Genre
Drama
Language
English
Setting and Context
Nigerian village of Ilujinle, 1950s
Narrator and Point of View
3rd person (Play)
Tone and Mood
Sarcastic; playful; lively; witty
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist: Sidi. Antagonists: Baroka and Lakunle.
Major Conflict
Will Sidi be able to carry out her plan to tease the Bale, and will she marry the schoolteacher Lakunle?
Climax
When Sidi runs out sobbing and announces to Lakunle and Sadiku that Baroka fooled them all, and that she is no longer a maid.
Foreshadowing
-When Baroka muses to himself at the end of the first act that it has been five months since he took a wife, it foreshadows his plot to have Sidi as a wife.
-When Sadiku sees the wrestler leaving the Bale's place, "some significance of this breaks on Sadiku and she begins to look a little puzzled" (55). This foreshadows the Bale's virility.
Understatement
- "A woman spoke to me this afternoon" (Sidi, 43).
Allusions
-Lakunle quotes Genesis when he talks of the man and the woman being one flesh (8).
-The Yoruba gods are alluded to throughout the play.
-Lakunle references biblical women such as Ruth, Esther, and Bathsheba when talking about Sidi (20).
Imagery
See separate section on Imagery.
Paradox
N/A.
Parallelism
N/A.
Personification
"The harder part...to break the jungle's back" (24).
Use of Dramatic Devices
-There are a few soliloquies: Lakunle talking about progress, and Baroka also talking about his views on progress.
-Denouement is observable in Sidi's decision to marry Baroka and Lakunle's shifting his attention to another girl.
-Soyinka uses a flashback to depict the white surveyor accepting Baroka's bribe to desist putting the railway through Ilujinle.
-Soyinka satirizes pompous, self-interested, and prideful individuals.
