Csec English b SAMPLE GUIDE

for CSEC

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A Caribbean Examinations Council® Study Guide

CXC® STUDY GUIDES

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Developed exclusively with the Caribbean Examinations Council® for students following CSEC® programmes, this brand new series of Study Guides provides candidates with extra support to help them maximise their performance in their examinations.

Available in bookshops, for further information contact the Nelson Thornes International team on:

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T +44 (0) 1242 268 283 F +44 (0) 1242 268 311 @ [email protected]

for CSEC

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Joyce Jonas • Martin Jones • Mala Morton-Gittens

A Caribbean Examinations Council® Study Guide

Contents Introduction

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2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

Themes 1 Themes 2 Point of view Structure of the narrative 1 Structure of the narrative 2 Language 1 Language 2 Irony Comparing the beginning and the end 1 2.16 Comparing the beginning and the end 2 2.17 Writing about prose – collect your evidence 1 2.18 Writing about prose – collect your evidence 2 Short stories 2.19 Short stories – parental love and children in need 2.20 Parental love and children coping with challenge 2.21 Children and racism 2.22 Between two cultures 2.23 Children learning important lessons Unit 2 Practice exam questions Unit 2 Practice exam questions

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Unit 1 Drama 1.1 Where did drama come from? 1.2 How to study drama 1.3 Plot, characters, conflict and themes Old Story Time 1.4 Old Story Time – the plot 1.5 Understanding the play 1.6 Dramatic devices 1 1.7 Dramatic devices 2 1.8 Dramatic devices 3 A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1.9 A Midsummer Night’s Dream – introduction 1.10 The main plot 1.11 The fairy sub-plot 1.12 The comic sub-plot 1.13 Conflict and themes 1.14 Dramatic devices 1.15 The language 1.16 The significance of the title The Lion and the Jewel 1.17 The Lion and the Jewel – the background 1.18 The plot 1.19 African cultural traditions 1.20 Contrasting characters as a dramatic device 1.21 Conflict and themes 1.22 Themes and irony 1.23 Comedy and the minor characters 1.24 Costumes, setting and props Julius Caesar 1.25 Julius Caesar – introduction 1.26 The plot and main character 1.27 The principal characters 1.28 Contrasting pairs of characters 1.29 Contrasting speeches 1.30 The supernatural, irony and suspense 1.31 Sound, language and imagery Unit 1 Practice exam questions

2.7 2.8 2.9 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15

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18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32

Unit 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6

Prose Features of prose Plot Setting Characterisation Dialogue Conflict

34 36 38

40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76

Unit 3 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17

Poetry Understanding poetry Introduction to poetry The structure of the poem The sound of poetry 1 The sound of poetry 2 Poetry as pictures 1 Poetry as pictures 2 Additional poetic devices 1 Additional poetic devices 2 Analysing poems ‘A Contemplation Upon Flowers’ by Henry King ‘Orchids’ by Hazel Simmons-McDonald ‘A Stone’s Throw’ by Elma Mitchell ‘Ol’ Higue’ by Mark McWatt ‘This Is the Dark Time, My Love’ by Martin Carter ‘Theme for English B’ by Langston Hughes ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen

78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92 94 96 98 100

102 104 106 108 110 112 114 116 118 120 122 124 126 128 130 132 134 136 138 140 142 144 146 148

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Contents

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156 158 160 162 164 166 168 170

Unit 4 Writing 4.1 Writing practice 4.2 Structuring a comparative essay 4.3 A sample essay comparing two poems 1 4.4 A sample essay comparing two poems 2 4.5 Introducing quotations and revision tips Prescribed texts

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150 152

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172 174 176 178 180 182

Glossary

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Index

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Acknowledgements

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3.18 ‘South’ by Kamau Brathwaite 3.19 ‘West Indies, USA’ by Stewart Brown 3.20 ‘Forgive My Guilt’ by Robert P. Tristram Coffin 3.21 ‘The Woman Speaks to the Man who Has Employed her Son’ by Lorna Goodison 3.22 ‘Le Loupgarou’ by Derek Walcott 3.23 ‘A Lesson for this Sunday’ by Derek Walcott 3.24 ‘Epitaph’ by Dennis Scott 3.25 Meanings below the surface 3.26 Thematic similarities among your CSEC poems 3.27 Two poems about Death – for comparison Unit 3 Practice exam questions

Introduction This Study Guide has been developed exclusively with the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC®) to be used as an additional resource by candidates, both in and out of school, following the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC®) programme.

At the beginning of each section, the Learning outcomes are clearly stated. You may find it helpful, as you come to the end of each section, to go back and ensure that you have covered and fully understood the material from that section. The margins and main text also contain engaging and useful Activities to help you engage with the different concepts and encourage you to form your own opinions on the texts you have chosen to read. You will also find some very useful Did you know? panels and Exam tips that have been provided for you in collaboration with CSEC examiners.

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It has been prepared by a team with expertise in the CSEC® syllabus, teaching and examination. The contents are designed to support learning by providing tools to help you achieve your best in CSEC English B, and the features included make it easier for you to master the key concepts and requirements of the syllabus. Do remember to refer to your syllabus for full guidance on the course requirements and examination format.

As you work through the different sections, you will acquire the skills you need in order to appreciate literature and write fluently about literary texts.

Inside this Study Guide is an interactive CD, which includes electronic activities to assist you in developing good examination techniques:

All the texts used for analysis or as examples of specific points are drawn from the list prescribed for the two syllabuses covering the entire period from 2012 to 2017.

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• On Your Marks activities provide sample examination-style short-answer and essay-type questions, with example candidate answers and feedback from an examiner to show where answers could be improved. These activities will build your understanding, skill level and confidence in answering examination questions.

Key terms are in bold throughout the text. These are defined in the glossary at the end of the book.

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This unique combination of focused syllabus content and interactive examination practice will provide you with invaluable support to help you reach your full potential in CSEC® English B.

Please note that one of the poetry questions and one of the short story questions on Paper 2 will invite you to write about two texts of your choice. Be careful to choose only texts that are on the syllabus you are studying. To guide you, we have listed the texts for each syllabus at the back of this Study Guide on pages 182–3.

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1 Drama Where did drama come from?

LEARNING OUTCOMES In this section you will: • consider what drama is and where you can experience it • think about the origins and nature of formal and informal drama • look at the relevance of drama as a community experience and a rite of passage.

What is drama? Is drama only the plays that we study in school and see performed in the theatre? Or is it something broader than that? Think about it: sometimes there can be drama going on at the street corner or in your neighbour’s house. When you ‘borrow’ your big sister’s things without asking, you can be sure it will result in quite a bit of drama when she finds out! Yes, informal drama is all around us, isn’t it? In this study guide, though, we look at drama in the more formal sense – plays that are written for performance on stage.

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The birth of drama

Have you ever thought when, how and why human beings first began performing to an audience? Consider the following suggestions:

Scenario 2. There has been no rain, and it’s time for planting, so the chief calls on the tribe’s shaman to discuss the problem. That night, as the moon rises, the wh ole tribe gathers and the shaman leads them in a re-enactment of their planting and reaping act ivities. The drums beat faster and faster to sim ulate the longed-for rai n pounding down on the dr y ground, and men an d women dance joyfully, miming the work they wi ll be doing to harvest the bumper crop they hope to be blessed with if the gods will only send rain.

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ers arriving e a group of hunt in ag Im 1. io ar Scen they have rr ying the animal home, proudly ca e women and th ll te y want to he T ll. ki to ed ag man tacked, they stalked and at ely av br w ho n re child what do t fought back. So as be e th ly ce er fi how sit around out! And as they it t ac y he T ? do they eat, they ll of the roasted m the fire, bellies fu reliving ts, oi pl out their ex ab t as bo d an h laug ise each rill as they dramat the fear and the th s been born. ha a – and dram nt hu e th of t en mom

ACTIVITY

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1 Imagine you are putting on a play at school. • Make a list of all the people you will have to thank at the end of the performance: the playwright, the lighting crew ... Complete this list. • What will you need for the production? Think about costumes, props, scenery. Will you need dressmakers? Painters? Carpenters? • Who will you inform about the play, and how? • Will you need a treasurer, tickets and programmes? Create lists of all the things you will need to organise a performance. Drama as a community experience What do you expect from a play? The examples provided here suggest that we can expect community participation, action, sound, spectacle, suspense, and an emotion-filled storyline that reflects life as it is or life as we would like it to be.

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Drama as a rite of passage

DID YOU KNOW? The Mundan (the first haircut) ceremony in the Hindu religion is typically performed during the first three years of a child’s life. This takes place because hair from birth is associated with a past life, so the shaving signifies a new beginning. It is also said to stimulate growth.

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We all pass through major transitions in our lives. Birth, puberty, marriage, parenthood and death are some traditional examples, but you could add others: a child’s first day at school, graduation from college, moving from school to the work environment. Societies often have ceremonies to mark these events. Those rituals and ceremonies are what we mean by rites of passage.

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In some religions the shaving of the head marks a rite of passage

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We can think of a play as a rite of passage for the characters on stage – and sometimes for the audience, too. Just like the dance of the shaman, it depicts what life was like before and after a lifechanging experience. Before the rains, the tribe was sad and hungry, but after the rains came and the crops sprang up, they were joyful and thankful for their full bellies. In Old Story Time, Mama’s rite of passage – her life-changing experience – is the learning process that shows her how wrong-headed her racial prejudice was; she realises that her belief that ‘anything black nah good’ was illogical and destructive. Similarly, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the journey into the magical forest allows the Athenians to undergo a change of heart that leads them from near-tragedy to a happy, blessed life of love. Sidi choosing a husband in The Lion and the Jewel is, for her, and for the audience, a rite of passage; it reflects the choice that African nations make between embracing foreign culture or holding on to indigenous traditions and values. In contrast to these three plays, Julius Caesar ends not on a happy note, but in regret because lives have been lost and little achieved. Its tone is tragic rather than comic. Again, though, the cast and audience participate in a rite of passage – the coup that removes a ruler who is perceived to be an oppressor. We observe the struggles of a society that rises up in revolt, and goes through the horrors of civil war, and we find ourselves pondering the gains and the losses of that life-changing social upheaval.

ACTIVITY 2 Think about the rituals performed in your community: when a baby is born, when a couple get married, when someone joins a church, when someone graduates from college or when someone dies. • Which of these rituals have you experienced? • Did the ceremony create a sense of performance? • Did the ceremony reflect the emotions of the participants? • Did the ceremony provide a spectacle?

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How to study drama

LEARNING OUTCOMES In this section you will: • understand that studying a play involves using your imagination to visualise it in performance • discover that you are the audience • imagine you are the play’s director.

The important thing to remember when you are studying drama is that a play is designed to be performed – not only to be read. Your job, then, when you are reading the script (for that is what it is), is to recognise that you have a twin role: you are the director and also a member of the audience. You need to constantly use your imagination so that you have a mental image of what is happening on the stage – and it is you who will decide how and where the actors move, and how they speak. You will also discover that you respond emotionally to the action – just as you do when you are watching a movie. So put on your director’s cap, sit down in your director’s chair and let’s roll!

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1.2

What are stage directions for?

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To help you stage the play, the playwright supplies stage directions. These are usually printed in italics. They indicate how the stage should be set up (scenery) and how the characters should be dressed (costumes). They describe the stage furniture needed (props) and where the characters are to come on (enter) and go off (exit/exeunt). Finally, they indicate what kind of sound effects the play needs, and what lighting effects it requires – bright or dim, a spotlight on one particular individual or group, and so on.

Confusion ensues without proper direction

ACTIVITY 1 From a play you are studying, find examples of stage directions that guide: • the director • the actors • the stage crew.

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You will notice that in addition to instructions at the beginning of the play, there are stage directions throughout the play. Their purpose is to tell the actors when and how to move, and how to say their lines; they also guide the stage crew, the lighting crew and the sound crew to know when they must move the scenery or stage furniture, when they must change the lighting effects on the stage, and when they must create particular sound effects. It takes a whole team of people to produce a play – and the result is a community experience, not a private one like reading a novel. Scenery Notice the scenery that is used in the play and any changes in the setting. Are any contrasting experiences suggested? If so, how has that been achieved? As an example, think about the differences between the yard where Mama lives and the smart home that Len and Lois share in Old Story Time. The stately palace in Athens is very

different to the moonlit forest where Oberon and Titania rule in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. What effect do those changes in scene have on the audience? Costumes and props

Action and dialogue

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There’s also the action and the dialogue to consider. You know what action is from the action-filled movies that you possibly enjoy. Some scenes in a play will have a great deal of action and others will be less energetic. Notice when the dialogue is full of rapid interchanges between characters, and when it slows down and the characters seem to be more reflective. ACTIVITY

Did you know that scenery and costumes can be realistic or symbolic? Go online and find images of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in performance. Has the director aimed for realism or symbolism? ACTIVITY 2 Think of two contrasting scenes in a play you are studying. Sketch the stage settings you imagine you will need to give to the cast and crew for direction.

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Both costumes and props have a great visual impact on the audience, so be aware of them at all times. Imagine that you are responsible for the props and costumes in a performance, and make a list of what is needed for each scene. We’ll need swords and wine flagons, senators’ robes and soldiers’ uniforms for Julius Caesar, for example. In Old Story Time we shall need a bottle of oil of deliverance, some red underwear, a bunch of flowers, and some odd clothing to disguise Len in, along with a chair for him to lift to threaten Mama with. Then there will be an ass’s head for poor Bottom and all the equipment for the ‘Pyramus and Phoebe’ play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream; and ill-fitting European clothes for Lakunle, and animal skins and hunting equipment for Baroka’s tent in The Lion and the Jewel. Think about how the props and the costumes communicate a world of information and emotion to the audience.

DID YOU KNOW?

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5 From your selected play, identify two scenes in which the characters move about quite a bit on the stage, maybe even coming to blows, and identify two scenes in which they talk quietly.

3 Think of a production you have watched or participated in. How did the costumes, scenery and props evoke the setting of the play, and how was that altered between scenes to create a certain mood or sense of tension? 4 Select one scene from the play you are studying, and list or sketch the props and costumes needed. What effect do you want these to have on the audience?

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a Why do you think the playwright alternates between action and reflective thought in this way? b Would it be better if every scene were ‘action-packed’?

Lighting and sound

Notice all the stage directions that indicate a change in the lighting or the need for a particular sound effect. A novel will not give you this direct experience that the theatre can provide.

Costumes

Props

Action

Scenery

Drama

Grouping

Dialogue

Sound

Lighting

Spectacle Be aware, then, of how the playwright exploits the resources of the stage – scenery, lighting and sound; costumes and props; action and grouping of the characters. All these devices produce what is called the ‘spectacle’ that theatre brings us.

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Plot, characters, conflict and themes

In this section you will:

As you study a play you discover that every character, conflict, twist in the plot, every feature of the props and setting, all the lighting, costumes and sound effects – every single aspect of the play contributes to the overall impact. All the devices point us to the themes and message that add to the purpose and energy of the play. It is your job to note the techniques that the playwright uses and to appreciate how, together, they create for the audience the total dramatic experience. Ma ing out the Mappi h storyli line

Every play has a storyline – this is the plot. Some plays have more than one plot, and each subplot is interwoven with the main plot, commenting on it in some way. You need to write a summary of the storyline of each plot. Notice how the main plot and the subplots are interconnected. You may find it helpful to draw a graph, or to map out the interrelated storylines.

Characters

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• see how the key elements in a play work together • observe how characters are contrasted and can be in conflict with each other • notice how the conflicts point us to the themes of the play • become aware of how tension and suspense are created to sustain interest • notice the use of dramatic irony • understand that a play presents ideas or themes for the audience to consider.

A unified whole

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LEARNING OUTCOMES

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There can be no story without characters. These characters will have different personalities, conflicting opinions, opposing motives, values and attitudes. Notice what each character does and says, and pay attention to what other characters have to say about them. Bearing all these points in mind, and as part of your revision, you should write a short character study of each of the characters in the play you are studying.

DID YOU KNOW?

Jewellers sometimes put a thin layer of polished metal under a gemstone in order to give it more brilliance. The metal is called a foil. A contrasting character shows up the characteristics of the protagonist: he is a foil for the protagonist.

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Co Contrasti ing characters h Because people are different, there may be characters in your play that stand in contrast to each other: for example, a man of action and a philosopher, a political opportunist and a saintly churchman, a poor, uneducated mother of many children and a well-educated professional woman. The playwright often deliberately sets characters in pairs like this to make a point. Be aware of the contrasts between characters and the way they respond to life’s challenges. If you have, say, a very virtuous character, there may be a wicked character for contrast, making the virtuous character seem even more virtuous. We say that one character is a foil to the other.

Different language ffor d Diff dif iffferent ch haracters Often, to make the characters more realistic, and to make the contrasts more striking, the playwright will use a type of language appropriate to each character. Be aware of the shifts in language and different types of imagery y that contrasting c aracters use. ch

Themes

Ho do we sense confli How flict? ?

The themes of a play are the main issues that are raised – usually the issues that cause the conflicts within and between the characters.

You come home from school and you sense that something is wrong: Mum is annoyed and your sister is sulking. How do you know there is tension? Sometimes you know there’s a problem from the actual words they are using, but sometimes you sense it in their body language, or in their tone of voice. Your friend seems particularly quiet and avoids company, so you sense that he is struggling with something – some conflict in his own mind. Expect the characters in a play to be experiencing conflicts, but remember that they may communicate that conflict to us by using a subtle tone of voice or by body language, as well as by open quarrelling or even fighting. As in real life, look in a performance for signs in the performance style and language used by the characters.

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The themes of each play are different, but the quickest way to identify them is to focus on the conflicts. What causes friction between characters? The cause of the friction will be one of the themes.

Conflict

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In a play (as in real life) you can expect to come across conflicts and tensions. These conflicts are sometimes between two characters, sometimes between a character and society, and sometimes within the mind of the character. Read the text in the margin before doing the activity below. ACTIVITY

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1 Map the conflicts in two plays you have studied, showing which characters are opposed to each other, and why. • Are the conflicts the same in the two plays? • Are the themes the same?

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The points of conflict will tell you the issues or themes that the play raises.

Irony

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Often we plan for one thing or anticipate a particular outcome, and the opposite happens. That is irony. Sometimes we (the audience) know something that a character on the stage is unaware of, so we are able to smile (or maybe wince) at his lack of knowledge: this is an example of irony. Irony is often used in drama; make a note of the main examples of dramatic irony in your play.

KEY POINTS The issues that cause conflict among the characters will lead you to the themes of the play.

