From Ignorance to knowledge: A Study of J. M. Synge’s The Well of the Saints Dr. Arvind M. Nawale, Head, Dept. of English Shivaji Mahavidyalaya, Udgir, Dist: Latur (Maharashtra) Om Asto Maa Sadgamaya Tamaso Maa Jyotir Gamya Mrityor Maa Amrtam Gamaya Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad-I.iii.28) The above prayer is not meant for the material things of the world like health, wealth, success, glory, fame or so on. It is meant for God’s support in our transcendence. It is meant to free us from our sundry misunderstandings regarding our self, the universe and God and bless us with ‘true knowledge’. Tamaso Maa Jyotirgamaya means leading from darkness to light. When the Vedas refer to darkness and light, they mean ‘ignorance’ and ‘knowledge’. This is so because ignorance, like darkness, obscures true understanding. As the only remedy for darkness is light, the only remedy for ignorance is knowledge. The knowledge spoken of here is again the knowledge of one’s ‘true self’. J. M. Synge’s The Well of the Saints (1905) is worthy of serious critical attention for more than one reason. One of the important reasons for it is the protagonist’s journey from ignorance to knowledge- reflecting the Upanishadic injunction of the movement from untruth to truth- which is artistically worked out in the life of blind protagonist couple Martin and Mary Doul. This kind of Upanishadic and philosophical base gives the play The Well of the Saints its peculiar significance. Synge has admirably worked out here the struggles of sensitive souls of blind Martin and Mary inching its way, against formidable odds, some present within themselves and much in the social situations around, towards self-realizations and attainment of knowledge. The Well of the Saints is a serio-comedy based of a French farce Moralite de I’Aveugle et du Boiteux (Morality play of the Blind Man and the Cripple) by Andrien de la Vigne. Though, Sygne is inspired by Moralite de I’Aveugle et du Boiteux, the plot, setting, tragic-comic elements, philosophical base of the theme of The Well of the Saints is his own invention. Synge took up a romantic dream of love for the sake of poesy in the play. The ridiculous beggar’s impossible dream of romance plumbs the emotional and idealistic depths of Synge’s protagonist and transforms what was farcical in Moralite de I’Aveugle et du Boiteux into a tragedy in The Well of the Saints. The play opens at cross-roads nearby a Wicklow village from where Martin and Mary Doul, a blind, old, ugly, battered beggar couple is passing to the fair. The couple is happy and living peacefully by the way-side, sustaining in the ignorance that they are a handsome couple. Their illusionary world is founded on the deceitful mockery of the villagers who instilled the illusion in this ignorant, miserable couple out of mixed feelings of pity and jest. Due to ignorance, Martin and Mary consider themselves as “so fine looking” (62) and “the finest man and the finest woman of the seven countries of the East” (62). Martin considers that he has “wedded with the beautiful dark woman of Ballinatone” (69) who has “yellow hair” and “soft skin” (70). www.the-criterion.com The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN 0976-8165 Vol. II. Issue. II 1 June 2011