Point of View

Riders to the Sea by John Millington Synge is a play in one act that was originally performed in Dublin in 1904. The single scene is performed by four main characters, and a small group of men and women who act as mourners and plank bearers when Bartley's body is returned.

The scene is told from a third person, omniscient point of view, in which the narration is done by an entity that knows the actions and thoughts of all characters. This is evident as there are no first person addresses used and the characters are all intimately known by the author. The perspective in this scene is fixed, and doesn't change with subject matter or character introduction.

The scene is clear and focused, with no questions about who is telling the story or the order of events as they occur.

Language and Meaning

Language and...