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  LOOK BACK IN ANGER BY JOHN OSBORNE 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SETTING OF THE PLAY 

The setting of the play was Midland town in England in 1955. Although Osborne wrote the play in just about seventeen days in May, 1955, the events of the play cut across the late 19th and early 20th century upper ruling class. In contrast, Osborne used the play to depict the raw emotions and living conditions of the working-class people in England. 

BACKGROUND OF THE PLAY 

Look Back in Anger, like some other Osborne's works, depicts the fierceness of post-war youths in Britain. It presents the beginning of revolution in the British theatre, and the central and most immediately influential expression of the mood of the ‘Anger of Young Man’. Although the form of the play was not revolutionary, its content was suitable for the events of the time. Therefore, the play is considered as one of the most outstanding plays in the modern British theater. Osborne draws inspiration from his personal life and failing marriage with Pamela Lane while writing Look Back in Anger, which was his first successful outing as a playwright. In fact, the play is the first well known example of "Kitchen Sink Drama". Kitchen Sink Drama is a style of theater that explores the emotion and issue beneath the surface of ordinary domestic life. The play's main character, Jimmy became the model for the “Angry Young Man," a nickname given to an entire generation of artists and working-class young men in the post-World War II British society. 

Structurally, the play adopts the prominent divisional structure of conventional plays and some elements of dramatic unity. Osborne wrote the play in just about seventeen days in May, 1955. The play was first rejected by many of the agents and theater companies that Osborne approached to produce it. George Divine, the creative producer for the struggling Royal Court Theater, decided to gambie on the play and staged its first production. The play opened on May 8, 1956. It received mixed reviews from English theater critics, yet it won a rave review from the Times. This established the play's notoriety and helped it to eventually build an audience. 

The two major subject-matters of the play are the issue of the Angry Young Man and the Kitchen Sink drama. The Angry Young Man message came to be associated with a group of young writers and artists, Kingsley Amis was the most recognized amongst them, that the cultural public believed to personify an anger, boredom, and frustration with British cultural life that many working-class families felt during this time. The second one is the idea of the Kitchen Sink drama which formed a revelation in the British theater. The dramatic styles of most British theater before Look Back in Anger favored Victorian dramas and comedies of classical plays. In a general sense, the Victorian plays dealt mostly with polite themes from the late 19th and early 20th century upper ruling class. In contrast, Osborne's play depicts the raw emotions and living conditions of the working class. This style of theater was given the name "Kitchen Sink" because of its focus on the interior domestic and emotional lives of ordinary people. In the case of Look Back in Anger, the kitchen is literally a part of the set. Unarguably, the background of the play is the rise and fall of the British Empire. The beginning of the twentieth century saw the peak of power and influence of British colonialism. By the 1950's, two World Wars, which devastated the British economy, and the rise of the United States as the new world military and political power meant that the British Empire had entered a steep decline. Jimmy Porter is representative of an entire culture that remained nostalgic for this past glory. He idealizes the worthy causes of the past even while he mocks those who tannot understand why the times have suddenly changed. 

PLOT OF THE PLAY 

The events of the play begin in Mr. Porter's one-room apartment in Midland town. The apartment wears an old look with nearly dilapidating furniture. As the curtain rises, Jimmy and Cliff are seen seated in the two armchairs, left and right respectively. Beside them is a jungle of newspapers and weeklies. It is a Sunday morning in April. Jimmy and Cliff are reading the Sunday papers while Alison, Jimmy's wife is ironing in a corner of the room. Jimmy is a hot-tempered young man who always engages in provoking jokes but doesn't like to be provoked. Jimmy begins to annoy both Cliff and Alison by making jest of their background. He makes derogatory comments about Cliff's working-class background and makes fun of him for his low intelligence. Cliff is easy-going and good natured. He takes issues calmly. Even when Jimmy describes him as ignorant and peasant, he gives no response and he picks no offence. Jimmy also attempts to provoke his wife, Alison, by making fun of her family and her well heeled life before he married her. As the conversation continues, Jimmy seems to display a nostalgic feeling for England's powerful past. He observes that the world has entered a dark age as power has shifted to American. Alison becomes tired of Jimmy's rants and begs for peace. This prompts a fight between Jimmy and Alison. Cliff attempts to keep peace between the two. Their wrestling ends up running into Alison, causing her to fall down. Jimmy is sorry for the incident, but Alison makes him leave the room. “Jimmy makes a frantic, deliberate effort, and manages to push Cliff on to the ironing board and into Alison. The board collapses. Cliff falls against her, and they end up in a heap on the floor. Alison cries out in pain. Jimmy looks down at them, dazed and breathless”. (Page 27) 

After Jimmy leaves, Alison confides to Cliff that she is pregnant with Jimmy's child, though she has not yet told him. Cliff advises her to tell him, but when Cliff goes out and Jimmy re-enters the room, the two instead fall into an intimate game. Jimmy impersonates a stuffed bear and Alison impersonates a toy squirrel. Cliff returns to tell Alison that her old friend, Helena has called her on the phone. Alison leaves to take the call and returns with the news that Helena is coming to visit and stay with them for a while. Jimmy does not like Helena and he becomes angry that Helena is coming to stay with them. In his words, he says he wishes that Alison would suffer in order to know what it means to be a real person. He curses her and wishes that she could have a child only to watch it die. 

