In the play Riders to the Sea, Maurya says this at the very end of the play when after Bartley’s death she is without all her menfolk and feels that the sea can no longer snatch her near and dear ones. When the dead body of Bartley is brought into the house, Maurya’s tragedy is completed. It is noteworthy here that Maurya does not break down or collapse. Nor does she utter loud lamentations, tearing her hair or beating her breast as any ordinary woman might have done under the circumstances. Maurya is able to control her grief. She shows the rare fortitude and spirit of endurance in the face of death which is the crowning glory of the human soul. Death and suffering are inevitable. So we must accept without any grudge and resistance. She simply kneels by Bartley’s dead body, and in a stoical mood, she says that she will have now no need to keen and that she will have a ‘great rest’ and ‘great sleeping’ in the long nights of the winter. She then invokes god’s blessings on the departed souls and also on the souls of those who are still alive in the world. Finally, she gives expression to her stoical acceptance of her and fate in the following memorable words-
No man at all can be living forever, and we must be satisfied.
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