-The play begins with Cathleen saying to her younger sister Nora "She's lying down, God help her, and may be sleeping, if she's able."   she is referring to her mother whom was in a bad and a sad mood because her son Michael is missing.

-This verbal exchange creates suspense and tensionand prepares for subsequent events I the play.

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-When Maurya, the mother is flooded with peace implied in her last words: "Michael has a clean burial in the far north, by the grace of the Almighty God. Bartley will have a fine coffin out of the white boards, and a deep grave surely. What more can we want than that? No man at all can be living forever, and we must be satisfied.", - She is praying for all her male family members who died in the sea, she accepted her fate and she realize the reality of life that No one can live forever in this world where everyone is meant to die so we should believe in God's fate and be ready to reconcile one day.