Suspense The playwright uses many devices to create tension in order to make the audience wonder how a situation will ever be resolved. This is called building suspense, and is a technique employed to create a sense of excitement and anticipation in the play. Observe and note how the playwright creates suspense by withholding information or by allowing things to descend into chaos and only presenting us and the characters with a solution at the very last moment.

ACTIVITY 2 Identify two points of conflict in another play you have studied. Say what themes and issues are raised through these conflicts.

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1.4

Old Story Time – the plot

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Two plots are intertwined in Old Story Time, the main plot and the subplot.

In this section you will:

Len goes off to university, returning with a doctorate in Economics. He soon discovers that George (now running a scam housing scheme) has conned Mama out of her life savings. Len comes up with a two-fold plan: to expose George’s crooked dealings and bring him to justice, and to help his mother see that her prejudice in favour of light-skinned people is misguided.

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1 Create a timeline to map the story of the play as it unfolds on the stage. • Mark on your timeline the specific places where flashbacks take us to an earlier time. • Suggest why this device has been adopted at this particular moment.

The main plot traces Len’s exposure of the crooked dealings of George McFarlane. Len and George McFarlane attended the same school, but whereas Len comes from a poor, single-parent home, George is one of the privileged, light-skinned students, from a ‘good’ home. At school, George and his friends torment Len mercilessly because of his poverty, and because, prompted by Mama, he presumes to write a love letter to a fair-skinned girl, Miss Margaret, whom Mama would like Len to marry. George, who appears less able than Len, quickly gets a good position at the bank because of his colour.

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ACTIVITY

The main plot

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• trace the way plots are interwoven in a play • consider the importance of flashback as a device • learn how to use diagrams to structure your study and revision.

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His research unearths evidence to incriminate George, but there are obstacles: George is in a position to blackmail Lois, Len’s wife, because while they both worked at the bank he had discovered that she borrowed money from dormant accounts and sent it to support Len. In exchange for his silence, George had demanded sexual favours from her. Len’s reputation would be damaged if society knew that it was stolen money that had seen him through university.

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2 List the ways in which Mama demonstrates her love for Len. At what points do you disapprove of Mama’s conduct?

3 What aspects of Ma’s conduct does Pa Ben disapprove of? Does this give us a clue regarding one of his functions in the play?

But Len, too, has cards up his sleeve. He has a dossier of evidence, and can show that George’s family members are also heavily involved in the scam and stand to benefit. He can bring the matter to the attention of the Director of Public Prosecutions. Len is not finished, though. Through a series of flashbacks to his schooldays, he shows Mama the cruelty of George and his friends, and Miss Margaret’s scornful rejection. But he is also able to let her know that Lois and her father stood by him, and that Lois took great risks for him – borrowing the money as she did. Convinced by the evidence, Mama angrily rejects George, and begs for Lois’s forgiveness.

The subplot The subplot traces Mama’s attempts to set obeah to work against Lois. Mama, a poor Jamaican huckster, has worked hard to educate her only child, Len. Her dream is for him to be a doctor and to

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marry a light-skinned girl – Miss Margaret – and she beats Len for consorting with black girls like Pearl, insisting that ‘anything black nuh good’. To Mama’s disgust, Len chooses to marry Lois, a black woman. Mama feels sure that Lois used obeah to win Len, and is persistently spiteful to her. Miss Aggy has trustingly put all her money into George’s housing scheme, and, when she learns that George has financial problems, she actually asks Len to bail him out – not knowing the hostility Len has for George. Len refuses to help, and gets so angry at Mama’s obtuseness that he threatens her physically. Sure now that Lois has messed up Len’s mind, Miss Aggy decides to visit the obeah woman and deal with Lois.

Trevor Rhone was born in Jamaica in 1940, and died there in 2009. He was educated at the Beckford and Smith High School (now St Jago High) and later at Rose Bruford College in Kent, UK. He is considered by many to be Jamaica’s greatest playwright. He founded ‘Theatre 77’, which performed at Kingston’s Barn theatre, and contributed to the rise of drama in Jamaica. His plays include Smile Orange, School’s Out, Two Can Play, and Old Story Time.

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Her action makes possible the funniest scene in the play, where Len, in an effort to protect Lois from the obeah, goes to Mother Rachael for advice, and returns home to carry out her instructions for keeping harm away from his wife. The scene with Len sprinkling oil of deliverance around and putting underwear on his head lifts the mood momentarily, before we plunge down again into the distressing details of George’s shameful treatment of his schoolmate.

DID YOU KNOW?

ACTIVITY

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4 List the props you would need for the scene where Len comes back from seeing Mother Rachael. Consider the following:

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• Do you think this scene is funny? How is that comic effect achieved? • Why do you think Rhone chose to use comedy in this scene? • How does the comic tone affect the message?

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The two plots come together at the end of the play. When Mama learns of George’s treatment of Len during their schooldays, she finally understands that she has been fooled by him, and has completely misjudged Lois. Suspense now mounts because the obeah, wrongly set in motion, will come back to bring harm to Mama herself. Leaving George to wonder how he will face the Director of Public Prosecutions, Len, Lois and Pa Ben form a circle around Mama, forgiving her in love and praying for her deliverance. As Mama’s frenzy gives way to calm, we suspect that all will be well. ACTIVITY

EXAM TIP

You may find it helpful to create visual diagrams of plays and novels that you are studying – especia lly for revision purposes. Fo r example you could mak ea timeline of both the mai n plot and the subplot, an d show where they interse ct and then come together at the end of the play. Or you can create diagram s showing the relationsh ips among characters. Som e plays and novels can be reduced to spider charts. Be creative and see what you can come up with!

5 Consider what you know of obeah. Do you believe in it? 6 What is your opinion of people who practise obeah? 7 Do you know of anyone who has directly experienced the effects of obeah? 8 What significance does obeah have in your community?

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1.5

Understanding the play

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Comparing the beginning and the end

In this section you will:

One way to discover the themes and message of a play is to compare the beginning and the end. The early scenes establish the crucial fact of Miss Aggy’s racial prejudice and her ambitions for Len to marry fair-skinned Miss Margaret. Pa Ben also reveals Len’s secret relationship with Lois, a dark-skinned girl. Mama suspects obeah when Len fails to write to her, but when she learns of Len’s marriage to Lois, she becomes convinced that obeah is at work and that Lois is the culprit.

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• learn how to detect the themes of a play • consider the use of a narrator in a play.

The end of the play reveals that fair-skinned George, whom Mama idolised, is a barefaced crook: he cruelly humiliated Len, blackmailed Lois and forced her into sexual relations with him, and lost all Mama’s savings in his housing scam. Lois, on the other hand, is shown to be loyal, caring, strong and forgiving. An important theme in the play is prejudice based on skin colour, and one key message is that personal integrity, not skin colour, is the measure of a person. The circle formed at the end of the play (in contrast to the hostilities and conflicts that we saw earlier) provides a visual statement to the effect that family togetherness, love and forgiveness are to be treasured (particularly in an oppressed community), since these strong ties can withstand any opposition.

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1 To what extent do you consider Mama’s behaviour and attitudes representative of the themes in the play? Provide examples of these.

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ACTIVITY

Conflict

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Another way to arrive at the main themes and overall message is to identify the major points of conflict. Len and Mama are at odds because of Len’s choice of girlfriend. Lois and Mama are at odds because Lois is black. Pa Ben and Mama disagree strongly over Mama’s rejection of Lois due to her skin colour. George and Len are pitted against each other because George has systematically fooled and exploited Mama, and Len wants to expose him and let Mama see what a crook he is. All of these conflicts are related to Mama’s blind prejudice – her thinking that ‘anything black nuh good’. As soon as Mama’s eyes are opened to the true situation, her prejudice falls away, and harmony with Lois, Len and Pa Ben is made possible. ACTIVITY 2 At what point in the play do we observe a change in Mama’s approach? 3 Explain what brought about that change. 4 How is this change evident in her actions, movements and words?

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Conflict also is present between George and Lois. George robs Mama of her money, but he robs Lois by using her body. We can see in George’s dealings with Mama and Lois a metaphor for the ‘rape’ of Caribbean people that occurred during colonial times. When Len is able to expose George’s wrong-doings, the conflict is resolved, with George being brought to justice. Len’s frank exposé of George’s disdain for Mama and Lois, and the freedom he brings them by showing them the truth, is a metaphor for the consciousness-raising that frees colonised people from the ‘mental slavery’ that can keep them bound. ACTIVITY

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5 Make a spider diagram illustrating the various conflicts evident in Old Story Time. 6 Attempt to write down the sequence of events in the play in chronological order. Make a diagram showing the timeline as it occurs in the play, along with the flashbacks.

7 What is achieved by the way Pa Ben disrupts this timeline with flashbacks?

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The narrator

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The message is clear: the coloniser cunningly worked on the minds of colonised people, trying to make them despise themselves; freedom from this brainwashing is the true ‘oil of deliverance’.

A very important dramatic device to consider in this play is the use of Pa Ben as narrator.

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Through his dialogue Pa Ben supplies the storyline, dipping back into the past by the use of flashbacks whenever he chooses to give his audience a little more information.

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His withholding and timely delivery of information make for suspense. For instance, it is quite late in the play that we learn of the Cassava Nova episode and of George’s earlier sexual advances on Lois and his blackmailing of her. The flashback technique creates suspense, leaving us wondering how everything will turn out. Since the flashbacks give us information that we lacked earlier, our experience is similar to Mama’s: our eyes are opened as new facts come to light. By having Pa Ben – one of the villagers, and a friend of Mama – tell the story, Rhone suggests that healing will come to people like Mama once she has a new perspective of herself and her society – a perspective quite different from the one that the coloniser gave her. Just as West Indian history as told by the coloniser has had to be rewritten from a Caribbean-centred point of view, so too Len’s personal story has to be retold. And who better to assist with the retelling than wise, gracious Pa Ben?

ACTIVITY

8 Find examples of Pa Ben disagreeing: a with Mama b with Len. What is significant about Pa Ben’s point of view being heard at those moments?

DID YOU KNOW? We usually think of narration as a device of the novelist, but some playwrights choose to use a narrator to lead the audience through the events of the play. This is often done by means of soliloquy through which a character openly speaks to the audience. This technique helps the audience better understand the motivation of the character and to empathise with them.

ACTIVITY 9 Identify places in the play where suspense is created. What information had been withheld that made the suspense possible?

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Dramatic devices 1

LEARNING OUTCOMES In this section you will: • discover how contrasts among characters suggest the issues and themes of the play • think about the way objects or concepts can acquire symbolic force in a play.

Contrasting characters An important dramatic device is the use of contrast. Why does Rhone introduce Pearl into the play, for instance? Pearl, Len’s childhood girlfriend, is old before her time, dragged down with one pregnancy after another. Uneducated and impoverished, she dies young, leaving her children orphans. Her sad yet familiar life story stands in sharp contrast to that of Lois – the educated black woman who manages to escape the trap of poverty.

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Using contast to explore themes George and Len

Both were educated at the same school, but whereas George uses his education and social standing to exploit the community, Len uses his learning to expose the oppressor and to lift up the oppressed.

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Be prepared for exam questions that ask you to compare and contra st two characters, showin g how their behaviour an d attitudes are related to the play’s themes.

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EXAM TIP

Lois and Margaret One represents Len’s choice and the other Mama’s choice. They make a contrasting pair: Margaret, with all the social privilege she has because of her complexion and connections, lacks integrity, and is concerned only with going up the social ladder and keeping people like Len down; whereas Lois loyally stands by Len, and struggles selflessly to look after her siblings and to help Len succeed.

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Pa Ben and Miss Aggy Pa Ben’s attitude frequently stands in contrast to that of Miss Aggy. He disapproves of the frequent beatings Mama deals out to Len, her talk of obeah and her adulation of white folk. He knows of Len’s love for Lois, but never lets on to Mama. Whereas Mama insists that Lois is working obeah on Len, Pa Ben understands that evil is something that originates inside us, and he tells Len, ‘You is the one who need protection, from yourself’. His level-headed, big-hearted approach to people and life contrasts with the somewhat mean, suspicious and superstitious style of Miss Aggy.

ACTIVITY

1 What opinion does each the following appear to have of obeah? • Mama • Len • Pa Ben • Trevor Rhone.

Miss Aggy and Lois There is a sharp contrast between these women of two different generations. While Miss Aggy’s generation was inclined to look up with respect to the fair-skinned members of society, Lois’s generation has learnt that a strong sense of community is what is needed, so that the rape and robbery, the exploitation and mental slavery that characterised colonialism, can be exposed and stopped.

Obeah as a symbol Caribbean people respond in different ways when the subject of obeah is mentioned. Even in this play, different opinions are expressed on this subject.

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For some people, obeah is mere superstition, for others it is dangerous and evil, and for others it is a very real way of connecting with unseen spiritual powers around us to protect us from evil or to bring punishment where it is deserved. ACTIVITY

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2 Ask yourself these questions: • Does Rhone seem to suggest that Mama is doing right to use obeah against Lois? • What objections does Pa Ben raise when Len asks him to recommend someone who can counteract the power that Mama has let loose? • Does resorting to obeah solve problems or create problems in the play? • Does obeah help in bringing about punishment for George, a spirit of forgiveness in Lois, humility in Mama, and harmony in the family? • How are the problems of the family ultimately resolved?

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Your answers to these questions will guide you to see how obeah is dealt with in the play.

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You may find it helpful to think of obeah as a symbol – especially since there is so much talk in the play of deliverance from evil, and because the play ends with prayers for such deliverance. What is the evil that has caused all the friction in the family? Is it obeah? Is it Lois who has brought ‘evil’ into the family life of Mama and Len? Or is George the culprit? And where did Mama get the belief that ‘anything black nuh good’? Pa Ben points out the irony in Mama’s philosophy when he says to her, ‘The boy daddy was a black man. Is obeah you did obeah him?’ and later, ‘What’s so wrong if the boy just want to marry somebody who look like him own mother, eh?’ Is it perhaps the coloniser who has put a spell on her, as it were, a spell from which she needs to be delivered? Maybe Len is right: some ‘oil of deliverance’ is needed – but not the kind supplied by Mother Rachael. ACTIVITY

3 Consider the following: • What are the views of Mama and Pa Ben with regard to the relationship between Len and Lois? • Compare the reaction of Mama and then of Pa Ben towards George. • What impact has Mama’s prejudice had on Len throughout his life? • In the light of your responses, say whether Mama or Pa Ben is more enlightened. • Bob Marley sings, ‘Emancipate yourself from mental slavery.’ What would that mean in Mama’s case?

EXAM TIP

To help with your revisi on, create a diagram with two timelines. One should show the chief events in the main plot, and the other the main events in the subplot. Show th e points at which the two lines intersect. Then create a second diagram, this time a spider diagram showin g the relationships (both positive and hostile) among the characters.

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Dramatic devices 2

In this section you will: • consider the use of irony • learn about effectiveness of costumes and scenery in communicating the message • understand the power of spectacle and action to delight and impress • discover the importance of props in revealing character and suggesting themes.

DID YOU KNOW?

There are many examples of irony in this play such as: • Mama trusts George McFarlane implicitly, yet he is exploiting her to the hilt. • Mama rejects Lois, yet Lois has consistently shown love for Len. • Mama wants Margaret for Len, yet Margaret was involved in humiliating him. • Mama asks Len to help solve George’s financial problems, yet George has treated Len shamefully. • Mama believes that without the charity of George’s father-in-law, Len would have been nowhere, but it is not Reverend Greaves, but Lois’s father, who helped Len. • Mama apologises to George that Len refuses to help him, when George should be apologising to both of them. • Mama is disappointed that Len is trained in economics and not medicine, yet it is his training in that field that eventually allows him to expose George’s activities, and to bring ‘healing’ to his own family. As you can see from this list, it is Mama’s actions and beliefs that make most of the irony possible.

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In the early days of drama in Europe, Morality plays were popular, and characters were personifications of virtues and vices: Pride, Lust, Humility, Patience, etc. The vices would try to tempt the main protagonist, Everyman, to do wrong, while the virtues would try to inspire him to good behaviour. The tradition of giving characters a name that indicates their personality has endured. For instance, Henry Fielding depicts a good man called Allworthy and a schoolteacher called Thwackum, and Charles Dickens named his schoolteacher M’Choakumchild, and the sweet, loving heiress, Esther Summerson.

Irony

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More light-hearted irony surrounds the obeah scenes. It is sweetly ironic when Len, on the telephone to Mother Rachael, explains that, no, he is not the politician who came to visit her. It is ironic that after Len has made such a fool of himself with the disguise, the underwear on his head and his antics with the oil of deliverance, we learn that Mother Rachael was a fraud anyway!

KEY POINTS Props do more than create a realistic effect; they are very much a part of the action and character revelation.

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ACTIVITY 1 a What do you think is the significance of Pearl’s name? b Is there any irony in her having that name? 2 In what ways can Pearl be contrasted with Lois? In what ways can she be contrasted with Miss Margaret? Are these contrasts significant? 3 Novelists and playwrights often use names for their characters that tell you something about the character. Can you think of another play or novel where this device has been used?

Costumes and scenery The chief effect of costumes in this play is to create a visual contrast. The worn, shabby clothing of Mama, Pearl and Pa Ben contrasts

sharply with the smart, expensive clothing worn by McFarlane and Lois in the bank, and by Lois and Len now that they have both ‘made it’ in society. Similarly, the simple, rustic furniture of Mama’s home in the same yard as Pa Ben quickly becomes the furniture of Len’s city home when the cast follow the stage directions and ‘Change the house round’. The technique is interesting because the illusion of reality is broken completely: we see the stage being reset, and even listen to the chanting as the actors describe what is taking place. But although Rhone is inviting us to watch the strings on the puppets, as it were, the events in Pa Ben’s story still strike us as being very real indeed.

DID YOU KNOW? Every year, in rural Indian communities in Trinidad and Guyana, children re-enact episodes from the Ramayana. The performance is a delightful spectacle, with splendid costumes. The event is known as Ram Leela.

Spectacle and action

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When we read a novel we have to imagine the things that are described, but in a play they are put on stage before our eyes. This is what we call the spectacle. The entire play, of course, offers spectacle, but some scenes stand out for the energy of the action and the delight to be found in what we see. When Len returns from Mother Rachael, we are greatly amused by the spectacle of him in his ridiculous clothing, his antics with the candlesticks, the bush and the flowers, and the final touch of those red underwear on his head. His dancing and dodging around Lois bring the comedy to the uproarious level of slapstick.

