Acoustic Space and Existential Identity: A Study of Domesticity and Filial Conflicts in John Millington Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World and Riders to the Sea

Abstract

John Millington Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World and Riders to the Sea present rural Irish life through complex interactions among domestic space, sound, family relationships, and individual identity. This study, titled “Acoustic Space and Existential Identity: A Study of Domesticity and Filial Conflicts in John Millington Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World and Riders to the Sea,” examines how acoustic space and soundscape shape domestic experiences, existential identity, and filial conflicts in the two plays. The study draws on R. Murray Schafer’s Soundscape Theory, Marshall McLuhan’s concept of Acoustic Space, and Jean-Paul Sartre’s theory of Existentialism to investigate how sound, silence, voices, oral storytelling, and environmental noises contribute to the psychological and existential experiences of the characters. Through a qualitative, interpretive, and comparative analysis of dialogue, stage directions, vocal expressions, silences, off-stage sounds, and domestic environments, the study explores the relationship between acoustic experience and human identity. In Riders to the Sea, the sounds of the sea, wind, surf, voices, prayers, and silence create an acoustic environment that reflects Maurya’s emotional suffering, maternal loss, and confrontation with the inevitability of death. The surrounding natural soundscape becomes closely connected with domestic grief and reveals the vulnerability of human existence in the face of uncontrollable natural forces. In The Playboy of the Western World, storytelling, gossip, laughter, shouting, and communal voices transform the public and domestic acoustic environment and significantly influence Christy Mahon’s changing sense of self. His relationship with his father and his interaction with the villagers demonstrate how identity is shaped, challenged, and reconstructed through language, listening, and communal response. The study argues that Synge’s domestic spaces function not merely as physical settings but as acoustic, psychological, and existential spaces in which familial tensions, emotional isolation, identity crises, and struggles for autonomy emerge. Sound and silence operate as significant dramatic elements that reveal filial conflict, domestic instability, alienation, freedom, choice, and the search for individual identity. Ultimately, the study demonstrates that an acoustic reading of Synge’s plays provides a deeper understanding of how sound, silence, domestic space, and existential identity interact to shape familial relationships and human experiences.