Essay - Death and the King's Horsemen Introduction the Purpose of This...

DEATH AND THE KING'S HORSEMEN

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this paper is to compare and d*****cuss the play, "Death and the King's Horseman," by Wole Soyinka. Specifically, it will discuss the style ***** language used by the Praise Singer throughout the *****, and show how the ***** Singer f*****s the understanding of oral literature and storytelling. It will also look at the part ritual suicide plays in ***** story.

***** ***** THE KING'S HORSEMAN

Soyinka's work as a pl*****ywright, essayist and novelist won the 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature. Many critics believe he is ***** best writer in modern Africa. One critic wrote, "His unique ***** blends traditional Yoruban folk drama with European dramatic form." This play takes place in Soyinka's native Nigeria in 1946, and he based it loosely on true events. He wrote it while he was a fellow at Cambridge, England ***** the early 1970s, and ***** was published in 1975.

The Praise-singer serves as a type of narr*****or in this play. ***** moves the action along from the first page, and helps to prepare the characters (and the audience) for what is to come. He is part confidant, part sooth-sayer, and part storyteller ***** h***** beautifully written speeches are woven throughout the story.

In the first scene, this is especially apparent as Elesin prepares for death and the ***** spouts a flood of questions aimed at finding answers to ***** mystery of *****. "There is only one world to the spirit ***** our race," the Praise-singer says. "If that ***** leaves its course and sm*****hes on boulders of the great void, whose world ***** give us shelter?" Here he is trying to gain understanding about what would happen if Elesin isn't successful in carrying out his death *****. He struggles to know what their fate would be. Later, as Elesin is further into his transiti***** into death, the ***** asks him ***** about what he is experiencing, hoping to gain an *****. "Is ********** now a stre*****k of light at the end of the passage, a light I d*****re not look upon?" he *****. "Does it reveal ***** voices we often heard, whose touches we often felt, whose w*****doms come suddenly into the mind when the wisest have shaken their heads and murmured; ********** can***** be done?" He continues, "Your eyelids are glazed like a courtesan's, is it that you see the dark groom and master of life?" In these passages, the Praise-singer represents our "human" questions, and he hopes *****, in his half-earthly, half-heavenly state, will help him to underst*****. But Elesin cannot answer him, and all remains a mystery.

***** theme of ritual suicide serves several *****s in the play, and as the above p*****sage *****s, the Praise-singer prep*****s Elesin, and later Olunde for ***** they see as their ultimate destinies. The basic plot ***** relates ***** the main character, ***** Oba, who is the ***** Horseman. ***** destiny is preordained. He knows that when the King dies, he must commit ritual *****. Only