ACTIVITY

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The flashbacks, too, are opportunities for spectacle – the miming of the rich kids going to school in style, the Easter play with Len playing the donkey, and so on. Then there is the scene in which George makes advances on Lois in the bank, and the beautiful tableau at the end of the play when Mama is being prayed for by Pa Ben, Len and Lois.

DID YOU KNOW? In Jamaica, pantomime is still very much alive. Costume and posturing are very important, along with audience involvement. Elaborate costumes, music and dancing make pantomime a crowddrawing spectacle.

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4 Have you experienced a performance or event when you thought that the action of the performance created a spectacle? Think about events like Nativity plays, Mashramani, Crop-over, Carnival, and so on.

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How was the spectacle achieved, and what was the purpose of the performance? Were music, dance and mime part of the performance?

Props

When Mama tears up the wedding photo, removing the picture of Lois, we see an aspect of her character and an example of her prejudice. When Len gives her the new dress, she eagerly holds it against herself, but then tosses it aside on learning that it was Lois who selected it. In the scene where Len sprinkles the oil of deliverance around his home, both his costume and the props he uses – the flowers, candles, bottles and underwear – help to produce a comical, almost farcical effect. And when the estate agent politely turns the plans the right way up for George’s benefit, we know that he simply has no knowledge of his business at all!

ACTIVITY 5 Make a list of the items of stage furniture that Rhone puts in the stage directions for his play. Note down the different uses to which he puts each item. Do you find he has been economical?

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Dramatic devices 3

LEARNING OUTCOMES In this section you will: • consider examples of the use of sound and lighting effects • see how characters are given the type of language appropriate to their social status • discover that the dramatist raises issues, but sometimes leaves the audience to resolve them.

Sound and lighting Spectacle and action are inseparable from sound and lighting. In the ‘Cassava Nova’ flashback, the audience hears a terrified shriek and then a spotlight picks out Len, staggering through the auditorium – his pants down and a bag over his head. The use of lighting and sound here are most effective in suggesting Len’s terror, his isolation and his shame. In stage terms we say that Rhone has broken down the ‘fourth wall’ in having one of the actors in the auditorium instead of on the stage. By removing the imaginary barrier that usually separates audience and actors, Rhone makes the audience see Len as one of themselves, rather than as someone apart from them. His humiliation and suffering become the humiliation and suffering of the entire community. ACTIVITY

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• What does it tell the audience? • What did it suggest to you? • How was that then confirmed to you once you had seen a performance or read the play?

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Actors refer to the front of the stage as the ‘fourth wall’ because they usually act as if there is a wall there – ignoring the audience.

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1 Do you think Old Story Time is a good title for the play? DID YOU KNOW?

In some plays, though, the characters speak directly to the audience (as Pa Ben does), and sometimes characters from the play actually perform their role in the auditorium (for example Len).

Sound and lighting is used cleverly in the final tableau, too. The stage directions indicate that, as her frenzy subsides, Mama sings ‘in the gentlest voice’, and the loving group is ‘bathed with a warm rich light’.

This technique of breaking down the fourth wall draws the audience in to the performance, so they feel that what is happening on the stage is part of their world.

Language

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Notice, too, that Rhone uses the lights to indicate that the action is shifting from the present to a flashback. The strategy of having the characters ‘freeze’ achieves the same effect.

Rhone gives his characters a style of English that reflects their social status and educational background. Miss Aggie, Pa Ben and Pearl speak a vibrant Jamaican Creole, while George, Len and Lois speak Caribbean Standard English. The contrast between the two social levels is shown in their language as it is in their costumes. Examples of Caribbean Standard English

ACTIVITY 2 Think of places in Old Story Time where either sound or lighting is used effectively. What impact do they have on us?

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Len: ‘I appreciate your position. If you don’t get refinanced, chances are the bank will put this place up for auction and where would that leave you?’ George: ‘Place is completely changed. Packed now with a bunch o’riff-raff, scholarship-winners. Sacred walls, man, desecrated. I was there on Sports Day. My boy won the hundreds.’ Len: ‘Chip off the old block, eh?’

Examples of Jamaican Creole

DID YOU KNOW?

Pa Ben: ‘Buy penny oil, hapenny salt, an’ quattie bread for me. See the money here.’ Miss Aggie: ‘It hurts mi soul case to tell lie, but what else me can do? Me nuh want them to spread it around the district say him dash me ’way. Me just have to keep up the pretence.’

ACTIVITY 3 People in the Caribbean tend to use different levels of language for different situations: linguists call it ‘operating on a language continuum’.

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Find more examples in the play of different levels of language being used, and suggest whether the language level is appropriate for the character and the situation.

Drama as debate

The hapenny that Pa Ben will spend on the salt is a halfpenny. So with the penny for the oil, the halfpenny for the salt and the quattie (penny and a half) for the bread, Pa Ben plans to spend three pence – not very much money at all!

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When do you use more formal English, and when do you use your broadest Creole?

In colonial times, Jamaican money was based on English pounds and pence. A quattie was the popular name for a small silver coin worth just a quarter of a sixpenny piece – so approximately a penny and a halfpenny.

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In the play, a playwright can present diverging opinions on the theme he or she is exploring. The conflicts among the characters are usually dramatisations of the incompatibility between their different attitudes and values. These, of course, will provoke discussion. After seeing a performance of Old Story Time, the audience will certainly have a few things to discuss.

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ACTIVITY

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4 Give your opinion on each of these conversation points, and see if you can add to the list. • Do you know of people who thought or still think like Mama? • Is there evidence of self-hatred in Mama’s dialogue and actions? • What mindset does Pa Ben have and how does this differ from Mama’s? • Do you think Mama is a good mother? • What is the purpose of having Pearl in the play? • Is Rhone fair to present all his fair-skinned characters as villains? Is he saying, ‘anything white nah good’? • Is it reasonable to compare the effects of colonisation to a kind of obeah, influencing the minds of colonised people?

• Do you think there are people like George and Len in Caribbean society today? • Len lifts a chair to strike his mother. What do you think this behaviour says about him? • Can Lois be excused for stealing money? Is Rhone condoning her behaviour? • What is achieved by having Pa Ben speak directly to the audience in the auditorium? • At what point do we observe a change in Mama’s approach, and what do you think triggered that change? • What is achieved by having the cast become an audience on stage? • Len’s courage and his determined efforts to bring the truth to light make possible the happy ending. What is the message here?

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A Midsummer Night’s Dream – introduction

In this section you will: • be introduced to Shakespeare’s work • think about the similarities between comedy and tragedy • examine the plots in the play.

DID YOU KNOW?

The shape of comedy and tragedy You may think of comedy and tragedy as being total opposites, but in fact they are surprisingly similar in structure. Both present a society in which something has gone wrong. Both trace the downward spiral of events that occurs because of this initial flaw. Tragedy threatens because of the foolishness or wickedness that sets the downward spiral in motion. The big difference is that in comedy, the light dawns soon enough for someone to put the brakes on and turn things around so that disaster is averted; in tragedy, though, the light dawns too late for anything to be done, and the action descends into utter disaster, while those involved can only look on and wring their hands in despair.

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William Shakespeare (1564– 1616) is almost certainly the most famous of British playwrights, and although he lived 400 years ago, his plays still draw enthusiastic audiences. His 37 plays include tragedies, history plays, comedies and tragicomedies, and romances. You will probably also have come across some of the many sonnets (154 of them!) for which he is also famous.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s well-known comedies. It was written some time between 1594 and 1596. Like all of Shakespeare’s comedies, its central theme is love and love’s complications.

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Intertwining plots

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Shakespeare intertwines no fewer than four plots in A Midsummer Night’s Dream:

ACTIVITY

• the courtship of Theseus and Hippolyta • the courtship problems among the four Athenian lovers: Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia and Helena • the solving of a problem that has arisen between Oberon and Titania – King and Queen of the Fairies • the staging by some amateur actors of the play Pyramus and Thisbe as entertainment for the wedding.

1 Think about the two settings: Athens and the forest. Make a larger copy of the following table. Athens

The forest

Add to your table a description of the scenes that take place in Athens, and those that take place in the forest then answer the following questions:

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• What differences do you detect between the kingdom of Theseus and Hippolyta and the kingdom of Oberon and Titania? • Describe the devices the writer has employed to shape your reaction to these scenes. • Does the opposition of these settings suggest waking and dreaming? • What else does it suggest?

The frame plot Theseus and Hippolyta are fighters. Hippolyta was Queen of the Amazons, and Theseus has taken her prisoner of war and now plans to marry her. They are dignified and regal. Their plans for their marriage and the actual marriage celebration form the frame around the other plots in this play.

2 What does Shakespeare suggest by using the Theseus–Hippolyta romance to frame the main plot? 3 Compare the Hermia– Lysander relationship with the Helena–Demetrius relationship, and say, which of the two you consider more likely to stand the test of time.

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The main plot In this plot, two men and two women struggle to find the right partner. The four Athenians are aristocratic, but younger and less mature than Theseus and Hippolyta. Their talk is of friendship and rivalry and fighting, and the plot is about finding the right partner. We begin with both men in love with Hermia, while poor Helena is left out in the cold. Then the boys both fall for Helena, so that Hermia is left out. Eventually the four of them pair off successfully. You will notice that while the two girls are consistently in love with the same boy, the two boys are somewhat more inclined to transfer their affections.

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The fairy subplot Oberon, Titania and their train – including Puck – are fairies, not humans. Oberon is annoyed because Titania is more interested in a little changeling boy she has adopted than she is in her husband, so he plays a trick to show her how blind and silly she is being. He makes her fall in love with an ass – and when she comes to herself, she sees that she was being foolish, so order and harmony are restored. But to play this trick, Oberon needs to borrow one individual from the other subplot.

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ACTIVITY

4 Imagine you are the director. Can you think of ways to make the fairies appear different from the mortals in the cast? Could the choice of actors such as children create that effect? How might they move around?

KEY POINTS

The central theme of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is love and love’s complications. In both comedy and tragedy, disaster looms because of some human flaw(s). In comedy, people see the light and come to their senses in time to change the course of events. In tragedy, people see the light too late to avert the disastrous consequences.

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5 What kind of music, lighting, scenery and props might also add to the impression of fairyland?

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The comic subplot This plot involving the ‘mechanicals’ unfolds in the forest. Quince and his men rehearse the play they intend to stage for the upcoming wedding. Poor Bottom is magically spirited away from the rehearsal by Puck, and is transformed into the ass that Titania falls in love with. Happily he is restored to his normal self, and his experience lingers only as a wonderful dream might. On the big day, the play goes off well, and the couples are splendidly entertained before they go off to bed.

Titania and Bottom in the woods

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The main plot

In this section you will: • learn the names of the different phases in the development of a play • consider the relevance of setting.

KEY POINTS The main stages in a play are as follows: Exposition – Development – Crisis – Climax – Resolution

In any play we can expect to find these stages: • The exposition occurs in the opening scenes, letting the audience see the disorder and Expo Ex p siiti tion ion n confusion caused because of a human flaw in Deve De vellopm lopm p en ent nt one or more of the characters. • The development traces how this disorder and Crris C isiss isis confusion get worse until it reaches a head. • The crisis will result from some human flaw or Clim Cl imax imax x blind spot. • The climax occurs when matters have reached Reso Re sollu luti luti tio on o n their most problematic stage. • The resolution will come about in comedy when the flaw is corrected, or, in tragedy, when the flaw leads to disaster. In this play we begin with a hostile, quarrelsome, threatening atmosphere, with six unmarried individuals and talk of the need for submission and obedience. The play ends with harmony and three married couples. So it appears that the flaw relates to man/woman relationships. Resolution of the conflict occurs when each finds a marriage partner and agrees on who will be the dominant partner – in effect, who will ‘wear the pants’ in that relationship.

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See if you can trace these stages in our discussion of the play.

The stages in a play

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Exposition In Act 1 Scene 1 we see many things that are wrong in Athens society and that these issues are threatening the happiness of all: • Duke Theseus is impatient to marry Hippolyta. • Demetrius used to love Helena, but is now infatuated with Hermia, Helena’s friend. • Hermia does not want Demetrius because she loves Lysander, who loves her in return. • Hermia’s father, Egeus, insists that Hermia must marry Demetrius, not Lysander. • Egeus threatens Hermia with death if she remains stubborn. • Egeus brings the matter before Duke Theseus, who decides that Hermia must obey her father, or else become a nun. • Hermia may not marry the man she loves, but faces punishment if she refuses to marry Demetrius. • Poor Helena remains in love with Demetrius, but her love is not returned.

ACTIVITY 1 This play is all about individuals learning to ‘see’ clearly. See how many references you can find in the play to eyes and seeing.

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The situation at the start of the play looks bad enough, but things are going to get worse. Development As a result of the above, the following events unfold: • Hermia and Lysander decide to elope. • Helena tells Demetrius about the elopement, and they both set off after the other pair.

• In the forest where they hide, fairies are at work. Puck has instructions from Oberon, the King of the Fairies, to drop a magic potion into Demetrius’s eyes so that he will fall in love with Helena again. Trouble arises when Puck puts the drops in Lysander’s eyes instead, making Lysander fall in love with Helena and reject Hermia. • Back in Athens, both the men who were in love with Hermia are now in love with Helena. • While this is tragic for Hermia, Helena is also miserable because she believes the men are just pretending and cruelly teasing her.

Plot development in the play: Helena

Hermia

Demetrius

Lysander

= Both men love Hermia

Crisis Before long, this is the situation: • Helena and Hermia, who were once bosom friends, are now set up to become enemies. • Hermia is dismayed that her dear Lysander is saying hateful things to her. • Helena is dismayed that all three of the others seem to be making a cruel joke at her expense.

After Puck’s mischief:

Climax Tension rises and the outcome manifests itself in two challenging events: • The two women progress to scratching and slapping each other while trading insults. • Lysander and Demetrius, rivals for Helena, draw swords to fight it out.

At the end of the play:

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Helena

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Resolution After leading the two on a wild goose chase for a while, Puck finally gets his instructions right. He causes the men to fall asleep, drops the magic potion into Demetrius’s eyes, and gives Lysander the antidote to the magic drops that had made him forsake his Hermia. Both men wake up in love with the right woman. Demetrius loves Helena and is loved in return; Lysander loves Hermia and is loved in return.

Demetrius

Hermia

Lysander

= Both men love Helena

Helena

Hermia

Demetrius

Lysander

= The couples are paired correctly Outcome: Order is finally achieved when each of the female character’s love is reciprocated.

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Now that the men are able to see properly, a happy ending is possible. The older Athenians find the young people in the forest, and settle for three weddings instead of just one. We are invited to the palace, where music and dancing suggest the harmony that now prevails as: • Theseus marries Hippolyta • Lysander marries Hermia • Demetrius marries Helena • the happy couples go off to bed and fairies shower blessings throughout the palace.

Settings The four plots move between two different locations – Theseus’s palace in Athens and a forest beyond the city where Oberon and Titania reign. Events in the palace occur mainly in the daytime and focus on the actions and conflicts of mortals, while events in the forest occur mainly during the hours of darkness, and here, while mortals sleep and dream, the fairies go about their business.

ACTIVITY 2 Think of how the play reflects a rite of passage. The lovers move from Athens into the forest, go through a learning process and then return to Athens. How have they been changed by that time in the forest? 3 Does the power of the forest suggest anything about the importance of dreams?

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The fairy subplot

In this section you will: • learn how the main plot and subplot are interconnected • consider how the actions of characters in the subplot are used to reflect the conflicts experienced in the main plot.

ACTIVITY

Oberon’s way of dealing with his wayward wife is to use the magic eye potion brought by Puck. He puts them in Titania’s eyes as she sleeps, and then arranges that when she wakes she will fall in love with Bottom, whose head has been transformed, by Puck, into the head of an ass. Titania does indeed fall in love with the monstrous fellow, and when Oberon applies the antidote, she is shocked to see the kind of person she had become infatuated with. She is relieved when he is sent back to his colleagues – with his own head in place! Through the little drama that Oberon staged for her, she is cured. By the end of the play, she willingly hands over the little boy and is sweetly submissive once again to Oberon. Together they move to bring blessing and joy to the three married couples. Tragedy in the fairy world, too, has been averted, and a happy conclusion reached.

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1 Find examples in the play that illustrate the impact the fairies have on the world of the humans.

Disorder in human society has now been dealt with, but there is disorder in the fairy kingdom too. Titania, the Queen of the Fairies, refuses to hand over to Oberon, her husband, a little changeling boy she has adopted and with whom she is quite infatuated. The disorder is evident in that instead of enjoying her husband’s love, she prefers to focus her affection on the little boy. The confusion in the fairy world has repercussions, we are told, in the world of humans.

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Parallels between the two plots

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The important object that the two plots have in common is the magic eye potion. It signifies being cured of a blind spot and being made to see clearly what is true. Demetrius has discovered that he was in love with Helena all along, and that his infatuation with Hermia was just that: infatuation. Titania sees that as Queen of the Fairies, she must have a partner who is her equal, and that is Oberon, King of the Fairies. The little changeling boy is not her social equal – and nor is Bottom. Poor Bottom – even without his ass’s head he is quite clumsy and gauche in the presence of royalty!

DID YOU KNOW?

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The word gauche means ‘awkward’ and is also the French word for ‘left’. In the past, if you happened to be right-handed, the actions of the left-handed may have appeared awkward, or gauche. The Romans also felt that there was something sinister about a left-handed man, as he might shake your hand with his right hand (indicating that he is not holding a weapon), only to pull out a dagger with his left hand. In fact, the Latin word for ‘left’ is sinister.

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ACTIVITY 2 Both Titania and Hermia are in trouble because they are not submissive. Hippolyta is Queen of the Amazons – a tribe of strong, warlike women. • What do you think the play suggests about women being submissive to men? • What is your own opinion on the subject?

Puck’s role The agent who gets the job done is Puck and it is his actions that bring together all four of the plots. He provides the magic potion for

Demetrius and Titania, he transforms Bottom, and at the end of the play, he sweeps the evil out of Theseus’s palace. Love, in other words, seems to be something magical that is orchestrated for us by the fairies. ACTIVITY 5 At what points does the play veer close to tragedy? How is the tragic outcome avoided on each occasion? 6 Create a diagram of the four plotlines, showing how the four are intertwined. For example, Bottom becomes part of the Oberon–Titania plot, and Puck becomes part of the plot with the four Athenians.

ACTIVITY 3 Find examples of Puck’s cynicism and look for other aspects of his character. Are you surprised that he could choreograph the lovers’ unions and yet be so sceptical about love? 4 Why do you think Shakespeare has portrayed him like this?

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7 What does your diagram tell you about the role of Puck and the role of Bottom in the play?

