Death and the Kings Horseman by Wole Soyinka Essay

In the play Death and the King’s Horseman by Wole Soyinka, the author uses the representation of woman as the defenders of the Yoruba tradition. Soyinka tells us in this â€Å"Author’s note† that the play is based on an incident in Nigeria in 1949. In Yoruba tradition, it is the sacrifice of the king’s horseman that plays the essential role in bringing good fortune onto the community. While these leaders of the Yoruba culture are predominantly male, the role of the Yoruba woman as both defender and keeper of these traditions are of equal importance. The representation of men and women in Death and the King’s Horseman, demonstrates that nationalism is a gendered construct; in which the women are the stability in masculine nationalism. The†¦show more content†¦In the play the reader see’s Iyaloja’s efforts to stop the â€Å"white man† from stripping away the culture tradition of the Yoruba community. The next generation of Yoruba women is slip between the daughters of the market women and the young bride, who differ in their social positions. The bride in the play has no name and never speaks. She thus represents the unchanging and pure tradition of which the Yoruba women stand for. The bride is modest, obedient, and self-efficient. Elesin refers to her as â€Å"little mother†. In the final act the audience witnesses the bride weep while, â€Å"the girl takes up a little earth, walks over calmly into the cell and closes Elesin’s eyes. She then pours some earth over each eyelid. . .(52). While the reader is left to assume why the bride is crying, the bride future rest in the hands of the child she is speculated to have conceived. The unchangeable role of the bride is in tension of her peers whom are able to attend school. Similar to the native intellect, Olunde, the British are targeting the future generation to westernize the native people. While Pilking and Jane are in route to a ball, Pilking reflects on the â€Å"good† he has done for Olunde. He tells his wife after hearing the wedding drums, â€Å"I helped [Elesin] son get into the medical school in England remember? . . . The old pagan wanted him to stayShow MoreRelatedWole Soyinka: Death and the Kings Horseman1695 Words   |  7 PagesIn his play, uDeath and the Kings Horseman/u, Wole Soyinka would have us examine every clash and conflict, save for the one involving culture. Certainly this may seem the most obvious part of the play, but we would do the general understanding of uDeath/u a disservice if we ignored one of the central conflicts in the play. Every element of the play is placed in terms of two extremes, and the cultures must be cons idered one of those pairs. 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