Abstract

Riders to the Sea is one of classic tragedies and also regarded as the masterpiece of John Millington Synge. Previous research for the most part lay emphasis on the tragic significance within the play and the symbolic meaning of the sea. This study interprets the play from a new perspective using Margaret Mead’s theory of generation gap in Culture and Commitment about postfigurative culture, configurative culture, prefigurative culture .It also tries to further analyze the tragic significance from this aspect. This research explains the issue of generation gap from three aspects, namely the contradiction between the elderly Maurya and Bartley, the mother and the two daughters, the young priest and Maurya .At last this study comes to a conclusion that Maurya’s helplessness and sadness of the unknown future is inevitable and the elderly generation in the play had to learn from the younger generation in the transitional period because of modernization.

KEYWORDS：Riders to the Sea；generation gap；island；sea; tragedy

摘  要

《蹈海骑手》历来被视为经典悲剧之一，也是约翰.米灵顿.辛格的代表作。而国内外评论界针对该剧的论述，亦多集中在该剧的悲剧意蕴与大海的象征意味上。本研究运用玛格丽特.米德在《文化与承诺》一书中所介绍的有关前喻文化、并喻文化，后喻文化的代际冲突理论对该剧做出了新的诠释，旨在从代际冲突的角度来分析其更深层次的悲剧意义。本文分别从老人毛利亚与儿子巴特莱，两个女儿及年轻的牧师之间的三个方面的矛盾冲突来分析其中蕴含的代沟问题 ，得出了此剧年长的一辈在时代背景下的代际更替中不得不向年轻的一辈学习，以及对未来无可奈何的结论。

关键词：《蹈海骑手》；代际冲突；岛屿；大海；悲剧

1. Introduction
John Millington Synge was born in 1871, Ireland. In 1888, when he was 17 years old, he went to study in the Trinity College of Ireland, learning Celtic and the history of Ireland. After graduation, he traveled to Europe to further study music but changed his mind and decided to focus on literature. At that time, in Paris, there was a trend of literature called “art for art’s sake” and he soon became one of those writers. But his writing didn't attract many readers which had made him depressed. Later he met the famous Irish poet William Butler Yeats .They two then became very good friends and Yeats played a very important role in Synge’s life. After reading what he had written, Yeats suggested that there would be no success for him to stay in Paris and the only way to make a difference in literature was to go back to his own country, to experience the real life of Irish peasants and to write about their true stories.