The potion as symbol

Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of the Fairies

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In the play, Puck brings the juice for the magic potion from a flower that he and Oberon know of. The eyedrops are literally instilled into the eyes of Demetrius, Lysander (by mistake) and Titania. But is there a symbolic meaning for the magic drops? Isn’t it the case that, properly applied, the drops help someone who was blind and foolish to ‘see’ clearly, and to change? Titania sees what a fool she was to fall in love with Bottom – and, by extension, to be infatuated with a little changeling. Helena has been consistently true and faithful to Demetrius, so he too has been blind not to see how lucky he is to have her. The potion, then, is perhaps a symbol of seeing truly, of self-knowledge, perception and insight.

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Egeus could do with some of those magic eye-drops to see more clearly, don’t you think? What kind of father is he to wish his daughter dead? When the older generation meet up with the loving couples – still dazed from their experiences – the Duke wisely decides to take matters no further. It seems that he too can see more clearly now and he refuses to let Egeus insist on punishing Hermia. What can we conclude from that? Could we say that sometimes people are magically changed, but sometimes they remain meanspirited and nasty, and society just has to deal with them as best it can? Shakespeare was wise enough to know that some individuals refuse to see their faults and change their ways. ACTIVITY 8 Find evidence from Helena’s speech and behaviour that she is a worthy wife for Demetrius. Say whether you think Demetrius deserves her.

EXAM TIP

To help with revision, create two diagrams: on e to show the inter weavin g of the four plot-lines, and the other to show th e conflicts between pairs of characters.

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The comic subplot

In this section you will:

• the conflict is caused by someone’s foolish blindness • the blindness is cured by Puck’s trickery and magic. As the Athenians reflect on the events of the night – the fighting and sadness, the quarrelling and unkind words – it all seems like a bad dream. What is true is the wonderful love they have found.

The comic role of the subplot

We now need to look at the plot involving Quince and his band of amateur actors – the ‘mechanicals’, as the play calls them. What are the functions of this plot? • One of the first functions is that of supplying poor Bottom as the ass in Oberon’s little comedy. Puck draws Bottom away from the other actors while they are rehearsing and transforms his head into an ass’s head, causing his friends to run away in fear. Bottom puts on a brave face, and shortly afterwards has the experience of his life: he finds himself being courted by Titania, Queen of the Fairies. • Scenes featuring the mechanicals also provide immense scope for comedy, since Bottom and his friends are uneducated, and make many silly comments as they discuss their play. Bottom’s clumsy behaviour and speech when he is in the presence of royalty is also amusing, as are Titania’s protestations that she finds Bottom so desirable and his voice so musical. The hilarious contrast between the mechanicals and the courtly and aristocratic characters suggests that people should keep to their place in society and not aspire to rise above their ‘station’. • The mechanicals are amusing personalities. For example Bottom is so eager to act that he wants to play all the parts, and does some comic overacting to show how competent he is. Flute is unwilling to play the lady because he has a beard coming, and Snug, the joiner, is so simpleminded that the only part he can play is the lion – who only has to roar. Quince tries to be patient, but is quite challenged by these uneducated but enthusiastic men. Their language, too, is entertaining, with their persistent misuse of difficult words. • The actual staging of the play Pyramus and Thisbe provokes laughter from both the Athenians and the larger audience. Although it is officially a tragedy, the mechanicals manage to draw laughter by their mishandling of the lines, mispronunciation of words, ridiculous costumes and efforts to reassure the audience that no harm has been done. Bottom rising from the dead to explain that he has not really committed suicide is one such example.

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• observe the importance of the subplot involving the mechanicals, and how it relates to the rest of the play • understand the different types of comedy • observe how Shakespeare made sure that each type of person in his audience would find something delightful in the play • discover how Shakespeare sometimes used his plays to discuss the role of drama in society.

We have seen how the plot involving Oberon and Titania develops another angle on the same theme as the plot involving the Athenian lovers. In both plots:

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• Linking the performance by the mechanicals of Pyramus and Thisbe to the main plot provides the entertainment for the nuptials at the end. It also creates an appropriate mood for the finale. • In fact, the performance is a kind of in-joke, where the actors are satirising the various kinds of bad acting and directing that they saw from rival acting companies. Nevertheless, the actors’ questions about realistic portrayals of actions on stage raise serious issues about stage conventions.

ACTIVITY 1 Find examples of Puck’s cynical comments about love. Does his cynicism affect the way we respond to the atmosphere of romance in the play?

ACTIVITY

Comment on the following, for example:

• the bizarre Prologue as delivered by Quince • the clumsiness of the acting • unrealistic costumes and props (Wall and Moonlight, for instance) • attempts to assure the Athenian audience that no real harm has been done • the reaction of the Athenian audience.

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• Bottom’s boastful yet engaging personality • the various personalities of these uneducated men • problems caused by Flute acting as a woman

• the situation of Bottom being courted by Titania • the spectacle of a man with an ass’s head • the reaction of the mechanicals and Bottom’s attempt at being brave • Bottom’s social blunder • Bottom’s slip-ups in language • the discussion of problems of staging the play

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2 Think about all the ways in which the subplot involving the mechanicals is comic.

The relevance of the play, Pyramus and Thisbe

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The play chosen by Quince and company is Pyramus and Thisbe. It is a story of two lovers whose parents forbid their union. They speak to each other through a hole in the wall, but in desperation agree to meet secretly at Ninus’s tomb. Thisbe arrives first, but is frightened away by a lion. She is unhurt, but drops her mantle, and the lion soils it with its bloody mouth. Pyramus arrives, sees Thisbe’s bloodstained mantle and assumes the worst. He draws his sword and kills himself. When Thisbe returns and sees his body, she takes his dagger and commits suicide herself.

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Why would Shakespeare choose this particular play for Bottom and company to perform? You will notice that the play’s plot mirrors the situation in which Lysander and Hermia The mechanicals performing Pyramus and Thisbe found themselves when Egeus forbade their marriage. Unlike Pyramus and Thisbe, though, Lysander and Hermia have managed to avoid tragedy. ACTIVITY 3 List the problems the mechanicals feel they need to overcome in order to please the audience as they present their play. 4 When and why do you find yourself laughing at the mechanicals? 5 Are any of the problems they deal with the kinds of problem that you might encounter if you were to stage A Midsummer Night’s Dream in your school?

DID YOU KNOW? The story of Pyramus and Thisbe is taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. It is the same story that Shakespeare reworked for his Romeo and Juliet.

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Conflict and themes

LEARNING OUTCOMES In this section you will:

Conflict exists between: • Hermia and her father, over her choice of husband • the eloping lovers and Theseus/Egeus, because the lovers are flouting their elders’ authority • the two women (Helena and Hermia) who had formerly been close friends • the two young men (Lysander and Demetrius) who erroneously think they are rivals • Hermia and Demetrius, because she thinks he has harmed Lysander and does not appreciate his advances • Helena and both men, because she thinks they are having a joke at her expense • Titania and Oberon, because Titania refuses to hand over the changeling boy.

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• observe how conflict is crucial in drama • consider how to discover the themes and message of a play by tracing the points of conflict • understand that a play can have several interconnected themes • recognise that contrast is an effective dramatic device.

Conflict

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All these conflicts are resolved by the end of the play, and a common thread is that of ‘seeing truly’. As soon as the magic eye potion is applied to Demetrius and Titania, a chain reaction is set in motion, and all the other conflicts are sorted out. Check for yourself and see if this statement is true.

Themes and message

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The points of conflict will lead us to the themes of the play. Let’s see where an examination of these will take us:

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1 Do you think Hippolyta will find it easy to submit to Theseus? Do you think she should submit?

2 List the props that the mechanicals will need in order to stage Pyramus and Thisbe. 3 List the problems they encounter regarding the staging of this play. 4 What serious points are they discovering about the nature of drama and its function in society?

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• The conflict between Hermia and Egeus raises the question of what a father’s love should be like, and whether he should choose his daughter’s partner for her. • The conflict between Titania and Oberon raises the issue of wifely submission to her husband. The play seems to suggest that it is good that Titania submits eventually, but modern readers might not approve of Oberon’s domineering style. How easy do you think it will be for Hippolyta to submit even to Theseus? • Titania is yoked to someone from a lower social class and the effect is ridiculous. The play makes us laugh at the idea of a queen marrying so common a man as Bottom. Social class is another theme being discussed here. • When the Athenian lovers resolve their conflicts and pair off into loving couples ready for marriage, they have moved from disorder to order. Do you think Shakespeare was advocating marriage in this outcome? • There is some minor conflict among the mechanicals over the staging of Pyramus and Thisbe. They discuss the suitability of the play and the effect it may have on the audience. Their debate raises another theme that is close to Shakespeare’s heart: the function of drama in society.

To sum up, then, the themes of the play revolve around these ideas:

Themes of the play G

love in its different expressions

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wifely submission in marital relationships

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social class

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the value of drama in society

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the value of marriage in promoting social order

DID YOU KNOW? Shakespeare believed that a play holds a mirror up to society so that society can see itself and correct its defects. He felt that a play could show people ideals to which they could aspire, lifting them – through the experience of sitting in the theatre – from their mundane world to a magical world of possibility.

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Contrasts that reveal the play’s message We have seen the contrasting settings and the contrasts between aristocrats and artisans – their language, their manners, their learning. Meaning is often produced by the contrasts built into a work. There are several oppositions in this play: forest/city, night/ day, dream/reality, sight/blindness, love/hate, harmony/conflict, fairy/ human, aristocrat/artisan.

5 Take any of the play’s themes that are listed here and note what the play says on that subject.

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Think about these pairs and suggest the significance of each one in the play.

ACTIVITY

Lighting

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Lighting effects were limited in Shakespeare’s time, but of course they are available for productions nowadays. To help his audience imagine whether the place is light or dark, Shakespeare had the characters mention the time of day. When Puck says, ‘The King doth keep his revels here tonight’, we know that it is still day; when Oberon greets Titania with the words, ‘Ill met by moonlight’, we know that the moon is shining. Glance through the script and you will find repeated references to things we associate with the night – the owl, the moon, sleep, darkness, stars, ghosts – and also references to things we associate with day – the cock crowing, the song of the lark, waking up, the sun rising in the East and shining gold on the sea. Constantly the language of the play connects us with the time of day.

ACTIVITY 6 Consider Bottom’s speech upon waking from his dream. Do you find him foolish? Or do you empathise with him for having dreams of advancement? Hermia dreaming about being with Lysander

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Dramatic devices

In this section you will: • observe how costumes and scenery contribute to the overall impact of the play • think about the importance of music and other sound effects in creating mood • note that physical action can be crucial in a dramatic performance • understand the purpose of irony in drama.

ACTIVITY

The three different groups of characters allow for costumes that provide a delightful spectacle. The Athenians will possibly be dressed in dignified robes, the artisans in humble workclothes and the fairies in whatever flimsy garments the director chooses. A clear distinction can be made between aristocrats and artisans, while the supernatural presence in the play can also be emphasised by means of the costumes. And of course we must not forget the ass’s head that Bottom wears: that surely is the most memorable spectacle in the entire play! The scenery could create a contrast between the palace in Athens and the forest where the fairies live. These two locations also represent day and night, waking and dreaming – so a great deal of scope is available for stage setting. Athens could perhaps be dignified, with grand and even oppressive architecture; the forest could be dimly lit to suggest mystery. For the final scene, the palace can be made less oppressive – perhaps by the addition of gorgeous drapes for the walls and beautiful clothing for the couples, to contrast with the starkness of the opening scene. ACTIVITY

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1 Consider the costumes for this play. • Make some sketches of what you think each group of characters would wear. • Make a note of the colours and textures of the fabrics you would use and how they would differ for each group.

Costumes and scenery

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2 Think of a play you are studying. • How would you re-create the scenery, for example of a grand interior and a scene of nature? • What would you do to indicate the time of day? • How might you create an atmosphere of magic and mystery?

DID YOU KNOW?

Modern directors often use unconventional settings – like putting the lovers, Romeo and Juliet, between rival gangs of motorcyclists in urban America. If you were to stage A Midsummer Night’s Dream for a Caribbean audience, how might you represent the Athenian palace and the forest? The palace might be the Principal’s office and the forest might be the beach, for example.

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For Pyramus and Thisbe, costumes will have to be designed to make one man represent a wall, another to represent moonlight, and another to represent a lion. Additional scenery will include a structure to represent Ninus’s tomb.

Sound Sound effects were certainly available to Shakespeare’s theatre company and they would have been used effectively in this play. Sounds can be jarring or harmonious, urging us to fight or soothing us to sleep. Notice how the sounds we hear reinforce the play’s message, and its movement from discord to harmony. There are several songs in the play: songs sung by the fairies, Bottom’s song and Puck’s song. In places the stage directions indicate dancing and music. As day approaches, Puck comments, ‘I do hear the morning lark’. The arrival of Theseus and company in the forest is marked by the sound of hunting horns and the spoken words, ‘Go bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.’ Their noisy activity jars

after the quietness left by the fairies. The play by the mechanicals is announced by a ‘flourish of trumpets’, and the bergomask leads into the music, singing and dancing that close the play. ACTIVITY 3 How does music evoke the feeling of fantasy surrounding the fairies? If there was no music, how could the same feeling be conveyed?

DID YOU KNOW? A bergomask is a rustic dance that farmers or fishermen might perform. The word comes from the place called Bergamo in Italy, whose inhabitants, apparently, were rather clumsy dancers!

Action ACTIVITY

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The novelist has to help his or her reader imagine the action that is going on, but the dramatist can put the action on stage. Actually seeing things happen draws the audience into the different moods of the play: the fear and suspense, the excitement, the humour, and so on. Drama is all about action, and Shakespeare gives us plenty of action in this play.

Irony

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There is dramatic irony in the play, for example in the fact that whereas initially both men loved Hermia, leaving Helena out in the cold, later on both of them love Helena, leaving Hermia out in the cold. Because we know there has been a mistake that will be corrected in due course, we are amused at the irony of Helena trying to fight off the two lovers, whereas previously she had mourned the fact that she was unloved.

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Another example of dramatic irony is found in the interpretation Puck puts on Lysander’s sleeping at a distance from Hermia. She, like a well brought-up young lady, is not going to let Lysander sleep near to her until they are married. However, Puck assumes that because of the distance they are not on friendly terms, and that this must be the young man who needs the magic potion applied to his eyes – and of course the effect is that Lysander now stops loving his Hermia and falls for Helena!

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An example of situational irony occurs when Titania falls in love with Bottom. His voice grates on our ears, yet she hears it as the song of a nightingale; his face is covered with stiff hair, but she speaks of his ‘amiable cheeks’ and his ‘sleek smooth head’; and all her attempts at courtly behaviour are countered by his talk of needing to scratch or having a craving for ass’s food. Her blindness to his ignorance of courtly manners is ironic, as are his attempts to behave like a courtier. Puck’s tone is ironic, too. Although he is busily engaged in bringing about a romantic conclusion to all the problems, he is quite dismissive of the fuss we humans make about falling in love. ‘Jack shall have Jill,’ he sings, ‘Naught shall go ill, The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.’ His mare indeed! And in another place he mutters, ‘Lord, what fools these mortals be!’ Puck’s tone anchors the play, toning down the romance so that it does not become too sentimental.

4 Identify the scenes in this play that allow for spectacular action on the stage. For example, consider physical action involving: • Hermia and Helena • Hermia and Lysander • Helena and Demetrius • Demetrius and Lysander • Puck • Titania and Bottom • the performance of Pyramus and Thisbe • the bergomask. Add to this list, indicating the mood that each action might evoke in the audience. 5 a Identify scenes that are: • stately in pace • moderately paced • bustling and energetic. b Identify scenes that have: • many characters • few characters or only one. c Suggest what is achieved by this change of pace. d What happens to the length of speeches when the action is slow and when it is rapid?

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The language

In this section you will: • observe that varieties of language indicate differences in social status • see how mistakes in language can produce a comic effect • discover that language might be used to affect the mood of the audience.

DID YOU KNOW?

• the Athenians • the artisans • the fairies.

The Athenians These aristocrats use a lofty, elegant style, with classical allusions, balanced structures and a stately pace made possible by the blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter lines). Even during their confusing experiences in the forest, the young lovers never lose the dignified style of their conversation – which of course indicates their social superiority and nobility. Listen to Theseus ordering his servant to organise some entertainment for the wedding: Go Philostrate, Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments; Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth; Turn melancholy forth to funerals – The pale companion is not for our pomp.

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Did you know that the phrase faux pas (pronounced foh-PA) is French for a ‘wrong step’? The equivalent idiom in English is to put your foot in your mouth – which is what poor old Bottom does at every turn!

By examining the different speech styles of the following groups, you can see how careful Shakespeare is in his use of language:

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Act 1 Scene 1 lines 11–15

Often, too, their conversation makes reference to the more hostile side of human life – war, hunting, legal issues, punishment and death.

The artisans

1 Translate some of the interchanges among the mechanicals into your own home language. Did you come across any wrongly used words?

In contrast, our working-class men, the mechanicals, speak not in blank verse but in prose. They are uneducated, and that fact shows in their simple vocabulary, their frequent (and hilarious) misuse of big words and mispronunciation of others. Bottom shows off his knowledge of actors’ jargon. Each speech is short, and the interchange much more rapid than the stately pace of the Athenian nobles. Here is an example:

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Quince: ...In the meantime, I will draw a bill of properties such as our play wants. I pray you, fail me not. Bottom: We will meet, and there we may rehearse most obscenely and courageously. Take pains, be perfect. Adieu! Quince: At the Duke’s oak we meet. Bottom: Enough; hold or cut bow strings. Act 1 Scene 2 lines 94–99

The inelegance of the artisans’ speech is shown at its most comical in the interchange between Titania and Bottom, where she speaks grandly, as a queen should, and he makes one faux pas after another! 30

Language in Pyramus and Thisbe

DID YOU KNOW?

Their play, Pyramus and Thisbe, offers a style that is self-consciously theatrical in parts, yet comically inappropriate in others. Flute begins Thisbe’s lament grandly: Asleep, my love? What, dead, my dove? O Pyramus, arise! Speak, speak! Quite dumb? Dead, dead? A tomb Must cover thy sweet eyes.

The literary device of shifting from the sublime (‘a tomb must cover thy sweet eyes’) to the ridiculous (‘thy cherry nose’) is known as bathos. It usually produces a comic effect.

Act 5 Scene 1 lines 304–309

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So far so good, but when Thisbe goes on to talk of Pyramus’s cherry nose and cowslip cheeks and eyes as green as leeks, the solemnity is shattered.

