides are

rough Bartley replies thus: ―I‘ve no halter the way I can ride down on the mare, and I must go

now quickly. This is the one boat going for two weeks or beyond it, and the fair will be a good

fair for horses I heard them saying below‖(Riders 86). According to Bartley going to the sea is

inevitable as it is their only means of survival. But Bartley is very confident that he can come

back safely. He refuses to acknowledge the fact that he could be drowned in the turbulent and

violent force of the sea. Bartley is sure of his return when he says these words, ―I‘ll have an hour

to go down, and you‘ll see me coming again in two days, or in three days, or maybe in four days

if the wind is bad‖ (Riders 87). Maurya laments when she could not stop Bartley from going out

into the sea. She says that, ―He‘s gone now, God spare us, and we‘ll not see him again. He‘s

gone now, and when the black night is falling I‘ll have no son left me in the world.‖ (Riders 87).

Thus one finds that human being is blemished as he does not acknowledge the power of nature

whereas nature is unchangeable and always the same. In the next In the Shadow of the Glen the

characters, Nora and the tramp play an important role. In the beginning of the play Nora leads a

very secluded life as she is scared of nature. She could not get out of her unhappy life as she


thought that she could not survive alone in the outside world. Later on it was the tramp who

made Nora realise that there is a life waiting beyond the sad and desolate glen.

In the beginning, one finds that the protagonist is literally living in the shadow of the

glen where there is loneliness and she longs for a greater life than that can be found in the

desolate glen. When she talks to Michael Dara about her loneliness, she says these words:

I do be thinking in the long nights it was a big fool I was at that time, Michael

Dara for what good is a bit of a farm with cows on it, and sheep on the back hills ,

when you do be sitting out from a door the like of that door, and seeing nothing

but the mists rolling down the bog, and the mists again and they rolling up the

bog, and hearing nothing but the wind crying out in the bits of broken trees were

left from the great storm, and the streams roaring with the rain.(Shadow116)

At first Nora was afraid of the outside world but slowly her perception changes and the

landscape of the Glen symbolizes freedom and happiness. She wants to be free from the boredom

of normality and she realizes that only the outside world can give her a sense of adventure. The

glen which seemed cold and dark and merciless slowly becomes beautiful and familiar. The Glen

finally brings out the image of a harmonious coexistence between human being and nature and

this is evident in the words of the tramp.

… We‘ll be going now I‘m telling you, and the time you‘ll be feeling the cold,

and the frost and the great rain, and the sun again and the south wind blowing in

the glens, you‘ll not be sitting upon a wet, ditch the way you‘re after sitting in the

place, making yourself old with looking on each day, and it you passing by.

You‘ll be saying one time… ―It‘s a grand evening, by the grace of God,‖ and

another time, ―it‘s a wild night, God help us, but it‘ll surely pass surely‖. …


You‘ll be hearing the herons crying out over the black lakes, and you‘ll be

hearing the grouse and the owls with them, and the larks and the big thrushes

when the days are warm, and its not from the like of them you‘ll be hearing the

grouse and the owls with them, and the larks and the big thrushes when the days

are warm, it‘s fine songs you‘ll be hearing when the sun goes up, and there‘ll be

no old fellow wheezing, the like of a sick sheep, close to your ear (Shadow 117).

Thus, one can say that the landscape of In the Shadow of the Glen is also a main character, which

is responsible for the development of the protagonist. Nora is finally reconciled with nature

because she comes to recognize the beauty of a life in intimacy with it. In this play also one finds

that nature is something which does not harm human beings deliberately but only human beings

who have misunderstood nature. Here too the character of Nora is at first blemished but later she

realises nature‘s worth and tries to lead a full life after she starts trusting nature.

The next popular play that has much critical acclaim is The Playboy of the Western

World. Here the direct part of nature is far less than that of the other plays. Much of the action

takes place inside a public-house and one might think that there would be no place for the

presence of nature. But Synge and his Mayo peasants bring out the landscape alive in the mind‘s

eye of the readers by their vivid description. In this play the protagonist and the villagers, both of

them are blemished in character as they consider murder as just a minor sin. Christy seeks refuge

and the Mayo peasants praise him for his deed and make him a hero. Though nature is only a

backdrop here one finds that the characters are influenced by its presence. Every character is

familiar with nature‘s moods and habits and most of all it is Christy Mahon who experiences the

life of the peasants of Aran Islands and the ―wide and windy acres of rich Munster land‖

(Playboy 22) which reared Christy and gave him solace and hope in his loneliness.


The two blind beggars, Martin Doul and Mary Doul, in The Well of the Saints live in a

world of illusion, which is further increased by the deception of the people who are around them.

They are actually very ugly but they believe themselves to be very beautiful. But when their

sight is restored they are very much disappointed to see drab grey clouds and feel the chilly

winds .They realize that their appearance is also very ugly and come to hate each other. They do

not see the bright sunlight, which gives hope, but only see the half light which brought them

despair. Here one finds that the Douls are blemished because they give importance to physical

beauty which is transient. They do not appreciate the nature which is actually around but they

imagine a landscape which suits them. Their imagined landscape gives them a sense of wellbeing

and security. The Douls are not able to face the harsh reality of the savagery of the real landscape

and both of them long for their old life where they were happy and comfortable with their

imagined landscape. Martin Doul dejectedly says these words, ―and wasn‘t it great sights I seen

on the roads when the north winds would be driving, and the skies would be harsh, till you‘d see

the horses and the asses, and the dogs itself, maybe, with their heads hanging, and they closing

their eyes‖ (Saints166). They are foolish enough to refuse to get their eyesight restored as they

do not want to face reality.

