The Lion and the Jewel By Wole Soyinka

AFRICAN DRAMA

THE LION AND THE JEWEL BY WOLE SOYINKA

CONTENT ANALYSIS

PLOT

The Lion and the Jewel is a dramatization of the conflict between modernism and as represented in Lakunle and traditionalism as depicted in Baroka, Sidi; a young beautiful village belle.

Lakunle, a young teacher in the village Ilujunle, is in love with Sidi, the village queen who understands little of the modern world. She accepts the teacher’s love advances all the same and promises to be his wife the moment Lakunle pays the bride price as demanded by custom. He does not want a wife he would buy as one would do to a piece of furniture, but a companion in love and progress. He also talks of pulling down all the age-longed customs that weigh down on the womenfolk and creating activities that would bring up Ilujinle on the road of civilization.           

Sidi does not believe in Lakunle’s revolutionary idea, as she was stuck in the trado-mythical world of Ilujinle. Like all the other members of the village, she thinks Lakunle is a man whose delight is to turn the world upside down.

Meanwhile, a stranger appears to pop up Sidi’s beautiful image. The stranger is a photographer who had encountered Sidi in the past and had taken pictures which shown the cover and center city magazine create an air of importance in Sidi. Even the Bale is dwarfed by the little girl‘s fame. With this, Sidi sees herself above the two village champions – Lakunle and Baroka.

The sudden fame of Sidi awakens the Bale’s sensuous interest in her. Sadiku, the king’s eldest wife is sent to carry the message of love to Sidi. Sadiku is however rebuffed by the highly conceited girl. The Bale’s interest in Sidi becomes another plank of Lakunle’s hatred against the old man. According to Lakunle, the Bale’s blocked the railway that would have passed through Ilujinle because he does not want the attendant attractions that go with such development. For this, Lakunle hates Baroka with passion.

Lakunl1e’s displeasure does not stop the Bale from his interest in Sidi. Rather, it added fuel to his desire; wanting perhaps to hurt his rival. Lakunle, the Bale maps out tricks to corner Sidi for a wife. He sells a dummy of sudden impotence to unsuspecting Sidi. Remember she has already refused the invitation for dinner. As before,   Sadiku is the vehicle of this grand deceit.  She carries the news of Baroka’s impotence to Sidi and in her mischievous desire taunts the lion of Ilujinle, believing a lie for the truth, she ends in the amorous embrace of Baroka whom she eventually marries to the rejection of Lakunle.

CHARACTERIZATION

Sidi:

Sidi is the central character in the play, a beautiful girl, a true village belle. Lakunle is romantically in love with her, he wants to marry her but after the modern, Christian fashion. Sidi would only marry him any day he pays the bride price which he has refused to pay. She is a simple uneducated girl except in her own tribal traditions. Her mischievousness lands her in trouble when she teases Baroka and thereby loses her virtue. Sidi is a conservative girl who does not like Lakunle’s newfound love-making and his attempt to kiss her is repulsive to her. Sidi is certainly a flirt, a typical village girl; and being highly fascinated by her photographs on the cover of a magazine. She becomes swollen-headed, arrogant, and vain, rating herself above everyone else.

Sidi is typical of a certain class of society, she has her own virtues and vices; although she flirts, she holds strictly to tradition. She will not marry Lakunle, except he is prepared to pay the bride price. It seems that she marries Baroka simply because of her sexual experience with him. Indeed she rather spitefully crows over Lakunle at the end of the play, implying that Baroka was a better man than him.

 Lakunle:

Lakunle typifies a half-educated man who has absorbed and has been influenced by western civilization so that he no longer respects the older traditions of his people. He represents the new order in the society and opposes vehemently the old as exhibited in the case of Baroka. Lakunle would like to educate the illiterate villagers of Illujinle and introduce revolutionary reforms into the social life and outlook of the people.

He falls in love with Sidi, the village girl whom he attempts to indoctrinate with western ideas of marriage and lovemaking and the essentials of healthy living. He would marry Sidi because he loves her and would make her an equal partner in life instead of making her obey tribal marriage customs. Lakunle is a visionary individual so blinded by his idealism that he cannot see the hopelessness of trying to reform the society around him.

Lakunle is a tragic comic character. 

The comic element in him is seen in his scenes with Sidi and his revolutionary ideas of transforming Ilujinle into a civilized town. However, the play also builds up the tragic element in Lakunle, he makes himself an object of ridicule because of his reforming zeal and because of his failure to marry Sidi.

Lakunle is very proud; he considers the villagers simple-tons, and to emphasize this, the playwright makes Lakunle speak with a most sophisticated vocabulary which is incomprehensible to the villagers. They regard him as a crazy fanatic whose brain has been upset by ideas he has read in books.

The failure of Lakunle shows western civilization sometimes bows down to tribal tradition and customs. Lakunle is portrayed as a fool. Thus, Soyinka shows what happens when the new ideas are used half-baked: they will have no effect.

BAROKA:

Baroaka, the bale of Ilujinle, the village head, represents the old order. He is strongly reactionary and does everything to prevent the march of progress from coming near the village. He resorted to bribery to keep away the railway. But this success can only be temporary. He cannot hold back the hands of progress for all time. He had many wives, which is perfectly customary and is still vigorous at sixty-two.

 He is a selfish old man sexually; he only covets Sidi because of her success in the photographs in the magazine and decides to have her as his new wife. He gets her by a low trick playing on her curiosity and mischievousness. We see him at the end expressing his happiness over his capture of Sidi – his victory and those of the old traditions over the new ones typifies by Lakunle.

SADIKU:

Sadiku is the eldest wife of Baroka, a crafty, mischievous old woman. She acts as the emissary of Baroka to Sidi. Baroka relies on her weak character and inability to keep secrets in his plan to get Sidi. He reveals to her his pretended defect in private, knowing that Sadiku will not be able to keep it to herself. She goes out and tells Sidi and others at once. Sadiku and Lakunle are always at loggerheads because they are on different sides over Sidi and their views about life differ from each other.

 She mocks Lakunle for his love of Sidi and weediness. Lakunle is shocked at her mischief-making; threaten to put her in school. Sadiku is delighted at Lakunle’s discomfort over Sidi’s capitulation to Baroka. Then she picks his pocket to give money to the dancers who have come to mock Baroka in his supposed downfall.

Despite her favored position as Baroka’s senior wife, she is delighted when she hears from him that he is past his prime; she is in fact against the whole league of men.

Sadiku is in fact quite unhappy at the turn of events as she had believed Baroka. At the end of the play, she blesses Sidi’s marriage with him.

THEMES

(i)                The contrast between traditional and modern values

(ii)              Theme of polygamy

(iii)            Theme of pride

(iv)            The contrast between the old and the young

(v)              The colonial idea and mentality.