The fairies

The forest is a world of moonlight and the supernatural. Much of the fairies’ talk is of flowers, tiny animals and insects, and the sweeter things of nature. Listen to Titania:

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I’ll give thee fairies to attend on thee, And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep, And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep; ... Be kind and courteous to this gentleman. Hop in his walks and gambol in his eyes; Feed him with apricocks and dewberries, With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries. The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees, And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs, And light them at the fiery glow-worm’s eyes To have my love to bed and to arise; And pluck the wings from painted butterflies To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes.

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Act 3 Scene 1 lines 127–129, 138–147

But the supernatural is not exclusively about good magic, so Puck (in contrast to Titania) also talks about the dangerous, evil aspects of the world, such as the roaring seas, the lion and wolf, graves opening to let out spirits. His speeches remind us that we are surrounded by both evil and good. Beauty and harmony are possible, but only if order is vigilantly maintained – which explains why Puck wields his broom to sweep out all the evil from the palace.

Verbal humour Bottom tries so hard to use big words, but frequently he misuses them – with comic effect. He promises to aggravate his voice, when he means to ‘moderate’ or ‘mitigate’ his voice, and vows that they will rehearse obscenely and courageously – probably intending to say ‘in a seemly way’ (or maybe ‘scene by scene’) and ‘correctly’.

ACTIVITY 2 What Caribbean traditions involve a broom to sweep out evil? Do you know of any other beliefs of this sort?

DID YOU KNOW? A word that is misused with comic effect is called a malapropism. That term came to us from a character called Mrs Malaprop in Sheridan’s play The Rivals. Those of you who study French may recognise the phrase mal à propos, meaning ‘inappropriate in this context’.

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The significance of the title

LEARNING OUTCOMES In this section you will: • think about the significance of the title of the play • learn about the importance of dreams in our lives • consider the parallel between having a dream and watching a play • discover the role of drama in society (as a kind of community dreamexperience).

In Shakespeare’s time, the summer solstice – the longest day in the year – was marked by festivities, and people believed that fairies were around, working magic. The title invites us to enter a dreamlike, magical world, set in the light-hearted spirit of summertime. This title also draws our attention to Shakespeare’s main themes in the play. First, the setting is midsummer, denoting the season of abundance and the approaching harvest. The young Athenians are in the summertime of their lives, and marriage will bring them into the fruitfulness of happy relationships and children.

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The action occurs predominantly at night – the time for sleeping and dreaming. As Demetrius and Titania sleep and dream, their foolish infatuations disappear (helped along by Puck’s magic potion applied to their eyes), and as they wake, all their wrong thinking seems like a dream to be forgotten.

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1 Which of the characters sleep and dream in the play?

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Even though our dreams are not ‘true’, they often throw light on our waking life, and they leave an emotional effect.

2 What does Hermia dream about?

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3 What might she learn from her nightmare? 4 What does Bottom dream?

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5 What effect do you think that amazing dream might have on him?

KEY POINTS

Shakespeare is telling us that drama is a dreamworld choreographed by the playwright, just as the experiences of the Athenian lovers are choreographed by Oberon, and just as the love story of Theseus and Hippolyta was choreographed by the King and Queen of the Fairies.

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‘Churl upon thy eyes I throw All the power this charm doth owe.’ Act 2 Scene 2 lines 84–85

The play as a dream experience The characters in the play have been dreaming, but so too has the audience. Consider how when we go to watch a play we are transported out of the real world and into a fantasy world, just as when we fall asleep and dream. Shakespeare believed he was creating a dreamworld that would inspire the audience to return to their everyday lives with new ideals and renewed optimism to improve their society.

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the cast is taken into the forest of dreams, and there each of them gains insight into the nature of love, so that when they return to the ‘real’ world, they will live happier lives. Similarly, we in the audience have a ‘dream’ as we sit in the theatre, and we, too, go back to our ‘real’ world with a new vision of what life could be like if we could get rid of our blind spots. The bergomask of clumsy shepherd dances is certainly not as elegant and graceful as the dream-dance of the fairies, but we have to admit that it is better to be dancing than to be talking of killing, as we were at the beginning of the play.

ACTIVITY 6 • Do you believe that dreams have significance? • What are your dreams for your future? Is A Midsummer Night’s Dream a dream in that sense? Does it present us with an ideal world?

Reactions to dreams

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Theseus and Hippolyta, waiting for the evening’s entertainment, discuss the ‘dream’ experience of the lovers that has so magically resolved all their enmity. Theseus is inclined to dismiss the realm of the imagination, and clings to rationality: ‘I never may believe/These antique fables nor these fairy toys.’ Only lovers, poets and madmen see things that are not real! But Hippolyta thinks differently:

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But all the story of the night told over, And all their minds transfigured so together, More witnesseth than fancy’s images, And grows to something of great constancy; But howsoever, strange and admirable.

Act 5 Scene 1 lines 23–27

Although drama offers us a world that is not ‘real’, it can still have a powerful effect on us and can lead us to insights about the ‘real’ world.

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Her point is that even though they are not ‘real’, the dreams have had an effect. And the same can be said for drama: the world it presents is not ‘real’, but it can affect us powerfully. This is Shakespeare’s defence of his craft: the realm of the imagination, of dreams, of poetry and drama has its place in our lives, and while its magic perhaps cannot be explained, it has power to teach and to delight.

KEY POINTS

ACTIVITY

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7 Consider the following outcomes from the play. • Demetrius, that ‘spotted and inconstant man’, put Helena through misery. Does he deserve forgiveness? Does he deserve Helena? • Egeus was actually willing to have his daughter put to death for disobeying him. Has he repented? Has he even been told off for his behaviour? • Hippolyta was captured in war by Theseus, and now he is marrying her. Does that look like a marriage made in heaven? Isn’t Theseus being just as bossy as Egeus? • Is Shakespeare saying, through Titania, Hermia and Hippolyta, that a woman should submit, first to her father and then to her husband? Is that still a commonly held belief in your community? If so, by whom? What is your opinion?

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The Lion and the Jewel – the background

LEARNING OUTCOMES In this section you will:

Soyinka as a post-colonial playwright

Soyinka, a Yoruba, has consistently celebrated his African roots, and his plays are greatly influenced by Yoruba pageantry. While his education and training were in an idiom developed in Europe, Soyinka reshaped drama, infusing it with something essentially Nigerian. Traditionally in Nigeria, any special event, like a birth, a marriage, or the arrival of a visitor, is filled with singing and dancing to the accompaniment of drumming. Pantomime-like re-enactments of amusing or important events are common, and spontaneity is key. These are some of the elements that Soyinka incorporates into his drama.

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• become aware of the mingling of European and African dramatic conventions in Soyinka’s play • identify the specifically African features • recognise that important information is given to the audience through mime and flashbacks.

Wole Soyinka (Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka) was born in Ibadan, western Nigeria, in 1934. He studied at the Government College in Ibadan, and then at the University of Leeds in England, where he gained his doctorate. He lectured at universities in Ibadan, Ife and Lagos, and was visiting professor at Cambridge, Sheffield and Yale. He is considered Africa’s most renowned playwright. His work (which includes some 20 plays and poetry and prose writings) won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986.

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Combining African and European conventions

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In The Lion and the Jewel, the conventional scripted stage play is interrupted at different points by seemingly spontaneous mimed re-enactments of past events. One such flashback occurs as the villagers engage in an impromptu mime (Yoruba-style) of a visit paid to the village by a European photographer. Mummers re-enact the arrival of the surveyor, too, and his departure when Baroka has paid a sizeable bribe. Later, misled by Sadiku, Baroka’s chief wife, they also act out the Bale’s alleged impotence, to the great delight of onlookers. ACTIVITY 1 a Compare the play’s satirical pantomimed re-enactments with traditional Caribbean calypso and its critique of the follies and wrongdoings of those who are prominent in society. b Do you see similarities between the pantomime in Soyinka’s play and the playful dance-mimes at kweh-kweh celebrations.

Wole Soyinka

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African and European dramatic forms

DID YOU KNOW? The actors in a pantomime or masquerade are called mummers. Soyinka makes good use of this traditional Yoruba form of entertainment to provide the flashbacks in this play. ACTIVITY 2 Sidi refuses to marry unless Lakunle pays the bride-price. What does this tell us about her character?

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The play’s themes and message, too, are strikingly African. Sidi, the village belle, is being wooed on the one hand by the schoolmaster, whose clumsy attempts at following European styles make him appear quite ridiculous, and on the other by the elderly Bale of the village, Baroka, who clings tenaciously to Yoruba traditions, resisting every attempt to erode his African culture and his personal power. Neither the pretentious schoolteacher nor the crookish, self-indulgent old Bale (the chief of the village) deserves the lovely Sidi, one might argue, and Sidi herself is in fact rather empty-headed and susceptible to flattery and materialism. Clearly the play represents the cultural choices facing the people of Africa. But the choice is not so simple: there is much to criticise in both the modern European ways and the old traditional culture, and people sometimes make foolish choices for foolish reasons, just like Sidi.

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As you study The Lion and the Jewel, you will be aware of the mingling of European and African dramatic forms. A staged play, complete with scenery, costumes, lighting, and so forth, is a characteristically European convention, but the impromptu mime, the energetic drumming, dancing and singing are distinctly African. The characters and their conflicts represent a crucial conflict of post-colonial Africa – that is, how much to adopt Western culture, and how much to hold on to traditional ways.

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The language and imagery of the play, too, reflect this cultural conflict: the schoolmaster’s ‘pulpit-style’, with its grandiose expressions and biblical quotations, is markedly European in flavour, while the pithy proverbs, the praisenames, references to Sango and Caribbean calypso Ogun, and the songs, are African. Lakunle sounds like a Europeanstyle romantic lover with his nonsense talk about the waters of his soul washing Sidi’s feet, while Sidi responds curtly with the proverb: ‘If the snail finds splinters in his shell, he changes house’. Be aware, then, as you study the play, of the interplay between European influence and Yoruba tradition – in the action, the themes and the language and imagery. And notice how all of these elements work in harmony to present to the audience the choices that Africa faces.

ACTIVITY 3 Sango (Shango) and Ogun are African deities. Do some background research on them.

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The plot

LEARNING OUTCOMES In this section you will: • examine the structure of the play and the use of flashbacks • trace the main plot • notice the main themes and conflicts.

Plot and structure Morning The village beauty, Sidi, is being courted by the schoolteacher, Lakunle, but she rejects his advances because he is such a ridiculous figure, with his dowdy European clothes and manners. Worse still, he objects to paying the traditional bride-price, but for Sidi, any woman who marries without the bride-price is implicitly admitting that she is not a virgin.

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Village girls bring news that a photographer who had earlier taken pictures of Sidi has returned. By all reports, his photographs of Sidi are stunning. Filled with excitement, the villagers begin to re-enact the whole event: his arrival, the breakdown of his car, his spying on Sidi bathing in the river, his falling into the water while he tries to get close-ups. Lakunle is the one selected to play the foreigner.

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At the point in the flashback where the hapless photographer has been apprehended by villagers and taken off to the ruler to be punished, Baroka, the current Bale, appears. Embarrassed, Lakunle tries to slink away, but Baroka insists that they play out the scene. The photographer is invited to a feast (where he gets miserably drunk and vomits profusely) and is given permission to take his pictures. As the mime ends, Lakunle takes to his heels, pursued by the women. Baroka discloses that it is five months since he took a wife. Evidently he has his eye on Sidi.

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ACTIVITY

1 Suggest why Soyinka divides his play into three sections: morning, noon, and night

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DID YOU KNOW?

Mime and pantomime were popular forms of drama back in the day of the Roman empire and for the Greeks. There is evidence that they have long existed as popular entertainment in Asia and Africa too. Taking scenes from everyday life, they used exaggerated gestures and facial expressions to satirise the ridiculous.

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2 a Map the plot-line of the play, showing where flashbacks occur. b Suggest what Soyinka achieves by presenting certain information through flashbacks rather than as part of the main action.

Noon Sadiku, the Bale’s senior wife, acts as a go-between to win Sidi to be the Bale’s next wife. The terms are excellent, but Sidi is now so aware of her beauty that she feels she can aim higher than either the schoolteacher or the elderly ruler, so she declines. Lakunle warns her of the Bale’s wily nature, giving the example of his bribing the surveyor from the Public Works.

Again the action slides into a flashback. This time the players re-enact the coming of the white surveyor with his foreman and workmen. Advised of the plan, Baroka hurries to the scene, bringing gifts to bribe the surveyor to redirect the railway line. If modernisation were to come to Ilujinle, Baroka’s self-indulgent lifestyle would come to an end. The scene switches to Baroka’s bedroom. Sadiku brings word of Sidi’s refusal. Baroka confides in Sadiku that sadly he has now become impotent. We will later discover that this is not true, but cunningly he tells his ‘secret’ to the one person he knows will broadcast it widely! Night

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We return to the village centre where Sadiku is celebrating Bale’s impotence in particular and the triumph of women over men in general. When Sidi arrives and is told what is going on, she comes up with a mischievous plan: she will apologise to Baroka for refusing him, and ask for a month to consider his offer. She hopes to get delight from his sexual frustration. She goes to Baroka’s quarters and enters his bedroom unbidden while he is engaged in a wrestling match.

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The wily old ruler plays cat and mouse with her for a while. He cleverly plays to her female vanity by revealing his plan to put her image on a postage stamp so that all the world can admire her. Before long she is captivated by his manly demeanour and physical prowess. As she rests her head on his shoulder, a group of mummers pass by, the females pursuing a masked male.

ACTIVITY

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The scene shifts back to where Sadiku and Lakunle await Sidi’s return, and the same mummers now give a brief performance satirising Baroka’s impotence. Sadiku crows with delight.

ACTIVITY

3 Find out the difference between a dowry and a bride-price. Which cultures in the world require one of them? Are prenuptial agreements in Western culture a similar arrangement?

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4 Find examples of irony in the play after Sidi returns to collect her things before returning to Baroka’s quarters.

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5 In your examples, is irony produced by appearances being deceptive? Just then, Sidi rushes in, seemingly in great distress. Lakunle assumes that Baroka has raped her. In true romantic style, he offers to marry her anyway (but not to pay the bride-price). Ironically, though, Sidi’s distress is not on account of the sexual encounter she has had with Baroka, but rather due to the fact that he tricked her so royally. She packs her clothes (Lakunle all the time thinking that she is getting ready to marry him) and then reveals that she is going to marry Baroka. She kneels for Sadiku’s blessing, the mummers switch to a festive celebration and even Lakunle joins in the singing and dancing.

ACTIVITY 6 Comment on the significance of Lakunle joining in the singing and dancing as Sidi goes to join Baroka.

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African cultural traditions

In this section you will: • observe the use of pantomime, song, drumming and dance in the play • think about the effectiveness of these devices as used by the writer • notice that the use of both African and European dramatic conventions is in keeping with the theme of the play.

DID YOU KNOW?

In this play, Soyinka mingles Yoruba folk traditions and street theatre with European theatre techniques. This is particularly noticeable in the three pantomime (miming) episodes – one in each act of the play: • the Dance of the Lost Traveller (the play that re-enacts the arrival in Ilujinle of the European photographer) • the play that re-enacts the bribing by Baroka of the surveyor working with the railroad • the play that satirises Baroka’s sexual impotence. All three episodes reveal how cunning Baroka is in his dealings. He allows the photographer to take his pictures, but humiliates him first by making him sick with the local alcoholic drink. In this episode Baroka’s masculine supremacy is established in the traditional way of demonstrating which of the two men can best hold his liquor. In the second pantomime, Baroka, very comfortable indeed with traditional ways, gets the better of the surveyor – and of modernism in general, so that once again his supremacy is established. This time it is his wealth and his cunning that give him the victory over the European. After bribing the surveyor to change the plans for the railway, Baroka is free to go on enjoying the sumptuous, sensuous lifestyle that tradition grants him.

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In Jamaica pantomime is an annual performance. Do you have pantomime in your country?

Pantomime or street theatre

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LEARNING OUTCOMES

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Although the third pantomime appears at first to mock Baroka rather than celebrate his ascendancy, it is based on false information, so when the truth of the Bale’s sexual prowess and his winning ways with women are revealed, Baroka once again can be seen as the Lion, the panther of the trees. His subterfuge momentarily allowed him to be ‘the joy of ballad-mongers, the aged butt of youth’s ribaldry’, but his manliness shines even more gloriously against this dull background. The lie can be considered a foil for the truth (see page 6). The three pantomimes add humorous action and spectacle to the play. Imagine the ‘wheels’ of the photographer’s car shuddering to a stop, or the photographer falling into the river while peeping at Sidi bathing, or his discomfort after drinking the local brew. With the surveyor flashback, ask yourself how the actor will follow this direction as the size of the bribe is increased: This time ‘truth’ dawns on him at last, he has made a mistake... What an unfortunate error, discovered just in time! One imagines that a fair bit of clowning will take place at that moment.

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And with the third pantomime, the audience is already aware that the mummers have been misinformed, so their performance is amusing in its irony. Their acting out the impotence of the Bale and his embarrassment and shame provides scope for ribald comedy. ACTIVITY 1 a Comment on the impact that the magazine and its photographs have on Sidi.

Song, drumming and dance

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b Do you see any significance in the fact that the photographer is European?

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Another African cultural tradition appears in the abundance of singing, dancing and drumming in the play. Drummers accompany the girls who bring the news of the photographer’s return, and their drumming, along with the chanting of the others, leads us into the Dance of the Lost Traveller. A wide range of drumming pace and rhythm proves an important element of the action: it gives us the sound effects of the car’s engine, accompanies the lively dancing, builds excitement and suspense, suggests the slow, dignified movement of trees or the rapid scampering of a monkey, and so on. Read the stage directions carefully to see how important a role the drums play.

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Singing, too, is a strong African cultural tradition that is incorporated into the play:

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• Sidi and her friends chant and sing as they tease Lakunle into acting the photographer. • The workmen who come with the surveyor sing a work song, accompanied by metal percussion. • Sadiku sings in celebration of women’s victory over men. • The singers and musicians who had been miming Baroka’s humiliating impotence change their tune as the play comes to its end, playing joyful wedding songs as they escort Sidi to Baroka’s palace. The play is filled with energetic drumming, dance and song, not merely as sound effects, but as the very cultural expression of the people. ACTIVITY 2 List the places in the play where drumming is used for: a emotional effect b sound effect c any other effect.

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Contrasting characters as a dramatic device

LEARNING OUTCOMES In this section you will: • note how the writer uses African and European dramatic conventions in the play • discover that the play’s themes and message are communicated through contrasts in the characters.

