Introduction: Between all of the plays or stories we have read and not wrote an essay about, the plays of Tartuffe and Death and the King's Horseman are the two most interesting to me. The plays share many similarities, but also many differences. Each play has a different meaning, different leaders, and a different theme while both being about religious difficulties.
Meaning: The topic of Tartuffe is like Death and the King’s Horseman in that they both are about religious issues but have a different meaning. Tartuffe’s primary purpose is to poke fun at the religious failing of the people of the time, and that of the King’s. The King is supposed to set an example for his people, but the example that is set is false. The exempt made this clear
…show more content…
(196-197)” Knowing history, it is clear the abuse of faith it that the King has made upon having multiple mistresses. While the play is to show how the King is like Tartuffe; and to mock the religious abusers, Death and the King’s Horseman presents the desires of man and the impact of failing their ritual duties has upon the community. Even though Death and the King’s Horseman does not mock Elesin in the same way, it does present him the pain of failing his job as the guide to the King in the afterlife. Him failing his duty manifests itself in the end of the play when the cloth is removed and Iyaloja said, “Because he could not bear to let honour fly out the door, he stopped it with his life. (1097)” This pain his disgrace brought him is his dead son at the end of the play. His son took the ritual upon himself, even though it was his father’s place, because failing to lead the King through the afterlife has cosmic events. The purpose of the ritual sacrifice is to avoid the unnamed but implied events that would happen upon failure to complete the ceremony and lead to the demise of the entire population. This is stated by Wole Ogundele who said, “It is also about the disruption of that ritual by its chief celebrant who is motivated by his own private feelings