The two- act play The Tinkers’s Wedding is treated as a comedy and the role of landscape

here is very minimal. The setting is similar to the other plays but Synge does not give much

importance to the landscape. The readers come to understand from these lines that the tinkers are

living on a hillside and that the tinkers prefer a nomadic life to staying put in one place. Sarah

says that, ―It‘s at the dawn of day I do be thinking I‘d have a right to be going off to the rich

tinker‘s do be traveling from Tibradden to the Tara Hill: for It‘d be a fine life to be driving with

young Jaunting Jim, where there wouldn‘t be any big hills to break the back of you, with walking


up and walking down‖ (Tinkers 182). The characters in this play seem to be blemished because

they do not have any sense of moral values. The characters in the play emphasize their right to

live their life freely without any restrictions of the society. They prefer the life outdoors with

only the open skies as their companion. They like to live in a place where ―there is a bit of sun in

it, and a kind air, and a great smell coming from the thorn trees is above your head‖(Tinkers

182). The researcher is trying to bring home the point that nature can be wild and free and it does

not need any rules or a system that has to be followed but human being surely needs to follow a

certain order in life if he has to survive.

Deidre of the Sorrows is a tragic play which has the theme of the legend of Deirdre as its

base. Many writers have retold the legend of Deidre but none of them has captured the beauty of

the landscape like Synge. The entire play is set in woods of the forests of Emain. Throughout the

entire course of the play we see that most of the action takes place in the woods itself or in a

cottage that is built in the midst of the forests or hillside. Deirde is a child brought up in the wild

woods with only nature as her companion. The woods give a sense of security to Deirdre as she

and Naisi live a peaceful life in the Alban islands away from the eyes of king Conchuber.

Tragedy befalls them as soon as they emerge out of the protection of the forests. One finds the

motif of escape and of exile in this play, which features the wilderness or the forests as its

landscape. Ecocritics have found the idea of wilderness very complex and have many theories

drawn from it. Greg Garrard a prominent Ecocritical theorist feels that wilderness or in this case,

the wild woods signify nature as something uncontaminated by civilization. According to him

―Wilderness has an almost sacramental value, it holds out the promise of a renewed, authentic

relation of humanity and the earth… founded in an attitude of reverence and humility‖ (Garrard

59). King Conchubar keeps Deirdre in exile in the woods and she escapes into the wilderness


with Naisi. Deidre and Naisi lead a secure life as long as they are in the woods. Later they are

found to be blemished because they did not trust nature enough to protect them. Instead they

kept their faith on human beings and ultimately faced death.

Thus by studying the plays of J.M. Synge the researcher concludes that Nature remains

unblemished whereas human beings are blemished. Nature remains unchanging and it is up to

man to understand nature properly. Nature has always proved to be stronger than man. It has

often shown its power by controlling manpower through natural calamities like famine, drought,

flood, earthquake etc. Human being‘s life and nature are so interlinked that it is not possible for

human beings to separate themselves from its influence. Therefore they have no choice but to

accept both nature‘s bounty and adversity. This can be said to be reciprocal as nature too is the

recipient of human‘s action. The irresponsible actions cause irreparable damages to nature. This

is how the chain of ecosystem works in which everything is related to each other and therefore

affects each other. Nature needs to be given its due respect. It sometimes has to be feared as in

the case of Riders to the Sea. It has to be trusted and respected as in the case of In the Shadow of

the Glen and Deirdre of the Shadows. Nature has to be admired as found in The Well of the

Saints and Tinker’s Wedding. And most important of all nature should not be taken for granted as

it is seen In the Playboy of the Western World. When nature is acknowledged and given its due

respect then human beings can surely benefit from nature.

J.M Synge brings before everyone the limitations of human beings and highlights the

view that if nature thinks of revenge for the cruelties of human beings towards her the whole

humanity which boasts so much of their brain will be washed away from the face of the earth.

Human beings must cultivate a relationship with the environment through work in order to live a

complete life. Nature can exist without man but man cannot exist without nature and nature plays


a major role in elevating man from the status of an animal to a human being by giving him

culture. Synge in his plays has magnificently portrayed the ever present tension between human

beings and the natural elements. Synge seems to echo Lorzing‘s view which says that,

―Coexistence of human beings and nature in landscapes maybe peaceful or hostile: it is essential

for the appearance of our landscapes as well as our appreciation of them‖ (Lorzing 59). The

works of Synge bring to light the ―grandiose versatility of art in its relation towards landscape‖

(Lorzing 111). The researcher in this chapter has attempted to answer two of Lorzing‘s questions

namely, ―what are we doing to our landscape and what our landscapes are doing to us?‖ (Lorzing

41).

The researcher has tried to find answers for these questions by exploring the different

ways of interaction between man and landscape as explained by Lorzing himself. He says

knowledge, perception and interpretation form our opinion on landscapes and that the

relationship between man and landscape is a complicated one. Lorzing opines that, ―We know

what man can do to the landscape. It is obvious that few

landscapes on earth exist without human influence in one way or another… But we should also

acknowledge that there is a lot that landscapes can do to us. Many landscapes are rooted strongly

in our memory even if we have never seen them‖ (36). The world outside is a great place to live

in if only human beings realise and respect their environment for what it is worth. It is true that

the earth can exist on its own without human interference but as Lorzing says, ―it is hard to deny

that man has made the world a more exciting place than nature ever could‖(170). Though human

beings may feel superior to nature, the truth is that they cannot exist without nature as they have

to entirely depend upon nature in order to survive. Thus human beings should not turn into a

parasite and become a blemish in the landscape. Many writers, inspired by the beauty of Ireland


have talked about landscape but nowhere is landscape idolized as much as it is in the plays of

J.M.Synge.

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