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Death and the King's Horseman: characters, themes and context
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Soyinka warned against reading the play simply as a 'clash of cultures'. He wanted audiences to focus on the Yoruba world and Elesin's failure.
Characters
Elesin: proud, charismatic and life-loving. His desire for life's pleasures weakens his will to die.
Iyaloja: 'mother of the market', powerful and morally strong.
Olunde: educated in England, yet he understands and honours his culture.
Simon and Jane Pilkings: well-meaning in their own eyes but disrespectful and ignorant of Yoruba belief.
The Praise-Singer: speaks for tradition and the community.
Iyaloja: 'mother of the market', powerful and morally strong.
Olunde: educated in England, yet he understands and honours his culture.
Simon and Jane Pilkings: well-meaning in their own eyes but disrespectful and ignorant of Yoruba belief.
The Praise-Singer: speaks for tradition and the community.
Context
Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986, the first Black African writer to do so.
The play is based on a real event in Oyo in 1946; Soyinka moved the setting to wartime.
It draws on Yoruba belief in the link between the worlds of the living, the dead and the unborn.
The play is based on a real event in Oyo in 1946; Soyinka moved the setting to wartime.
It draws on Yoruba belief in the link between the worlds of the living, the dead and the unborn.
Themes
Duty and honour: Elesin's failure against Olunde's sacrifice.
Colonialism: the British assume their values are superior.
Life and death: the transition between worlds.
Language: rich Yoruba poetry and proverbs contrast with the Pilkingses' flat English.
Colonialism: the British assume their values are superior.
Life and death: the transition between worlds.
Language: rich Yoruba poetry and proverbs contrast with the Pilkingses' flat English.
How does Soyinka use language to contrast Elesin's world with the Pilkingses'?
- Elesin and the women speak in rich, poetic language full of proverbs and images.
- The Pilkingses speak plain, everyday English.
- The contrast shows the depth of Yoruba culture that the colonisers fail to understand.
Answer: Poetic Yoruba speech shows a rich culture, while the Pilkingses' plain English shows their limited understanding.
Elesin: proud, life-loving, fails. Iyaloja: moral force. Olunde: honours tradition. Pilkingses: disrespectful. Context: Soyinka, Nobel 1986, real event 1946. Themes: duty, colonialism, life and death, language.
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