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<h1>J.M. Synge and The Aran Islands: Culture, Romanticism and the Power of Observation </h1>
<p class="byline">Erin Schuurs
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<p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">A little more than a century ago, Irish playwright and author John Millington Synge, gave his account of the remote Aran Islands. Published in 1907, <em>The Aran Islands</em> was a collection of essays describing Synge’s experiences living amongst the people of these three isolated islands located in Galway Bay. A nationalist writer, Synge, like W.B. Yeats and Douglas Hyde, worked to create a body of literature based on “pure” Irish culture to unite a divided Ireland. Art and culture became embroiled in politics and Synge, as a member of this movement, went searching for Ireland’s true identity. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">I want to consider what Synge has written about the Aran Islands and question his findings. Did Synge find what he was searching for? Is Synge’s record of the Arans accurate or romanticised? And if Synge did, is romanticise his findings, is this disrespectful? </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">To write <em>The Aran Islands</em>, Synge relied on living human subjects to form the basis of his observations. Circulating at this time were ethnological exhibitions, freak shows and circuses being forms of entertainment founded on imperialist attitudes. Just as Irish nationalist tension was in the air, so was the idea that primitive cultures could be put on display for the ‘modern’ western world. While highly degrading, direct observation could serve as a learning tool, and can help the observer understand that their personal world view, opinions and lifestyle are not the only ones available. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">Synge used this framework, placing the Islanders in the role of primitive “other” and himself as the modern outsider and understanding these roles is crucial for the dissection of The Aran Islands. Armed with his camera, typewriter, keen eye and a desire to connect with the people of the islands, Synge first arrived in 1898 ready to observe. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">Advised by his fellow authors to embrace the island’s lifestyle as his own, the islands ostensibly proved to be what Synge was looking for: an untapped source of true Irish culture and a writer’s paradise. Indeed, the people of the Aran Island’s did live a lifestyle largely behind the ‘modern’ world. Their culture was still highly oral, placing great respect on the community’s story tellers, deeming them the keepers of their history. The presence of the supernatural went unquestioned; ghosts, nymphs and elves roamed the hills causing mischief and inexplicable occurrences. Based on these reflections, Synge presents the Islanders as uncorrupted, connected with nature and free from the constraints of modernity. He writes of the people: </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><em><span style="font-size: 16px;">"The absence of the heavy boot of Europe has preserved to these people the agile walk of the wild animal, while the general simplicity of their lives has given them many other points of physical perfection. Their way of life has never been acted on by anything much more artificial than the nests and burrows of the creatures that live around them, and they seem, in a certain sense, to approach more nearly to the finer types of our aristocracies."</span></em></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">It is on the Aran Island’s that Ireland’s true aristocracy survived living in a fashion largely separated from the rest of the country and free from the political turmoil understood by Synge. Yet is this actually what Synge found? Did Synge evaluate what he was observing correctly? The key to understanding Synge is acknowledging that while Synge’s conclusions are idealistic, one cannot deny his power of observation. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><em>The Aran Island’s</em> stands first and foremost as a powerful record to a way of life which no longer exists. Synge’s words demonstrate how difficult life was for the Islanders who depended on the sea for their livelihoods as fishermen, their passion for storytelling and their strong connection to the people within their community. Synge claims in his introduction to The Aran Islands that he has “given a direct account” of his time on the islands “inventing nothing, and changing nothing.” </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">However, Synge observes this world seeming to forget the hardships, poverty and intense labour required of the islanders. Synge’s Aran is paradise and a romanticised view of the peasant lifestyle. Synge’s writing shows that he fears what modernity will do to the islands and the inhabitants lamenting that the pure Irish culture he has found is “fading already.” </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"> Did Synge embellish and romanticise these people and their lifestyle? Yes, in many ways he did. His desire for their culture to remain static attests to this. Yet hidden in his patronizing tone is a kind of respect. Synge was well educated and a brilliant scholar, spending most of his time among Europe’s elite authors and artists, he was highly aware of politics and modern advancements. The social construction of Synge’s life taught him to look at these people as primitive, a source of awe, and to be shocked when these people rose above his expectations. Yet these people inspired him, for while they led seemingly simple lives, they were dignified and proud of their home and its great natural beauty. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">It is Synge’s genuine love and infatuation with the Arans and its people that creates this patronizing respect; while he can’t help seeing them as primitive Synge’s joy at being amongst them seeps from the page. Synge’s time on the island’s inspired many of his future works for he utilized the numerous stories he heard and the experiences he had, fusing great drama and humour into his writing. Synge not only observed the Arans, he absorbed them. His romanticised version reflects this desire to be an islander for he writes: “I would have liked to turn the prow to the west and row with them forever."</span></span></p>
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