Contrasting cultures through characters One of the most important contrasts set up in this play is between traditional Nigerian culture and imported Western culture. Lakunle and Baroka are the two suitors in competition for Sidi’s hand in marriage and they embody this cultural contrast. Even their physical appearance – Lakunle skinny and unimposing, Baroka built like a champion wrestler – hints broadly at which of the two is preferred. Lakunle

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Lakunle is a somewhat ridiculous figure. He is eager to bring Western ways to the village, but appears foolish in his attempts:

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• carrying water is women’s work, yet he insists on doing it • kissing Western-style is unhealthy in Sidi’s opinion, yet he smothers her with kisses • the vision of foxtrotting Nigerian women in high-heeled shoes and bright red lipstick eating off ‘breakable’ plates is not only utterly irrelevant to life in the forest, but is possibly not a particularly inspiring advertisement for European ways either.

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Lakunle has clearly been influenced by European romantic literature, and consequently his language can appear inappropriate in the context of an African village as he tells Sidi: ‘My love will open your mind like the chaste leaf in the morning, when the sun first touches it’; and in another statement: ‘My heart bursts into flowers with my love.’ This is all well and good, but Sidi responds in an earthy fashion that evokes laughter at the teacher’s expense: ‘Now there you go again. One little thing and you must chirrup like a cockatoo.’

EXAM TIP

Remember to have your examples and quotes ready to support your interpretations on characters and the conflicting aspects of their personalities.

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Do you think Lakunle’s love is sincere? Certainly everything about him is anachronistic and out of place in Sidi’s world, and anachronism is at the heart of comedy. He considers the customs of the village backward and demeaning to women, but to Sidi, his refusal to pay the bride-price is an insult. Even his learning provokes mockery: he comes with a list of derogatory adjectives to describe how barbaric and outdated the custom of bride-price is, and when Sidi teases him about running out of words, he admits that he only has the Shorter Companion Dictionary! ACTIVITY 1 What do you think about the concept of bride-price? Are you aware of this happening at any time in your community? 2 What do you think might be the advantages and disadvantages of this arrangement?

Lakunle outlines for her the changes he would like to bring to the village: they sound foolish. In every way Lakunle is made the laughing stock: he is mimicked by Baroka, forced to act the role of the photographer, mocked by Sadiku, spurned by Sidi. He is presented as deserving of the ridicule because his behaviour has been superficial and insincere. His refusal to pay the bride-price, like his reluctance to tip the mummers, is evidence of his stinginess rather than his convictions. And since he joins in the dancing and girl-chasing with great gusto, we can see that his lovesick posturing and assumed Western ways are just a mask that easily slips. ACTIVITY

a in his manner of speaking b in his style of dress c in his actions d in the way others react to him.

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Baroka

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3 Can you find any examples to show that Lakunle displays ridiculous behaviour:

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Despite all his negative traits, Baroka has one virtue that Lakunle lacks: he does not pretend to be something he is not. He enjoys being pampered by his wives and opposes modernisation because it threatens his luxurious, self-indulgent lifestyle.

Lakunle and Baroka

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Consider his very first appearance: Lakunle, who is acting as the photographer, is brought to him for punishment and Baroka is presented as having real machismo, in contrast to Lakunle’s weak, uninspiring personality. Look for the pointers to these contrasts in the text. For example their first meeting sees Baroka totally in charge, calling back Lakunle (who has tried to sneak off) to rebuke him for his greeting, ‘Guru morin’. From this we detect the traditionalist gaining the upper hand over the boy/man who has voted for modernisation. His next appearance is in his bed, receiving the attentions of the Favourite. His cunning nature is presented here alongside his sensuality, since he cleverly pretends to Sadiku that he has become impotent. He then makes a brief appearance in the pantomime with the surveyor – refer to this episode in the text to see how his wily nature is evident. Finally, we see him interacting with Sidi, who has entered his bedroom, believing that Sadiku’s report of Baroka’s impotence was true. This scene is one of the most important for revealing Baroka’s character, since it is here that he uses his understanding of women, his physical prowess and his masculine charm to win over the girl who came with the intention of mocking him. As you read this scene, notice how cleverly Baroka changes the tone of the encounter so that Sidi is bold one minute, apprehensive the next, later on mocking, but also immensely impressed. Through this scene Sidi displays that she can also be clever and cunning, but she is no match for the man she now confronts.

EXAM TIP

As described in this section, there are key episodes that you may want to focus on, but it is also a good idea to look elsewhere in the tex t for further examples to support your view.

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Conflict and themes

In this section you will: • examine conflicts in the play • discover the key themes • understand that the play mirrors the choices faced by formerly colonised African nations.

DID YOU KNOW?

Lakunle Lakunle is in conflict with Sidi, with Baroka and even within himself. Outwardly he seems to embrace Western culture, quoting its poets and the Bible, asserting that everything Western is superior. Yet when his romantic charms are put to the test and he finds himself saying that he will marry Sidi even though Baroka has already enjoyed her, he appears to get cold feet. His joyful abandon when he joins in the dancing, to celebrate Sidi’s leaving to be with Baroka, suggests that he is very happy to slip back into his authentic African self. His views also conflict with those of Sidi. She objects to his saying that women are weak, and she tells him that his Western habit of kissing is unhealthy and his romantic posturing quite silly. And Lakunle is in conflict with Baroka because they are rivals for Sidi’s love. To the self-assured Baroka, Lakunle is just a little boy. When Baroka humiliates ‘the photographer’ in the pantomime, we have to remember that it is Lakunle who is playing the role of the European, so it is Lakunle who is beaten in the typically macho test of drinking alcohol. This proves to us that this immature mimic-man is no match for the mighty Lion.

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Conflict is not always expressed in physical fighting. Some conflicts produce strained relationships without any physical action, and some conflicts take place inside an individual’s mind. You may find that tension is a useful synonym for the word conflict.

Conflict among the characters

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LEARNING OUTCOMES

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1 a List situations from your own home and school experiences that can bring tension or conflict between individuals. b Now arrange the situations in order, moving from those that just make the individuals uncomfortable in each other’s company to those that could potentially spark off a physical fight. For example consider how you would feel towards a fellow student who had accused you (wrongfully) of stealing something, compared with how you would react if someone was harming a member of your family. c With this range of reactions, going from slight tension to potentially violent conflict, attempt a similar ordering of the conflicts in the plays you are studying.

ACTIVITY

2 Find evidence that Sidi views her sexuality as a weapon, men as the opponents and her virginity as a treasure to be sold only to the highest bidder. a Do you see this as a weakness in Sidi’s character? b Does she display other weaknesses?

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Sidi Sidi is not only in conflict with Lakunle, but also with herself. At times she can come across as quite feminist, asserting the strength of women and refusing to be instructed by Lakunle or to be added to the Bale’s harem. Yet in the end she reverts to the traditional role of women in her society and will now be the Favourite, privileged, presumably, to pull out Baroka’s underarm hair!

Baroka Baroka is in conflict only with the modernisation process. See how he gains the upper hand with the photographer and with the surveyor. And see how he quickly proves his manhood when Sadiku is misguidedly celebrating the victory of women over men. Baroka, remember, is a wrestler and he is well equipped to take on all challengers. Sadiku

To help with revisi on, create two diagra ms: one showing the inte rweaving of the plot-line an d the flashbacks, an d the other showing the conflicts between pairs of characters.

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Conflict exists between the women and the men. Sadiku is required to be submissive and attentive to Baroka, but her real feelings about him are revealed when she does her dance celebrating his impotence. Her joy in the thought that women are able to drain men of all their energy and leave them as dry sticks is evidence enough of her resentment at the way women are treated in marriage. She eagerly conspires with Sidi to humiliate the Bale.

EXAM TIP

ACTIVITY

Modernism and traditionalism

Themes

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We see discord, too, between the modernising influence of the European presence and the pull of traditional ways. Such examples are the photographer who puts Sidi’s image in a glossy magazine, giving her aspirations to go places in life, and the surveyor who is preparing the land for the building of a railroad that will bring progress and change to Ilujinle. In contrast, Baroka’s bedroom, decorated with animal skins and hunting equipment, epitomises the self-indulgence and luxury that rulers traditionally enjoyed – so it is small wonder that he does not welcome change into his idyllic world.

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By looking for the conflicts of individual characters we are led to the main theme of the play, which is the tension set up in the play between Western ways and Nigerian traditions. These two ways of life are personified (and parodied) in Baroka and Lakunle. The two men both have their sights set on the village jewel, Sidi, who must choose between them. Their rivalry provides the tension. Lakunle hopes to win favour with his appearance of intellect, his literary quotations and borrowed European manners, while Baroka is confident that his social standing, his physical fitness, his wealth and sexual prowess will win the ‘jewel’.

3 What theme is implied in Lakunle’s mimicking of Western ways? 4 What theme is implied in Sadiku’s celebration of Baroka’s alleged impotence? 5 Describe the themes that are suggested by the presence of the photographer and the surveyor.

KEY POINTS The rivalry between Lakunle and Baroka to win the jewel, Sidi, represents the tension set up in the play between Western ways and Nigerian traditions.

ACTIVITY 6 Imagine you are Sidi. a List the pros and cons of marriage to Lakunle. b List the pros and cons of marriage to Baroka.

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Themes and irony

LEARNING OUTCOMES In this section you will: • observe that irony is a useful way of making the audience think about the play’s themes • think about the implications of Sidi’s choice and decide whether or not she has chosen well.

Sidi’s choice The choice Sidi has to make between Lakunle and Baroka could also suggest to us the choice that Nigeria itself has to make. In the character of Lakunle, Soyinka ridicules the way some of his countrymen mindlessly mimic European ways. But traditionalism, in the character of Baroka, is mocked too. The image of him lying in bed, having his underarm hairs plucked out by one of his several wives, in a room decorated with his hunting trophies (which Sidi hints could have been purchased at the local market) is also ridiculous in its own way. And while Soyinka allows Baroka (traditionalism) to win the jewel, Sidi, the jewel herself seems not exactly delighted with the arrangement. The audience may also have misgivings about the bribery, self-indulgence, sexism and manipulation they have observed in Baroka.

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1 Think about the fact that both Lakunle and Baroka are caricatures rather than realistic creations. They are amusing exaggerations of the type of individuals they represent, and the exaggeration itself makes them comical.

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ACTIVITY

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2 Identify the characteristics of each man that are comically exaggerated rather than realistically represented.

So it is possible that neither of the two options is quite what Sidi wants, nor what Nigeria wants for the future. Ironically, Sidi herself does not seem to have the wisdom, education or integrity she needs in order to make a good decision about her future. When she sees her image in the photographs, she tells herself she could aim higher than either Lakunle or Baroka – but what do you think of her values? In the end, traditional customs win over European culture, sexism wins over feminism, the women are put firmly in their (subservient) place, and machismo wins the day. But at least the audience is left

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with something to think about, and when we have finished laughing, we ask ourselves some serious questions: Does retaining one’s cultural heritage necessarily mean rejecting progress? Is it possible to take the best from the coloniser’s culture and technology without losing one’s identity in the process? Soyinka has made us laugh and now he invites us to think!

Irony

3 What do we learn of Sidi’s character from her response to the photographs and from her interaction first with Lakunle and then Baroka? 4 What do you think of her values as she chooses a future for herself?

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There are many examples of irony in this play. Some of the richest examples of dramatic irony surround Sidi’s mischievous visit to Baroka. She boldly goes to his bedroom, confident that he is impotent and that she now has the upper hand, only to discover that she has been deceived. Where she thought she would humiliate him, she discovers that he can easily outwit her. She was so sure that an older man like Baroka could never satisfy her, yet she discovers that he is still ‘the panther of the trees’. Sidi had thought that she was the clever one, yet when Baroka begins to use his eloquence to charm and confuse her, she is reduced to bewildered silence.

ACTIVITY

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As soon as the audience learns that the story of Baroka’s impotence was pure fiction, Sadiku’s abandoned dance celebrating the victory of women over men is gloriously ironic in retrospect; the more gleeful she is as she contemplates the humiliation of Baroka, the more the irony of the situation builds up.

5 What is the significance of the wrestling match? • Suggest what the presence of a wrestling opponent tells us about Baroka. • Suggest a connection between the wrestling match and the battle that Sidi and Baroka engage in.

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Dramatic irony can also be detected in Lakunle’s offer to marry Sidi. In his mind his offer is full of Western-style romance, and she should be grateful to him because she is now a ‘fallen woman’. In fact, she does not consider herself ‘fallen’ at all, but is thrilled at the prospect of marrying the man who so powerfully took her virginity, and would not look twice now at a ‘book-nourished shrimp’ like Lakunle. Even Lakunle himself is suddenly filled with doubt about his European style: ‘Oh heavens, strike me dead!’ he declares. ‘Earth, open up and swallow Lakunle. For he no longer has the wish to live.’ Faced with the reality of the situation, Lakunle is not so sure that the spiritual, platonic love his European poets have taught him is what he wants after all. We remember how he fantasised about the ‘luscious bosoms’ that pillowed Baroka’s head at night, and we have to doubt that Lakunle was made for a life of self-discipline.

ACTIVITY

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6 a Find examples of irony in relation to Lakunle. b Find examples of irony in relation to Sadiku. 7 What is ironic about Sidi’s decision to marry Baroka when earlier she has shown herself to be such a feminist? 8 Is Soyinka being serious when he marries off Baroka and Sidi at the end of the play, or is he teasing the audience with an ending that is full of irony? 9 What other examples of irony can you find in the play?

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1.23

Comedy and the minor characters

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Other types of comedy

In this section you will:

Much of the comedy in this play results from the ironies noted in the previous section – but there are other types of comedy too. One way to approach your study of the comic elements in the play would be to work with a list like this: G

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comedy of language – puns, malapropisms, parody of a particular accent or style of speech, irony comedy of situation – dramatic irony comedy of character – comic personality traits, blunders made because of lack of knowledge or self-knowledge, caricature comedy of spectacle – funny costumes, make-up happy or comic atmosphere produced by sounds comic action – farce, slapstick happy outcome – a positive ending to the play.

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• note that there are many different types of comedy • understand that different types of comedy may appear in the same play • discover that not all comedy involves laughter • see that even minor characters contribute to character revelation and to the play’s message.

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1 Find examples in the play of each type of comedy listed here.

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As you can see from this list, the comic element ranges from intellectual wordplay on the one hand, to physical slapstick and farce on the other. Much laughter is evoked by Lakunle’s seeming unawareness of how little he actually understands of European ways, despite the way he presents himself as some kind of expert. He can say grandly, ‘I wouldn’t demean myself to bandy words with a woman of the bush,’ and we are impressed, yet moments later he reveals that he himself is a bushman, when he comes out with nonsense like this about his vision for a modern future: ‘The ruler shall ride cars, not horses, or a bicycle at the very least.’ His comic seriousness delights us when he poses as the faithful lover, remaining true to his love even though she is a ‘fallen’ woman, but then adds that at least now she must admit that he has no need to pay the bride-price. A shift, as in this example, from the grand to the commonplace, or from the sublime to the ridiculous, is known as bathos, and is a fine source of humour.

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Slapstick comedy occurs in the Song of the Lost Traveller. We laugh at the girls playing the wheels of the car as it shudders to a stop, and at the antics of the ‘photographer’ as he surreptitiously pinches their bottoms. Comic action occurs with the photographer falling into the river as he tries to peep at Sidi bathing, and then again at Sidi’s running across the stage in a state of undress. The mummers acting out Baroka’s alleged impotence would offer scope for farce and slapstick comedy, too. Humorous sexual innuendoes also abound. For instance, Sadiku boasts of exhausting her lovers when she comments: ‘Okiki came with his rusted key. Like a snake he came at me, like a rag he went back...’

A sexual innuendo is a comment that indirectly suggests something sexual, although by its content the speaker could easily insist that his comment was quite innocent. Remember the calypso, ‘You get on top – that’s the way it must be’? After the singer has repeated this line many times, making us think that he is referring to the sexual act, he lets us know that in fact it was a couple trying to close an overfull suitcase! That’s sexual innuendo.

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Minor characters

DID YOU KNOW?

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Sadiku and the wrestler both deserve mention. Sadiku, the senior wife, is meek and submissive when she is in Baroka’s company, but her gleeful dancing and singing when she rejoices over his humiliating impotence shows us her real attitude towards him. But even Sadiku’s two-faced behaviour is to Baroka’s advantage, for he knows full well the kind of person she is and deliberately lets her broadcast his ‘secret’ to the entire village, since that is what suits his purpose.

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It is the wrestler who brings word to Baroka that the surveying team is advancing on the village, and his horror at seeing them at work lets us know that any change in the way things are would be a sad thing for both him and his master. Later, in Baroka’s bedroom, the wrestling contest in which Baroka emerges the winner serves to increase our sense of Baroka’s strength and masculinity. So when he reminds Sadiku of his various exploits, such as hunting, climbing high trees, log-tossing and so on, we know these are not empty boasts.

The title

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Why does Soyinka call this play The Lion and the Jewel? Could it be that Baroka, like the lion, is king of the forest? And isn’t Sidi the jewel, the most attractive and desirable girl in the village? But could there also be some irony in the title? The lion appears on the royal insignia of the United Kingdom, so could it be that Britain is another lion who is after the jewel, in this case Africa (as we see in the photographer and the surveyor)? Then again, what would a lion do with a jewel? Could a lion appreciate the wonder of a jewel, do you think? ACTIVITY 2 Consider another play that you have studied and look for irony or hidden meaning in the title.

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Costumes, setting and props

LEARNING OUTCOMES In this section you will:

The costumes that Soyinka calls for in his stage directions help to present visually the conflict of the play between the traditional and the modern, Western style. Lakunle wears Western clothes, but they are old, ill-fitting and mismatched. He wears a threadbare, crumpled English suit that is a couple of sizes too small, and he sports a tie with a tiny knot, a black shiny waistcoat, bell-bottomed trousers and white tennis shoes. His appearance strikes us as being as anachronistic and ridiculous as his lovesick posturing, his lofty, borrowed phrases, and his attitude of righteous indignation towards customs that everyone else finds quite normal. In short, his costume satirises the kind of African who unthinkingly follows European fashions without really understanding them.

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• see how costumes, setting and props convey the themes and message of a play • observe how costumes, scenery and props can tell us a great deal about characters • note that costumes, scenery and props can create mood and can also prompt an intellectual response from the audience.

