Death and Kings Horseman
The death and kings horseman tells the story in play that happened as a real life incident in Nigeria. This mainly focuses around a man named Elsein who the Kings Horseman is. This takes place in British Occupied Nigeria in 1946 and they are part of the Yoruba culture. Elsein then travels to see the women on the eve of the King’s death. The women play a part in the play by helping and almost working for the men. There are scenes where they are not treated fairly and they sometimes just worked. The scenes shows on why and how the men treat the women.
The topic of our project is focusing on Elsein, Olunde, Pilkings, and women on how they are involved. The topic is the contributions and what women do to help the men. Many of them are probably not as treated as well such as an example in a certain scene. These scenes in the play is what impacted the women on the Yoruba culture. Their contributions sometimes helped the men and how it affected their role into being involved in whatever they did for the men. However some were not treated fairly or they were taken for granite. Most of them did not like on how they were treated and the way they were able to handle the things. The contributions that women made for the men in the yoruba culture can be controversial and almost to the point where women want to say something.
In this particular scene it is in the beginning of act one where the praise singer says to Elsein “They love to spoil you but beware. The hands of women also weaken the weary (6)”. He is talking about what Elsein is going to expect from a woman and how they are not doing as much. This happens in the beginning of the scene and how they are discussing the king’s death and what they are doing. In this scene he is going to meet several women to see and view the king’s death. This is shown that they probably view women as weak and the men have a higher status than them. Praise singer is a character in the play that just has a dialogue with Elsein. Praise Singer draws out information and Elsein’s state of mind and his commitment to the task of committing ritual suicide. The whole idea of this scene was for the Praise Singer to make a statement or assumption to Elsein about the women he is looking forward to meet after the kings death.
The scene is significant because of how they are looking down upon women. The Praise singer is making generalization about the power of women and he views women on having the power to love as well as having the power to weaken even the strong. Praise singer feels as if the women might take advantage of the men and how they are going to be with each other. He also feels as if he has to dictate on what they do and to know what they are doing and how they are doing it. It is shown on how the women are treated and are talked about behind their back. It helps us better understand on how they are able to know how men treat and speak about women, in addition to talk down about them.
In Conclusion, The women are mostly looked down upon and are talked about such as the praise singer talks about the women to Elsein. Praise singer does not like the way Elsein will want to see women and thinks it will be a different thing for him when he see them. He advises Elsein to be careful because of how he sees them. “They love to spoil you but beware. The hands of women also weaken the weary (6)”. This quote would mean that they would love to strip the power off of them and do not like the way the women are running things. It is one of the things he does not like and it shows by how he is talking to Elsein. This scene is significant because of what is being discussed and how they are talking about it in the play. The topic on women plays a strong role in the play because of how the men had seen them as and what they were contributing.
