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Well of the Saints
TIMMY -- [coming out, with a hammer, impatiently.] -- Do you want me to be driving you off again to be walking the roads? There you are now, and I giving you your food, and a corner to sleep, and money with it; and, to hear the talk of you, you'd think I was after beating you, or stealing your gold.
80 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1905
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66 people want to read
About the author
J.M. Synge
404 books98 followersEdmund John Millington Synge (pronounced /sɪŋ/) was an Irish playwright, poet, prose writer, and collector of folklore. He was one of the cofounders of the Abbey Theatre. He is best known for the play The Playboy of the Western World, which caused riots during its opening run at the Abbey theatre. Synge wrote many well known plays, including "Riders to the Sea", which is often considered to be his strongest literary work.
Although he came from an Anglo-Irish background, Synge's writings are mainly concerned with the world of the Roman Catholic peasants of rural Ireland and with what he saw as the essential paganism of their world view.
Although he came from an Anglo-Irish background, Synge's writings are mainly concerned with the world of the Roman Catholic peasants of rural Ireland and with what he saw as the essential paganism of their world view.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 18, 2018
3.5 stars, rounding up to 4. This is a really quite interesting play about two blind beggars who are cured by the intervention of a saint, and discover that living as sighted people isn't so very wonderful after all. I don't want to spoil the plot for anyone who hasn't read it yet, but it is blindingly obvious from the very first. Blindingly... (pun unintended). Yet the plot isn't really the interesting thing here. Synge does a lot with the ideas of sightedness and choosing what to see and not-see, and it works on multiple levels. On some, even, that he probably didn't intend.
There's a lengthy introduction by Nicholas Grene in this edition, for instance, which has quite a harsh view of Molly, a young woman who is genuinely rather contemptuous of Martin and Mary, the old blind couple. (She's not the only one - most of the characters here are rather unpleasant, and I'm not excepting Martin and Mary.) But Grene clearly misses any potential feminist reading of this, in which Molly has agency enough to look for herself instead of just being an object to look at. Just because Martin has regained his sight and finds her pretty doesn't mean she should run off with him - but Martin doesn't see it that way, because only his vision matters, and the idea that a pretty young girl doesn't see an old and ugly man as equally attractive absolutely refuses to occur to him - unlike Grene, I've no sympathy for him post-rejection.
But although it can be read that way, this isn't really a feminist text - it could far more easily be read as an attack on religion or capitalism, for instance. As I said, it works on multiple levels, and underlying all is a really bitter, black humour. You find yourself laughing when you know you really shouldn't, because some of the things that happen are awful, really genuinely unkind, but still. Horrified laughter. It's much more entertaining than Synge's Playboy of the Western World, which I also read recently and which is supposed to be his masterpiece.
There's a lengthy introduction by Nicholas Grene in this edition, for instance, which has quite a harsh view of Molly, a young woman who is genuinely rather contemptuous of Martin and Mary, the old blind couple. (She's not the only one - most of the characters here are rather unpleasant, and I'm not excepting Martin and Mary.) But Grene clearly misses any potential feminist reading of this, in which Molly has agency enough to look for herself instead of just being an object to look at. Just because Martin has regained his sight and finds her pretty doesn't mean she should run off with him - but Martin doesn't see it that way, because only his vision matters, and the idea that a pretty young girl doesn't see an old and ugly man as equally attractive absolutely refuses to occur to him - unlike Grene, I've no sympathy for him post-rejection.
But although it can be read that way, this isn't really a feminist text - it could far more easily be read as an attack on religion or capitalism, for instance. As I said, it works on multiple levels, and underlying all is a really bitter, black humour. You find yourself laughing when you know you really shouldn't, because some of the things that happen are awful, really genuinely unkind, but still. Horrified laughter. It's much more entertaining than Synge's Playboy of the Western World, which I also read recently and which is supposed to be his masterpiece.
July 22, 2022
“There's the sound of one of them twittering yellow birds do be coming in the spring-time from beyond the sea, and there'll be a fine warmth now in the sun, and a sweetness in the air, the way it'll be a grand thing to be sitting here quiet and easy smelling the things growing up, and budding from the earth.”
This play dramatises a theme that always haunted Synge’s imagination, the conflict between dream and reality.
Martin Doul, a sightless vagabond, tenderly believes that he and his blind wife Mary is an attractive couple, and that the perceptible world is a gorgeous place. When the couple gains their sight, after the appliance of sacred water brought by a itinerant saint, they are unhappily disheartened.
Martin initially mistakes Molly Byrne, “a fine-looking girl with fair hair”, for his consort whom he in due course discovers to be “a dirty, wrinkled-looking hag.” He snubs Mary, but he consecutively is rebuffed by Molly.
Martin and Mary, with sight restored, are forced to work hard for a skimpy living, like Adam and Eve turned out of Paradise. Martin expresses his disenchant with the daring new world of sight. The great day of his cure becomes an awful black day when he was
---roused up and found that he was the like of the little children do be listening to the stories of an old woman, and do be dreaming after in the dark night that it’s in grand houses of gold they were, with speckled horses to ride, and do be waking again, in a short while, and they destroyed with the cold, and the thatch dripping, maybe, and the starved ass braying in the yard.---
In the end, when their sight is failing again, and the saint comes to finally accomplish the cure by a second application of holy water, Martin intentionally spills the water, and the blind couple go out hoping to recuperate something of the kinder world they once knew.