Costumes

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Sidi dresses in the simple broadcloth of village girls, wrapped around and tied above her breasts. The style affords humour when Lakunle waves his hands at her breasts and says, ‘A grown-up girl must cover up her...shoulders?’ He pretends to have become so prudish that he cannot even bring himself to say the word, breasts. In the closing scene of the play, Sidi is ‘radiant, jewelled, lightly clothed, and wears light leatherthong sandals’. Even the cloth in which she carries her belongings is ‘richly embroidered’. Her costume here anticipates the splendour of marriage to Baroka, but it also suggests that she is now a jewel being shown off to perfection, whereas with Lakunle she would not have been so fulfilled.

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ACTIVITY

1 Think about the power of an image. • How much are you and your friends affected by the images you see on television or in magazines? • What effect does the image of herself in the European magazine have on Sidi and her friends? • What is the temptation held out to Sidi by the image created by the European with the camera and the glossy magazine? • What significance do you find in this focus on images?

2 What does the play say about feminism, sexism and the role of women in traditional Nigerian society?

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ACTIVITY

Baroka wears his grand Nigerian robe – his agbada – for public appearances, but is ‘naked except for baggy trousers’ in his bed. His nakedness, along with the rich rugs, weapons and animal skins on the walls, suggests his sensuality, his physical strength, his power and freedom, and perhaps the animal in him.

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Setting

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The two Europeans are both dressed in clothes that are ridiculously unsuitable for the tropics. The surveyor’s clothing is a parody of the coloniser’s dress: khaki helmet, spats, etc. In both cases, the props they bring are also out of place in that rural environment: the car and camera, the helmet and flask of whisky for the photographer, and the camp stool, table, umbrella, soda siphon, whisky bottle and geometric sandwiches for the surveyor. The contrast set up between the costumes and props of the Europeans and those of the Africans suggests strongly that the European is like a fish out of water in this village. But even the European, comical as he appears, is less comical than Lakunle, the African mimic who is trying to be a European.

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The setting is described as a clearing in the forest, with a village school and a girl carrying a pail of water on her head, which is also very African, and the setting is at odds with the European presence. The two Europeans (and Lakunle too) seem out of place with their hot clothes and foreign accoutrements. The rich setting of Baroka’s bedroom contrasts sharply with the poverty of the little school where Lakunle teaches. Everything in Baroka’s room – the wrestler keeping him in shape, the Favourite pampering his body, the animal skins showing off his hunting expertise – boasts of his status and manliness, honour and comfort. All these things demonstrate traditional African customs, and contrast with the modernity introduced by the Europeans in the play.

ACTIVITY

3 Questions to debate at the end of play: • Is the play’s message that Nigeria should put aside the ‘borrowed’ European culture acquired under colonialism and return to traditional ways? Or do the imperfections in Baroka warn us against coming to that conclusion? • Consider Baroka’s motive for rejecting modern trends. Is there a way for Africa to embrace the best of modernisation without getting into the mindless imitation that Lakunle demonstrates? • Sadiku and Sidi both show signs of having feminist views. Do you think sexism wins at the end of the play?

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Julius Caesar – introduction

In this section you will: • discover the political concerns of Shakespeare’s time • observe how Shakespeare uses history to speak about matters of concern in his own time • consider the discussion on effective leadership that is presented in the play • think about the conflict between private morality and public effectiveness.

Julius Caesar – the play Shakespeare wrote some 37 plays, which fall into four groups: trag tr ged edie iess ie

come co medi die di es es

hist hi stor ory or y pl p ay ays

trag tr gic icom omed om edie ed die ies es

Some of the plays are based on events in Roman history, and are called the Roman plays. Julius Caesar is classified as a tragedy and it is also in the group of Roman plays.

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LEARNING OUTCOMES

Shakespeare believed that history had an important didactic function – that is, we can learn lessons from the past. However, unlike historians, Shakespeare had no hesitation in altering the historical facts if by doing so he could offer a more powerful moral lesson in his play. After Shakespeare had written a number of plays based on British history, he turned to Roman history for inspiration. His concerns remained the same though, and those concerns become his themes.

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Themes

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This play dramatises and warns against the horrors of civil unrest.

The play examines the requirements for effective leadership.

In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare looks at different leaders – Caesar, Mark Antony, Brutus, Cassius and Octavius – and explores their strengths and weaknesses. You will find yourself thinking about whether or not a leader has to be ruthless, and whether or not successful leadership and virtue of character are possible in one individual.

The play examines the power of oratory.

In an age when public speech-making and the art of oratory was at its height, Shakespeare highlighted the power of language to manipulate people, particularly the uneducated masses. Observe the crowd in Julius Caesar, and you will see how easily people are swayed by rhetoric. Such power in the hands of the wrong person could be very dangerous.

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DID YOU KNOW?

Around 1530, a very influential book entitled The Prince was published. It was written by an Italian called Niccolo Machiavelli. This book described, in seemingly cynical style, the way a ruler needed to act to retain their position of power. Machiavelli felt that morality played no part in the success of a ruler: the important thing was to hold on to power at any cost.

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Shakespeare lived in the time of Queen Elizabeth I, who, like Calphurnia, had no child. With no clear successor to the throne, the danger of civil war in England upon the death of Elizabeth was very real.

The play debates the issue of regicide.

A hot topic of conversation in Shakespeare’s time was this: in what circumstances, if any, is regicide legitimate? The king, many believed, is God’s anointed and only God Himself has the right to remove that king, even if he is a wicked or incompetent ruler. A bad king, some argued, was punishment for the nation’s sins, and the period of suffering had to be borne meekly as a kind of penance.

DID YOU KNOW?

The play considers the question of man’s free will.

Some of Shakespeare’s contemporaries argued that man has been given free will, and that our destiny is in our own hands.

DID YOU KNOW?

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Regicide is the act of killing the king.

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Listen to Cassius putting that latter position clearly:

In Shakespeare’s time, the word politician always had a derogatory meaning. To be a politician meant to be a ruthless, corrupt schemer.

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves that we are underlings.

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Act 1 Scene 2 lines 140–141

Our fate is not preordained, not written in the stars, he asserts.

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Mostly, though, when a character in Shakespeare takes the line that Brutus does, he comes to a sticky end, and Shakespeare was more inclined, it seems, to adopt a fatalistic approach to life. The notion that we are not in charge of our destiny, but subject to a greater Power, is suggested in the play by the pervasive presence of dreams, omens and even visions. We may rashly take matters into our own hands, as Cassius urged, but we may discover that we are not in control of our destiny after all.

The pervasive references to the supernatural suggest that we are not in control of our own destiny.

The play shows the crowd – average individuals in society – to be very fickle and likely to be led by emotion, not reason.

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The play asks if we are ultimately subject to the Divine Will.

ACTIVITY 1 Make a list of all the themes detailed here. As you study the play compile a selection of quotes that support these themes.

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The plot and main character

In this section you will: • meet the main characters in the play • trace the plot • consider what is achieved in the opening scenes.

ACTIVITY

The plot of Julius Caesar traces the conspiracy, led by Brutus and Cassius, that leads to the assassination of Julius Caesar, and the aftermath of that assassination: the civil war that breaks out, the suicides of Cassius, Brutus and Portia, and the defeat of the conspirators by the armies of the Triumvirate, Octavius, Mark Antony and Lepidus. The importance of the opening scenes

Shakespeare was very good at using the first couple of scenes of his plays to introduce the main characters and to give the audience an idea of the key issues that the play would deal with. Look at the tribunes Flavius and Marullus interacting with the tradesmen of Rome. It is clear that they are in disagreement with the celebrations taking place to honour Caesar’s return – so already we know that Caesar has put some people against him. Mention is made of how the crowd was only recently praising the same Pompey whom Caesar has conquered – so we are prepared as early as this for the fickleness of the crowd and the way people can easily be swayed from one opinion to another. Flavius, with his imagery of plucking feathers from Caesar’s wing, makes it clear that he believes Caesar is too ambitious. In a very short space of time, major ideas have been introduced.

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1 Julius Caesar was written some 450 years ago. How would you adapt it to bring it up to date for a contemporary Caribbean audience?

The plot

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LEARNING OUTCOMES

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Developing the action

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In the following scene, Brutus and Cassius talk secretly, snatching moments for their conversation as Caesar is being publicly applauded at the games. The mood of fearful yet angry conspiracy is now established, and the danger of such conversations is made evident. Notice how the shouts of the crowd break into the whispered conversation, adding to the sense of secrecy and danger. That sense of danger is intensified when Caesar and his train return and it becomes clear that something has made the great man angry.

EXAM TIP

To help with revision , create a diagram showing the plot-line and indicating the poin ts at which the supernatur al is evident.

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As our sense of Caesar’s power increases, the tension and suspense begin to build as Brutus and Cassius draw Casca aside, and we quickly discern that he, too, is displeased with Caesar’s authoritarian style. Casca is able to inform us that already Marullus and Flavius have been ‘put to silence’ for removing the scarves from the statues, so we know that Caesar’s vengeance comes swiftly and he is not a ruler to be played with. In just a few moments the audience has been drawn into the conspiratorial whispers, the fearful glance over the shoulder and the awareness of the great danger of crossing such a powerful, autocratic ruler.

ACTIVITY

Then Caesar arrives on his way to the games. He wants his wife Calphurnia to be touched by the athletic Mark Antony so that she will conceive. Calphurnia is barren, and Caesar, we learn later, suffers from epilepsy – the falling sickness. Symbolically, Shakespeare suggests here that Caesar’s rule is not altogether wholesome. A soothsayer from the crowd calls out in warning to Caesar, ‘Beware the ides of March’ (that is, 15 March), but Caesar waves the fellow away; later on we will see that Caesar is quite affected by omens and prophecies, although here he pretends not to be.

2 As you read the early scenes of the play, notice how Shakespeare succeeds in creating an atmosphere of fear and mistrust, of spying and intimidation. List the ways in which Shakespeare does this.

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Caesar seems not to be very respectful of his wife in public, and later we will see her begging him not to go to the Capitol on the ides of March because she has had an ominous dream. He dismisses her as being a foolish woman. Caesar is quite autocratic and given to fits of temper. As the procession returns from the games, onlookers observe the ‘angry spot’ on Caesar’s brow, and the way his followers look as if they have been scolded. Later, at the Capitol, we will witness Caesar firmly refusing to give any mercy to senators he has sent for punishment, ignoring the pleas of even his most faithful men. This arrogance is one of his character traits that his enemies hate.

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Meet the main character – Julius Caesar

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Casca tells how Mark Antony offered Caesar the crown three times at the games, and three times Caesar publicly refused it, to the delight of the crowd. However, it seemed that Caesar was reluctant to push the crown away, and it is this ambitious nature that the senators deplore. Romans were proud of their system of government Beware the ides of March! and the equality of the senators; for Caesar to rise above the others was quite unacceptable and men were prepared to die rather than bow to his dictatorship. On the other hand, if Mark Antony is telling the truth, Caesar had the people at heart when he willed much of his property to them on his death. To complete the character sketch of Caesar we need to listen to Cassius telling Brutus how he had to save Caesar’s life on one occasion, and how Caesar once behaved like a girl when he had a fever. Cassius is not impressed with this ‘Colossus’ who stands astride the world. Indeed Caesar is a complex character: a mix of bravery and cowardice, autocratic tendencies and love for the people, confidence and fearfulness, trust and suspicion.

DID YOU KNOW? Shakespeare often uses imagery of sickness to suggest to the audience that all is not well with a person or a society. Here, Caesar’s ‘falling sickness’, or epilepsy, suggests to us that something unhealthy has taken over his personality. Similarly, Calphurnia’s barrenness is symbolic.

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The principal characters

LEARNING OUTCOMES In this section you will:

Brutus is one of Shakespeare’s most loved and admired characters. His only fault, if indeed he has one, is that he is overly proud of how honourably he acts in every situation. He can only join the conspiracy when he sees that to do so is in the interest of Rome. He refuses to have Mark Antony assassinated too – even though everyone is aware of the threat the protégé of Caesar may pose. His thinking is that Caesar must be sacrificed to the gods – not butchered. Like many virtuous individuals, Brutus assumes that others are as honourable as he is, so he invites Mark Antony to join them and agrees to Antony speaking at Caesar’s funeral, despite urgent warnings from Cassius. The consequences are disastrous. Even in war, Brutus refuses to let his moral standards slip, with the result that a rift over allegedly unethical methods of raising money to finance the operation threatens his relationship with Cassius. Brutus’s respect and love for people is seen in how he interacts with his wife Portia, his servant Lucius, and his soldiers. Brutus is a fine human being, but his righteousness is an obstacle in the real world.

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• meet Brutus and Cassius, the leaders of the conspiracy, both of whom will commit suicide in the civil war • encounter Mark Antony, the man favoured by Caesar • examine Lepidus and Octavius, who, together with Mark Antony, will form the Triumvirate following the civil war.

Brutus

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ACTIVITY

1 Find all the examples you can of Brutus’s integrity. 2 Find the occasions on which his virtuous action leads to disaster.

Cassius

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ACTIVITY

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3 Some critics have found Brutus to be a power for evil – not the righteous, honourable main described here. Find evidence to support the portrayal of Brutus as a power for evil.

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Cassius is the one who gives us a behind-the-scenes view of Caesar, and it is Cassius who brings the conspirators together to assassinate Caesar. Cassius is incensed that Caesar has risen so high, and feels he in no way deserves the honours heaped on him. He easily wins over half a dozen senators, but Brutus is not so easily moved. It takes flattery and reasoning – and even a little subterfuge. Cassius writes letters purporting to be from other people, urging Brutus to act against Caesar, and has them thrown into Brutus’s home. The contrast between Cassius and Brutus is intriguing. Brutus prides himself on acting honourably at all times, and in the interest of Rome. Cassius, on the other hand, is driven more by personal grievance. Repeatedly Cassius and Brutus will disagree over action that has to be taken, and repeatedly the honourable course insisted on by Brutus will bring disaster. After the assassination, on the battlefield, a major conflict flares up between them, Brutus again standing for honour, and Cassius insisting that he is more experienced in battle than Brutus. The two both die, but not before they seal their eternal friendship. Neither man, ironically, is fully fit to lead, though each has sterling qualities.

Mark Antony

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In many ways, Mark Antony is a contrast to Brutus. He is cunning and can mask his true intentions. He was beloved by Caesar, but sees that he must pretend to side with the conspirators. As soon as he gets his opportunity, though, he rouses the crowd to turn against Caesar’s assassins. He proves to be a magnificent orator, and one who understands crowd psychology perfectly. When the Triumvirate (Octavius, Mark Antony and Lepidus) sit to work out their strategy for dealing with the rebel senators, Mark Antony can be just as ruthless as Octavius. He is scornful of Lepidus, calling him an ass fit only to bear loads and follow orders. Octavius, in contrast, seems wiser and more respectful, and moderate when he replies that Lepidus is ‘a tried and valiant soldier’. Mark Antony disagrees again on the battlefield, with Octavius overriding the suggestion that Mark Antony made concerning strategy; it is clear that the young Octavius is determined not to tolerate any rivalry.

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ACTIVITY

Brutus and Cassius arguing

4 Look carefully at the way Mark Antony is introduced to us.

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• What is his relationship with Caesar? • Is it symbolically significant that Caesar believes Mark Antony’s touch could cure the barrenness that is plaguing Calphurnia? • Why does he offer the crown three times to Caesar? • Does this introduction to Mark Antony prepare us for the way he behaves later at Caesar’s funeral, and in his relationship with Octavius in the civil war that follows? • Does Mark Antony actually bring a healing touch to the affairs of state? • Which of his qualities would make him a good leader?

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Lepidus

Lepidus is clearly the weak member of the Triumvirate, and both Octavius and Mark Antony merely tolerate him, although Octavius shows him more respect than Mark Antony does. Octavius and Mark Antony know that Lepidus is not their equal, and that the power struggle is between the two of them.

Octavius Octavius is the successor to Caesar, so it is good to compare their characters. Certainly the young man is ruthless and a fine tactician, a brave soldier and a confident leader. He instinctively takes the lead, asserting his superiority over Mark Antony on the battlefield. He is difficult to read – and perhaps Shakespeare deliberately leaves us guessing whether he would make a good leader or would follow in the steps of his predecessor even more ruthlessly.

EXAM TIP

Use a quotation if it is relevant, but keep your quotes short – even fou r or five words will suffi ce if this reflects your poin t.

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Contrasting pairs of characters

LEARNING OUTCOMES In this section you will:

The two women in the play serve chiefly to throw light on the personalities of Brutus and Caesar, and to intensify the build-up of suspense. A comparison of how Portia and Calphurnia (sometimes spelled Calpurnia) are treated by their respective husbands is revealing. Calphurnia seems cowed, afraid of Caesar’s angry moods. She is barren, and suffers the humiliation of having that made a public matter when Caesar asks Mark Antony, as he runs in the games, to be sure to touch her to cure the barrenness. On the day that Caesar is to go to the Capitol (to be crowned, it is rumoured), she begs Caesar on her knees not to attend. She relates to him what she has heard of the strange omens people have witnessed, and of the beast with no heart that was found by one of the augurers. She has had a dream of Caesar’s statue and of Romans bathing their hands in the blood spouting from it. Caesar is inclined to concede to her request, when Decius enters and his mind changes again. He hints that the crowd will get the impression that Caesar is afraid – and of course, Caesar does not want this. He leaves, telling Calphurnia that her fears seem quite foolish now. He will never see her again.

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• see that contrast is an important tool of the dramatist • examine the significance of the contrast between Portia and Calphurnia • think about the difference between the state of society before and after the assassination of Caesar.

The women – Portia and Calphurnia

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Brutus’s attitude to Portia is very different from Caesar’s attitude to Calphurnia. Portia is full of self-respect, proud of her ancestry, and Brutus respects her profoundly. When she asks what is on his mind that he is so restless at nights, he realises that he is disrespectful to her if he does not treat her as an equal and share his concerns with her – so he promises to do so. Portia’s love for Brutus is evident when she urges their servant to run to the Senate house, quite forgetting to give the boy any message to carry! Her anxiety takes away the calm composure that is usual for her. Refusing to burden Brutus, she sends the message that she is merry, but hopes to hear some word from him. When Brutus is on the battlefield we learn that Portia, in brave Roman style, has committed suicide, fearful that the delay in Brutus’s return means that the battle is lost.

ACTIVITY

DID YOU KNOW?

1 a Examine the following contrasts set up in the play: • Calphurnia and Portia and how they are treated by their respective husbands • Brutus and Cassius, both in their motives for killing Caesar and in their conduct on the field of battle • Mark Antony and Brutus.

