summary of lion and the jewel by wole soyinka

From the stranger’s (technically Lakunle’s) handling of the devil horse (automobile), his bewilderment at the mesmerising beauty of Sidi, to being chased by the villagers, to shutters of the periphrastic “one-eyed box” (a camera), etcetera.Īlthough the mime is interrupted by Baroka, this is only brief. Much of this is conveyed using bodily movements.

The first use of mime occurs during the recollection of the entry of the stranger to Ilujinle. The Lion and the Jewel has its fair share of this. Mime involves using gestures and body movements without words in a play.

This brings the audience on the same page with the characters.įlashback device is again used in Lakunle’s recollection of how Baroka bribed the white Surveyor to divert a railway track intended to pass through his village elsewhere. The flashback is neatly achieved through the accompaniment of drums, improvisations, and mime and imitation. Together with her female informants and the cajoled Lakunle, she re-enacts the events that preceded her new-found fame, apparently the coming of a wandering stranger to Ilujinle Village.

The first instance of flashback occurs just after Sidi received news of her pictures being featured in a magazine. This much can be found in The Lion and the Jewel. In other words, it is the recollection of past events in a literary work. Flashbackįlashback is a transition (in literary or theatrical works or films) to an earlier event or scene that interrupts the normal chronological development of the story. In an instance, frame story and imitation serve the same effect, more of means to an end they help evoke past events, ones that had happened before the commencement of the play, which places the two dramatic techniques in effect within the ambit of flashback technique. Some of these are interconnected in the play. The most discernible and perhaps the most significant dramatic techniques used in the play are flashback, mime or imitation, frame story or story within story, and plot twist. In today’s post, I shall examine some of the dramatic techniques in Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel. Thus far, I have given the synopsis of the play in a post, Talking Points in Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel, and some other salient parts such as themes, figures of speech, and characterisation. Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel is a comic play that borders around the struggle between a mock of Western “civilization” and “medieval” African culture, a conflict between beauty and wit, etcetera.

Summary of lion and the jewel by wole soyinka