The tone of Riders to the Sea is both anxious and mournful. The anxious, desperate tone primarily comes from the dialogue between the three women in the play—Maurya, Nora, and Cathleen—all of whom agree that Bartley should not go to sea during a storm, especially after the recent (presumed) death of their family member Michael. None of the women speak for long, but their short statements communicate their concern, such as Maurya stating the following:
He won’t go this day with the wind rising from the south and west. He won’t go this day, for the young priest will stop him surely.
Here Maurya anxiously tries to assure herself that Bartley won’t journey to the sea, despite the fact that she knows her son is determined to do so and she has no reason to believe that the young priest will tell him otherwise. (In fact, the young priest ends up giving Bartley his blessing to travel.)
The tone shifts into a more mournful one after Bartley does go to the sea. Immediately after he leaves, Maurya’s composure cracks and she “cries out” the following:
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.
Maurya’s statement ends up coming to pass—from this moment in the play onward, she, her daughters, and the townspeople all mourn the loss of both Bartley and Michael (whose body, Maurya learns, has been discovered off the coast of mainland Ireland). The tone remains sorrowful until the end, with many different characters keening (or wailing) over the men’s untimely deaths.