In Roman times, on their return home the conquering army would march through the city, with all their captives in the procession. Romans felt that this was so degrading that to avoid the humiliation, they preferred to take their own lives – dying with the dignity befitting their status as free citizens of the republic. Legend has it that Portia died swallowing hot coals – and in Ancient Rome her action would have been considered most honourable.

b List some adjectives that depict their characters and look at contrasts in their personalities.

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The use of contrast

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Just as Shakespeare deliberately sets up a contrast between Calphurnia and Portia and the way their respective husbands treat them, so too he sets up contrasts between Brutus and Cassius, between Mark Antony and Brutus, between Mark Antony and Octavius, and between Octavius and Caesar. All the time these contrasts cause the audience to think about the different strengths and weaknesses in a man that would qualify or disqualify him for leadership.

Comparing the beginning and the end

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As with any play or novel, we will learn something if we compare the situation at the beginning with the situation at the end. We begin this play with discontent and resentment among the senators because Caesar seems to be overly ambitious, power-hungry and dictatorial in his style of leadership. Caesar himself is full of bravado, with a magnificent reputation, but cracks have appeared in the image – his superstition, his susceptibility to flattery, his disregard for the senators and his wife, the barrenness of his marriage and his own ‘falling sickness’.

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At the end of the play the Triumvirate takes the reins, but much has been lost. Fine men like Cassius, Brutus and Titinius have lost their lives along with Caesar – and so has Portia. The people of Rome are divided. The Triumvirate that is taking over power is already showing signs of disunity. It is by no means clear that Octavius will prove less dictatorial than Caesar was, and he does not have the fine record of achievement and experience behind him either. It is doubtful whether much has been gained by such great sacrifices. So what do we learn? Clearly one concern is how costly civil strife can be and how little it achieves.

ACTIVITY 2 Examine the state of affairs under Caesar at the beginning of the play, and the state of affairs at the end under the Triumvirate. • Did the conspirators have good reasons to assassinate Caesar? List the losses in this civil strife. • Is the situation better now that Caesar is no longer around? • What conclusion can you draw from your answers to these questions?

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Contrasting speeches

LEARNING OUTCOMES In this section you will:

Compare the speeches that Brutus and Mark Antony make to the crowd after the assassination. Brutus reminds the people of his love for Caesar, but declares that he loved Rome even more than he loved Caesar. He explains that it was necessary for Caesar to be killed if they were to remain free men, since Caesar had grown so ambitious. His speech is short and to the point; it is as if he feels that when he gives a rational explanation, the crowd will understand. The crowd seem satisfied with his explanation, yet when Brutus leaves and Mark Antony makes his speech, he is able to sway them in the opposite direction, and they now call Brutus a traitor and are ready to burn down his house. What is Mark Antony’s method? Where Brutus appealed to their reason and their dignity as free Romans, Mark Antony appeals to their emotions, their imagination and even to their selfishness. Where Brutus relies on their minds, Mark Antony shows them the body and the wounds and the torn mantle, urging them to imagine the scene of the assassination. He reminds them of Caesar’s achievements in battle and the way he made Rome rich. He lets the crowd see his tears as he weeps (or pretends to weep), and so moves them to mourn too. He keeps repeating that Brutus is ‘an honourable man’ until the words start to sound sarcastic. He brings out Caesar’s will which, he claims, bequeaths all his property to the men of Rome, so arousing their anger that such a benefactor has been killed. Mark Antony has a fine sense of the dramatic – asking the crowd’s permission to come down among them, having them encircle the body of Caesar, and showing them first the torn mantle and then the mangled corpse:

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• examine the contrasting features in the speeches made by Brutus and Mark Antony • consider the nature and function of the crowd in the play • understand that a leader must be able to ‘connect’ with the people and that may entail playing on their emotions rather than appealing to reason.

Contrasting speeches: Brutus and Mark Antony

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1 Both Brutus and Mark Antony claim to have loved Caesar: one assassinates him and the other fights to defeat the assassins.

a What causes Brutus to act as he does, despite his love for Caesar? b Do you find that Mark Antony’s love for Caesar is entirely free of selfinterest?

Kind souls, what weep you when you but behold Our Caesar’s vesture wounded? Look you here, Here is himself, marred as you see with traitors. Act 3 Scene 2 lines 195–197

Mark Antony is a consummate actor, knowing just when to turn aside to hide his tears, and his timing is perfect. After his magnificent speech, he is clever enough to say, ever so humbly: I am no orator, as Brutus is; But (as you know me all) a plain blunt man That love my friend... Act 3 Scene 2 lines 21–29

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The great irony here is that while Mark Antony claims the finest orator in the play is Brutus, with his sense of fair play and integrity Brutus allowed Mark Antony to deliver the funeral oration. This act of generosity is one of his biggest tactical mistakes and Mark Antony knows how to take advantage of it, stirring the crowd to riot in protest against what the conspirators have done. ACTIVITY 2 List the scenes involving the crowd in this play. What mood(s) prevail(s) in each of the scenes? 3 What evidence can you find to show that the crowd is fickle and easily swayed?

Making lists is a good way of revising. For example make a list for each of: • the features of Mark Antony’s speech and the features of Brutus’s speech, so that you can easily recall those points • the scenes where the crowd appears and the emotions they evoke • the tactical mistakes Brutus makes and why he makes them • the actions and dialogue that demonstrate that Cassius is a good strategist • the places where the supernatural intervenes in the play, and their significance. Your lists will help you recall these points in the exam.

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4 a What evidence can you find in the play that a crowd of people tends to be led by emotion rather than by reason?

EXAM TIP

b Do you feel that this is true of crowds in general?

The crowd

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Shakespeare makes good use of the crowd to suggest the fickleness of society’s response to leaders. The rough demeanour of the tradesmen at the beginning contrasts with the dignified bearing of the senators, reminding us of Shakespeare’s belief that each class of people should know their place in society and remain there – not seeking to rise above their station. The same crowd is so easily led by emotions rather than by reason that Brutus’s reasoned discourse fails to move them much, whereas Mark Antony’s emotional appeal sets them to burning houses and lynching innocent folk like the poet Cinna. The disorder of the crowd – the noise and shouting and burning – both visually and aurally, communicates to us the chaos that breaks out if the divine order of things is upturned. Finally, the chaos of the crowd’s reaction to Antony’s speech prepares us for the total social disorder suggested by civil war.

Mark Anthony giving his speech to the crowd

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The supernatural, irony and suspense

In this section you will: • recognise examples of the supernatural in the play and discover their significance • identify examples of irony in the play • consider the way suspense is created in the play.

ACTIVITY

An important device that Shakespeare uses is to present the power of the supernatural. Calphurnia, Caesar’s wife, has a dream that very accurately foretells what will happen to Caesar, and a soothsayer in the crowd warns Caesar to ‘Beware the ides of March’. An incredibly fierce storm rages as the conspirators secretly meet, fire drops from the sky, and a diviner, examining the entrails of an animal, discovers that the creature had no heart. The importance of omens and visions

Cinna dreams that he feasts with Caesar (after Caesar has died). Such omens suggest disorder in the heavens, responding to the disorder in the realm of men. Before the battle at Philippi, royal eagles perch on the standards, seeming to bless the cause of Brutus and Cassius, but before they engage in fighting, the eagles disappear to be replaced by ravens, crows and kites – scavengers ready to feast on the dead bodies. On the battlefield Brutus actually gains the upper hand, but he is haunted by visions of dead Caesar, and his disturbed psychological state contributes to his defeat. By showing the audience that there is a very real spiritual dimension to life, Shakespeare gives force to the notion that although men may try to carve out their own destiny (and, for example, commit the act of regicide), those spiritual forces will be set in motion to bring retribution and divine justice.

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1 a List all the supernatural occurances in Julius Caesar. Look for examples of: • dreams • omens • sightings of ghosts • prophecies.

The presence of the supernatural

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LEARNING OUTCOMES

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Irony

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b Do peope in your culture believe that supernatural events like those in the play actually occur?

EXAM TIP

Practise writing essay s in response to exam questions, but:

• stick to the time limit of approximately 35 minutes per essay, an d • although no length is specified, aim for a minimum of around 450 words.

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Irony abounds in this play. Here are just a few examples, but you can add to this list: • Brutus, the most virtuous man in the play, is praised even by his enemies – Mark Antony and Octavius – but is a failure as a leader. His nobility and virtue seem to be actual impediments to his success. • As wise as he is, Brutus can be so blind as to give the platform to Mark Antony – unsuspecting of Antony’s designs. • Brutus wins a battle but Cassius loses, when Cassius had seemed so much better at military strategy. • Although Brutus’s men have gained the advantage, Cassius misinterprets what he sees on the battlefield and commits suicide in despair.

Suspense Suspense is created at several points in the play. We do not know how Flavius and Marullus will be dealt with for removing the scarves. Like the onlookers, we do not know what has made Caesar so angry, and we are surprised at how cowed his followers are.

We meet at dead of night with the conspirators, and hold our breath when, once or twice, it seems that their secret has leaked out. We suspect that Cassius is right and it is a big mistake to let Mark Antony have the stage, so we hold our breath again to hear what he will say, and how the crowd will respond. As we watch the Triumvirate ‘pricking out’ the names on their list, identifying individuals to be executed, and realise that they are willing to kill even close family members, we are on the edge of our seats to see where all this will lead. And on the battlefield, Shakespeare cleverly ensures that the advantage swings from one side to the other, so we are in constant suspense – and even as Brutus and Cassius are taking their own lives, we hope against hope that someone will stop them.

ACTIVITY 2 Find the two incidents that build suspense by seeming to show that the news of the conspiracy has leaked out.

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Action and stillness DID YOU KNOW? We call it a soliloquy when an actor is alone on the stage, talking to him or herself. The audience learns of his or her character and/or of a development in the plot from this technique.

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A good deal of action occurs in the play, for example the actual killing of Caesar, the mob attacking Cinna, and fighting on the battlefield. But there are also some very still, quiet scenes, for example the soliloquy of Mark Antony when he is alone with Caesar’s body, and Brutus, alone in his orchard, thinking about the plan to kill Caesar.

‘Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood!’

ACTIVITY 3 Find the action-filled scenes in the play and then look for the scenes in which movement is minimal. What effect is produced by the contrast between noise and silence and between activity and stillness?

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Sound, language and imagery

LEARNING OUTCOMES In this section you will:

Shakespeare uses the sound and movement of the crowd to point to his theme. But this social chaos suggested by the crazed mob is anticipated in the terrific storm that causes even the stoutest hearts to tremble. The noisy raging of the heavens and the reports of strange portents all add to our sense that something is terribly amiss, and that nothing good will come of the assassination. In a contrasting moment, there is a still instance as the conspirators hatch their plan, when the chiming of a clock breaks the silence: that sound effect fills the air with suspense. And on the battlefield there is great scope for sound effects – the neighing horses, the clashing of swords, the sounding of trumpets, the enraged shouting of soldiers attacking and the groans of the wounded. As the noise stops, Antony and Octavius break the new silence to pay their final respects to ‘the noblest Roman of them all’ – Brutus. Notice how the contrast between sound and silence can be dramatically effective and build suspense. Music, which figured so prominently in A Midsummer Night’s Dream – a comedy about love, is hardly heard in this play where conflict, and not harmony, dominates. It sounds briefly in Brutus’s tent before the battle, and even then the young musician falls asleep as he plays.

EXAM TIP

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• think about sound effects in the play • consider the near-absence of music • examine the language and imagery in the play.

Use of sound effects

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The noblemen in this play speak in very dignified blank verse, while the plebeians – the common people – speak in prose. The contrast between them is made more obvious by the fact that the nobles make use of powerful imagery, while the common people use language more functionally and less poetically. Sometimes, too, the common people resort to puns for humour – such as when the cobbler says ‘All that I live by is the awl’, and when he makes the sexual joke about not meddling with women’s matters. The nobles convey their learning and their civility through language.

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Learning quotations for use in the exam is excellent, but keep them as short as possible. A carefully chosen quotation of four or fi ve words is more effective than a dozen lines that do not focus on anythi ng specific.

Language and imagery

Julius Caesar is full of memorable imagery. Brutus compares Caesar to the egg of a snake – not dangerous now, but full of potential danger for the future: And therefore think him as a serpent’s egg Which hatched, would as his kind grow mischievous, And kill him in the shell. Act 1 Scene 2 lines 32–37

Still trying to persuade himself that he is doing the right thing to join in the conspiracy, Brutus uses this metaphor, making the action seem almost like a religious ritual:

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Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius. ... Let’s carve him as a dish fit for the gods, Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds Act 2 Scene 1 lines 166–174

Flavius argues that Caesar needs to have his wings clipped because he is trying to fly too high: These growing feathers plucked from Caesar’s wing Will make him fly an ordinary pitch, Who else would soar above the view of men And keep us all in servile fearfulness.

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Act 1 Scene 1 lines 73–76

And Casca expresses his sense of Caesar’s ambitious nature this way: Why man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus, and we petty men Walk under his huge legs and peep about To find ourselves dishonourable graves.

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Act 1 Scene 2 lines 135–138

The time is ripe, argues Cassius, to deal with Caesar. He compares the timing of their action to the right timing of the tide when you are launching a ship:

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There is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea we are now afloat; And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures.

Act 4 Scene 3 lines 215–221

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You will find many more examples. Notice, though, how suited each image is to the man who uses it – images of a Colossus, ships catching the full tide, eagles and serpents. Each image gives a powerful visual impression of the idea the speaker is communicating.

ACTIVITY 1 Find examples of the noblemen speaking in prose instead of blank verse. Suggest reasons for this switch.

ACTIVITY

2 Points for discussion at the end of the play: • Did the conspirators have sufficient reason to assassinate Caesar? • Did the assassination actually cause more problems than it solved? • Was Cassius right or wrong to say that our destiny is in our own hands?

• Does personal integrity conflict with the practical requirements of leadership: a) in the play? b) in life in general? • What purpose do the women serve in the play? • Why does the supernatural feature so prominently? • What errors of judgement do Brutus and the other conspirators make?

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Unit 1

Practice exam questions

Unit 1: Structured questions 2012–2014 Old Story Time

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

1 Consider the character and role of Pa Ben in the play. a Identify and illustrate THREE of Pa Ben’s personal qualities. b Giving your evidence, show how Mama’s character weaknesses are shown up when she is compared with Pa Ben. c Identify and illustrate THREE dramatic functions served by Pa Ben in the play. (25 marks in total)

1 Issues of courtship and love are presented in the play. Consider this quotation.

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Act 2 Scene 1

a Describe briefly the situation that prompts this response from Helena and explain the irony in her statement. b Compare Helena’s relationship with Demetrius with another love relationship in the play. c Discuss what Shakespeare says in this play about romantic love. (25 marks in total)

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2 At the end of the play, Mama’s attitude to Lois changes dramatically. a Explain why Mama rejects Lois, and show how she consistently shows her dislike for her. b Describe Lois’s role in Len’s life before they were married, explaining how this information is communicated to Mama and to the audience. c Comment on the dramatic effectiveness of the last few moments of the play. (25 marks in total)

We cannot fight for love, as men may do; We should be wooed and were not made to woo.

EXAM TIP

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Write an introductory paragraph and a concluding paragraph for your essays – even if you can only manage one sentence for each.

2 Consider the encounter of Bottom and Titania. a Explain the events that led up to this encounter. b Say what is humorous in this encounter, regarding: i the language ii the situation iii the spectacle. (25 marks in total)

3 Compare the reactions of Bottom and Titania when each of them wakes up from their dream. (25 marks in total)

Notice the mark scheme, and let that guide you regarding how much time you spend on each section. Time yourself, and spend no more than 35 minutes on each answer. Further practice questions and examples can be found on the accompanying CD.

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2015–2017 Julius Caesar

1 Consider the section of the play entitled ‘Night’, beginning with Sadiku’s celebratory dance. a Explain why Sadiku is dancing, and show what part she plays in Sidi’s visit to Baroka. b Comment on the significance of THREE things that Sidi and the audience can see in Baroka’s bedroom. c Give THREE important examples of irony in the scene when Sidi returns to report to Sadiku and Lakunle after this visit. (25 marks in total)

1 Consider the character of Brutus in Julius Caesar. a Compare the motives of Cassius and of Brutus for participating in the assassination of Caesar. b State evidence in the play which shows that the following characters are far more astute than Brutus: i Mark Antony ii Cassius. c Suggest what effect Shakespeare achieves by having both Antony and Octavius speak well of Brutus when they find his body on the battlefield. (25 marks in total)

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The Lion and the Jewel

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2 Consider the beautiful Sidi in The Lion and the Jewel. a Discuss two techniques used by Soyinka to highlight Sidi’s beauty. b Describe Sidi’s response to the advances of: i Baroka ii Lakunle. c Discuss what is ironic about Sidi’s eventual choice of husband. (25 marks in total)

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EXAM TIP

2 Consider the dramatic function of Portia and Calphurnia in Julius Caesar. a Examine: i Portia’s relationship with Brutus ii Calphurnia’s relationship with Caesar. b Discuss the irony in Caesar not heeding Calphurnia’s warning. c Suggest what is achieved dramatically by the inclusion of the two women in this play. (25 marks in total)

Remember that any time you make a point, you must give supporting evidence to back it up. Even though the question is in parts, do not break up your answer; it must be in essay form, with properly developed paragraphs. Start the new paragraph on a new line, but not on a new page.

Further practice questions and examples can be found on the accompanying CD.

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for CSEC

®

A Caribbean Examinations Council® Study Guide

Developed exclusively with the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC®), this study guide will provide candidates in and out of school with additional support to maximise their performance in CSEC® English B.

Examination tips with essential advice on succeeding in your assessments Did You Know? boxes to expand your knowledge and encourage further study The key terms you need to know supplemented by a comprehensive glossary Engaging activities to transfer theory into practice

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Written by an experienced team comprising teachers and experts in the CSEC® English B syllabus and examination, this study guide covers the elements of the syllabus that you must know in an easy-to-use double-page format. Each topic begins with the key learning outcomes from the syllabus and contains a range of features designed to enhance your study of the subject, such as:

Examination-style practice questions to build confidence ahead of your examinations

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This comprehensive self-study package includes a fully interactive CD, containing sample examination answers with accompanying examiner feedback, to build your skills and confidence as you prepare for the CSEC® English B examination.

The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC®) has worked exclusively with Nelson Thornes to produce a series of Study Guides across a wide range of subjects at CCSLC®, CSEC® and CAPE®. Developed by expert teachers and resource persons, these Study Guides have been designed to help students reach their full potential as they study their CXC® programme.

I S B N 978-1-4085-1656-0

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