Teacher and Student: The First and the Final Confrontations Between Thami and Mr M Elizabeth Koh 12th Grade

The true tragedy of apartheid lies not on the surface, but in the revealing of unspoken desires underneath the surface. Starkly contrasting with the play-long idealistic image of the “all-knowing Mr M and his brilliant protege Thami”, Thami and Mr M’s ideas about change in the apartheid system clash in this extract. By characterising this much needed moment of honesty as an anagnorisis, Fugard emphasises Thami and Mr M’s role reversal as they flesh out the truth from each other and thus go their separate ways, representing the black-on-black reality of apartheid.

Ripping off their fake ‘public’ masks, Thami and Mr M finally challenge each other to speak the truth in this extract. Starting off the extract with an accusatory tone, Thami sets the atmosphere as one of confrontation and invites the recurring silences that follow. Instead of calling Mr M by his respected title, Thami instead uses indirect, ‘avoidant’ personal pronouns like “you”, “somebody” and “everybody”. Adding to the resulting tone of betrayal, Mr M’s continual asking of questions, contrasting with Thami’s short, assertive responses throughout the extract conveys his confusion and dismay that their pedagogical relationship faces the threat of ending. For example,...