“Oh, my dear wife, you've got so much to learn. | only hope you learn it one day. If only something - something would happen to you and wake you out of your beautiful sleep! If you could have a child, and it would die...” (Page 45). Alison's head goes back as if she were about to make some sound. But her mouth remains open and trembling, as Cliff looks on. (Page 46). 

Two weeks later, Helena has arrived and Alison discusses her relationship with Jimmy. She tells of how they met and how, in their younger days, they used to crash parties with their friend, Hugh Tanner. Jimmy keeps his love and respect for Hugh's family, especially Hugh's mother, though his relationship with Hugh was strained when Hugh opted to travel to another country and Jimmy decides to stay with Alison, his wife. Jimmy seems to regret that he didn't travel with Hugh and leave Alison stranded. At the same time, Jimmy is also angry at Hugh for abandoning his mother. Helena inquires about Alison's affectionate relationship with Cliff and Alison tells her that they are Strictly friends. 

‘Is Cliff in love with you?” — Helena (Page 50).” No... | don't think so. You mean there must be something physical too? | suppose there /s, but it's not exactly a consuming passion with either of us” — Alison (Page 51') 

Cliff and Jimmy return to the flat and Helena tells them that she and Alison are leaving for church. Jimmy disagrees and goes into an anti. religious rant and ends up insulting Alison's family once again, He becomes fiercely angry and he's capable of anything now. He says. ‘I've got every right. That old bitch should be dead!” (referring tg Alison's mother), (Page 68).Helena replies him, “Oh for heaven's sake, Yon't be such a bully! You've no right to talk about her mother like that, (Page 68). Helena becomes angry and Jimmy dares her to slap him on the face, warning her that he will slap her back. He tells her of how he watched his father die as a young man. His father had been injured fighting in the Spanish Civil War and had returned to England only ta die shortly after. Alison and Helena begin to leave for church and jimmy feels betrayed by his wife. 

A phone call comes in for Jimmy and he leaves the room. Helena tells Alison that she has called Alison's father to come and take her away from her aggressive and abusive husband. Alison relents and says that she will go when her father comes to pick her up the next day. When Jimmy returns, he tells Alison that Mrs. Tanner, Hugh's mother, has become sick and she's going to die. Jimmy decides to visit her and he demands that Alison make a choice of whether to go with Helena or with him. Alison picks up her things and leaves for church and Jimmy collapses on the bed, heartbroken by his wife's decision. 

The next evening, Alison's father, Colonel Redfern has come to fetch her. She is seen packing her luggage and talking with her father. The Colonel is a soft-spoken man who realizes that he does not quite understand the love that exists between Jimmy and Alison. He admits that his own actions and that of Alison's mother are partly responsible for Alison's marital unrest. He says: “It's a little late to admit it, | know, but your mother and | weren't entirely free from blame... | have always pelieved that she went too far over Jimmy. Of course, she was extremely upset at that time, we both were, and that explains a good deal of what happened... All those inquiries, private detectives and the accusations”. The Colonel was an officer in the British military and served in India and he is nostalgic for his time there. He considers his service to be some of the best years of his life. Alison observes that her father is hurt because the present is not the past and that Jimmy is hurt pecause he feels the present is only the past. Alison begins to pack her toy squirrel, but then she decides not to do so. Helena and Cliff soon enter the scene. Alison leaves a letter for Jimmy explaining why she has decided to leave her marital home for her father’s house. She gives the letter to Cliff to be the delivered to Jimmy. After Alison leaves, Cliff becomes angry and gives the letter to Helena, blaming her for the situation. 

jimmy returns but he’s shocked that he was almost hit by Colonel Redfern's car and that Cliff pretended not to see him when he was walking by on the street. He reads Alison's letter and becomes very angry. Helena calmly reveals to him that Alison is pregnant. She says: lf you'll stop thinking about yourself for one moment, I'll telf you something | think you ought to know. Your wife is going to have a baby. (Page 97). But Jimmy replies, “/ don't care if she's going to have a baby. | don't care if it has two heads!” Rather, Jimmy insults Helena and she slaps him, then passionately kisses him. 