This is basically a morality play, neatly constructed; and the poetry of disillusion that echoes in the words of Martin is moving.
This play dramatises a theme that always haunted Synge’s imagination, the conflict between dream and reality.
Martin Doul, a sightless vagabond, tenderly believes that he and his blind wife Mary is an attractive couple, and that the perceptible world is a gorgeous place. When the couple gains their sight, after the appliance of sacred water brought by a itinerant saint, they are unhappily disheartened.
Martin initially mistakes Molly Byrne, “a fine-looking girl with fair hair”, for his consort whom he in due course discovers to be “a dirty, wrinkled-looking hag.” He snubs Mary, but he consecutively is rebuffed by Molly.
Martin and Mary, with sight restored, are forced to work hard for a skimpy living, like Adam and Eve turned out of Paradise. Martin expresses his disenchant with the daring new world of sight. The great day of his cure becomes an awful black day when he was
---roused up and found that he was the like of the little children do be listening to the stories of an old woman, and do be dreaming after in the dark night that it’s in grand houses of gold they were, with speckled horses to ride, and do be waking again, in a short while, and they destroyed with the cold, and the thatch dripping, maybe, and the starved ass braying in the yard.---
In the end, when their sight is failing again, and the saint comes to finally accomplish the cure by a second application of holy water, Martin intentionally spills the water, and the blind couple go out hoping to recuperate something of the kinder world they once knew.
This is basically a morality play, neatly constructed; and the poetry of disillusion that echoes in the words of Martin is moving.
September 29, 2020
The Well of the Saints by J.M. Synge is a satiric play that points out how superficial humans are and how much they enjoy watching others suffer.
Marry and Martin Doul are a blind couple, who were lied on and deceived by the village people who convince them that they are the most beautiful couple of the village. One day, a saint shows up and offers a “Cure” to their blindness. Finally, they are able to see each other, only to realize how ugly they are, and they are anything but beautiful.
===========
The play criticizes human’s devilish nature of mocking others, and deceiving those who are unable to combat us. And above all, the play shows how humans emphasizes the importance of appearance over the purity of soul and heart.
For instance, Molly apparently has a horrible character but she is forgiven for her pretty face.
=============
The play also deals with the theme of blindness. Since the days of “Oedipus Rex”, blindness has been very symbolic of the “insight” blindness rather than the “sight” blindness.
Although the couple are the blind ones, the villagers are the one with insight blindness as they have caused the couple’s main problems. They convinced them with lies and made them prioritize the importance of outer appearance.
==============
Synge also denounces the community as a whole including the saint, despite being a religious man, the saint doesn’t seem to understand. He trusts the girls for being pretty, he doesn’t criticize the villagers, he doesn’t even see nor understand Marry and Martin’s wish at the end and considers them as sinners.
=============
Synge actually believes that the world is filled with human’s sins and flaws and therefore, we have all turned into blinds; blinds from seeing the realities.
“The way sin has brought blindness to the world”
3 stars.
Good read, but not the best I have read of this concept.
Marry and Martin Doul are a blind couple, who were lied on and deceived by the village people who convince them that they are the most beautiful couple of the village. One day, a saint shows up and offers a “Cure” to their blindness. Finally, they are able to see each other, only to realize how ugly they are, and they are anything but beautiful.
===========
The play criticizes human’s devilish nature of mocking others, and deceiving those who are unable to combat us. And above all, the play shows how humans emphasizes the importance of appearance over the purity of soul and heart.
For instance, Molly apparently has a horrible character but she is forgiven for her pretty face.
=============
The play also deals with the theme of blindness. Since the days of “Oedipus Rex”, blindness has been very symbolic of the “insight” blindness rather than the “sight” blindness.
Although the couple are the blind ones, the villagers are the one with insight blindness as they have caused the couple’s main problems. They convinced them with lies and made them prioritize the importance of outer appearance.
==============
Synge also denounces the community as a whole including the saint, despite being a religious man, the saint doesn’t seem to understand. He trusts the girls for being pretty, he doesn’t criticize the villagers, he doesn’t even see nor understand Marry and Martin’s wish at the end and considers them as sinners.
=============
Synge actually believes that the world is filled with human’s sins and flaws and therefore, we have all turned into blinds; blinds from seeing the realities.
“The way sin has brought blindness to the world”
3 stars.
Good read, but not the best I have read of this concept.
January 2, 2026
J.M. Synge's "The Well of the Saints" is relatively simplistic in its messaging, essentially boiling down to "Be careful what you wish for," "Ignorance is bliss," and "Never judge a book by its cover." Nevertheless, it's still an enjoyable read with its blacker sense of humor. It's tough to pity anyone in the play except Mary Doul, but you do end up cheering for and accepting the life Martin and Mary ultimately choose.
September 30, 2025
A clever and well written, if somewhat obvious tale, about two blind beggars and the realities of their lives when sudden changes in their fortunes occur. I did like the main characters, flaws and all, but wanted to root for them, especially Mary.
May 29, 2019
People get what they deserve!
November 27, 2025
Read in a volume containing other four plays of Synge. See the upcoming review for The Playboy of the Western World and Other Plays.
February 19, 2015
Not as strikingly brilliant as The Playboy but still a very gripping play. I've always found Synge to be a very good judge of human condition.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews