Exploring Tragedy and Identity in Soyinka's Death and the King's
School
University of Windsor**We aren't endorsed by this school
Course
ENGLISH 1005
Subject
Arts & Humanities
Date
Dec 10, 2024
Pages
3
Uploaded by ChancellorTeamCamel6
● The praise singer is the first speaker in the play● The final lines of the play are spoken by the mother, Iyaloia ● In order to simulate you have to be the colonizer ● Colonizes the mind● Western imperialism is at fault for all black and brown people● Self-identity originates through ….● Post-colonialism - the term is in the back of the book● A variety of approaches ^● The colonial narrators are not reliable ● Colonial contact experience ● Culture clash ISSS???● The tragedy of the play is the death of the king's horseman is stopped by the colonial in the play ● The stopping of that death is the tragedy ● Life is the tragedy and death is the release ● The end for everyone - literally and metaphorically ● The play is about faith● The play isn't limited to the colonizer ● The death of faith● Elesin nova doesn't wanna die● The baby that is born represents the metaphysical realm ● The bird represents death
● The tragic hero is Elesin bc he's being the sacrificial scapegoat ● In Aruba city, Nigeria, (the year is 1943 or 1944 something)● Both comedy and tragedy are inverted ● The colonizers are wearing the costumes of death● He ends up destroying what he tries protecting● In the end, olunde take his life because his father fails to complete his mission of killing himself since Simon intervened and locked him up● When elesin realizes that it is his son's body in the casket, he then strangles himself with chains ● When Olunde sacrifices himself because his father didn't go through the deed, olunde’s death is seen as a tragic death rather than a heroic death● Soyinka created the play for the western audience and not the people the play has● A hero who is initially revered and destined to achieve everlasting glory by making a monster of a sacrifice, and then totally fails—partially through his own weakness (his hesitation can be understood as a character flaw), and partially through the intervention of Oyo's British residents (the kind of overwhelming force that often takes down the hero in tragedies)In an essay, discuss the significance of Soyinka's decision to be historically inaccurate and set Death and the King's Horseman during the Second World War.
Soyinka's decision to be historically inaccurate and set Death and the King’s Horseman during the Second World war is significant because being obedient and honourable towards oneself, one's people and one's spiritual values are what it is all about. Furthermore, Soyinka changes the facts by placing the responsibility for Elesins failure on his shoulders. Additionally, the protagonist Elesin is based on a real figure. Soyinka's most explicit use of ritual as both an organizing principle and a surgical weapon for prying open a people's collective awareness at a vital point in their history is Death and the King's Horseman. The play's crisis is caused by a major political and psychological threat to the rite of human sacrifice. This is a watershed moment in history, and because the play is a reflection of a real-life event, it is destined to provide the playwright with a fitting setting for critical insights into a social impasse. The drama ‘Death and the King's Horseman’ by Wole Soyinka is based on an actual incident that occurred in Nigeria during the colonial era when colonial officials blocked a Yoruba King's horseman from committing ceremonial suicide. Within five years of the Nigerian Civil War, a link was drawn between Olokun Esin's behaviour in Oyo in 1946 and the lifestyle of the nation's leadership during and immediately after that war. Q