A STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS IN JOHN MILLINGTON SYNGE’S RIDERS TO THE SEA

Abstract

This thesis is entitled A Structural Analysis in John Millington Synge’s Riders to the Sea. It analyzes the intrinsic elements of literature, plot, character, setting and point of view. In this case, the writer uses Tzevetan Todorov’s structural theory comprising syntactical, semantics and verbal aspects. First, syntactical aspect analyzes chronological and logical event especially in plot. Second, semantics aspect analyzes character; how Synge portrays the characters of Maurya as a mother in the drama, and setting. Third, verbal aspect analyzes point of view. Therefore, the writer applies research methodology to get an objective result in this thesis. It includes type of research, type of data, data collection and type of analysis. The results of the discussions are three fundamental aspect of Todorov’s theory. Firstly, it is to find out the kind of plot and plot elements. In this case, the kind of plot is an open plot. The reader is left to decide what he thinks the resolution or the outcome of the story might be. Plot is built by plot elements such as exposition, rising action, climax or complication, falling action or turning point, and resolution or denouement. Synge portrays the characters of Maurya, in Riders to the Sea, with a loving, anxious, disappointed and strong mother. He also portrays the setting through the life of fishermen who subsist their family on sea and the religious society of Connemara, Donegal and Galway in that era. At last, Synge portrays the third point of view or the omniscient point of view because he knows every event in the drama, the deepest thought of actor and actress characters. . In brief, this study applies three fundamental aspects of Todorov’s theory, syntactical, semantic and verbal aspect.