She slaps his face savagely. An expression of horror and disbelief floods his face. But it drains away and all that is left is pain. His hand goes up to his head, and a muffled cry of despair escapes him. Helena tears his hand away, and kisses him passionately, drawing him down beside her. (Page 98). Several months later, on a Sunday evening, Jimmy and Cliff once again are reading the Sunday papers while Helena stands in the corner ironing. Jimmy and Cliff still engage in their angry banter and Helena's religious tendencies have taken the brunt of Jimmy's punishment. Jimmy and Cliff perform scenes from musicals and comedy shows but when Helena leaves, Cliff notes that things do not feel the same with her here. Cliff then tells Jimmy that he wants to move out of the apartment for some reasons. “... / think Helena finds it rather a lot of work to do with two chaps about the place. It won't be too much for her if there’s just the two of you. Anyway, | think | ought to find some girl who'll just look after me” 

Jimmy takes the news calmly and tells him that he has been a loyal friend and is worth more than any woman. Cliff eventually leaves Jimmy's house after a long period of staying together. After Cliff leaves, Helena makes her intention known to Jimmy as they are both in the room. She puts out her hands and runs it over Jimmy's head, fondling his ear and neck. In a very sonorous voice, she says, 'I love you'. Jimmy doesn't say much but, in a moment, his lips find her fingers and he kisses them. She presses his head against her. (Page 116). Helena responds, ‘I've always wanted you - always! They kiss again. (Page 117). At the rise of the curtain, Alison suddenly enters. She begins to be sorry for having come back. Helena tells her she doesn't need to be sorry. She explains that she is sorry because everything was her fault and that all of them would have wished her to be a thousand miles away! Alison and Helena talk while Jimmy leaves the room. He begins to loudly play his trumpet. Alison has lost her baby and looks sick. Helena tells Alison that she should be angry with her for what she has done, but Alison is only grieved by the loss of her baby. 

Helena is driven to distraction by Jimmy's trumpet playing outside and demands that he comes into the room. When he comes back in, he laments the fact that Alison has lost the baby but waves it off. Helena then tells Jimmy and Alison that her sense of morality -right and wrong -has not diminished and that she knows she must leave. Alison attempts to persuade her to stay, telling her that Jimmy will be alone if she leaves. 

When Helena leaves, Jimmy attempts to once again become angry but Alison tells him that she has now gone through the emotional pains and physical suffering that Jimmy has always wanted her to feel. He realizes that she has suffered greatly, has become like him. Jimmy therefore becomes softer and tenderer towards Alison for the first time in many years. The play ends with Jimmy and Alison embracing, once again playing their game of bear and squirrel. Joy returns after much anxiety and pandemonium. The play ends on the note of happiness and therefore, it is a comedy. 

ACT BY ACT SUMMARY 

ACT1 

The first scene of the play opens where Jimmy and Cliff are reading the Sunday papers in Mr. Porters’ one-room flat in Midland town. The setting is mid-1950's in a small town in England. Jimmy and Alison share their apartment with a young working-class man who is a best friend of Jimmy. Cliff and Jimmy both come from a working-class background, though Jimmy has had more education than Cliff. They are in business together running a sweet-stall. Alison comes from a more prominent family being a daughter of a retired Colonel. Alison is attempting to do the week's ironing and is only half listening as Jimmy  and Cliff engage in the expository dialogue. 

It becomes apparent that there is a huge social difference between Jimmy and Alison. Her family is upper-middle-class military, while Jimmy belongs to working class. He has to fight hard against her family's disapproval to win her. As their conversation continues, Jimmy becomes annoyed and begins to express his annoyance for Alison's family by abusing Alison and calling her "pusillanimous” (timid) and belittling her and her family. When Alison is alone with Cliff, she confides in him that she is accidentally pregnant for Jimmy but she refuses to tell him. Cliff urges her to tell him. When Jimmy returns, Alison announces that her actress friend, Helena Charles is coming to Stay with them. Jimmy is not happy that Helena is coming to stay in his house but he has no choice than to accept her wife's friend. He becomes angry again and calls Helena a bitch. 

ACT 2 

Two weeks later, Helena has started staying with Alison in Jimmy's house. On that Sunday afternoon, Helena and Alison are making lunch, As they are talking, Alison says that she decides to marry Jimmy because of her own minor rebellion against her upbringing as well as her love for Jimmy's campaigns against the neglect of young people in - post-war England. She describes Jimmy as a difficult person. Helena tells her she has got to fight him. Eventually, Jimmy enters and his anger evolves again. When the two put on their hats and declare that they are going to church, Jimmy's sense of betrayal peaks. When he leaves to take an urgent phone call, Helena announces that she has forced the issue. She has sent a letter to Alison's parents asking them to come and take her away from her quarrelsome husband. Alison is stunned but agrees that she will go. 

The next evening, Alison's father, Colonel Redfern, comes to withdraw her and take her back home. The playwright presents the Colonel as quite a sympathetic character but totally out of touch with the modern world, as he himself admits. "You're hurt because everything has changed" whereas Alison tells him, “and Jimmy is hurt because everything has stayed the same". Helena arrives t0 Say goodbye, intending to leave very soon herself. Alison is surprised that Helena ig staying on for another day, but she (Alison) leaves with her father giving Cliff a note for Jimmy. Cliff gives the note to Helena and leaves, saying "I hope he rams it up your nostrils". 

Almost immediately, Jimmy bursts in. His annoyance on getting a "goodbye" note from his wife makes him turn on Helena again, warning her to keep out of his way until she leaves. Helena tells him that Alison is pregnant for him but Jimmy admits that he does not care whether she going to have a baby or not. However, his anger evolves again. Jimmy abuses Helena and she slaps his face. The two come to physical blows, and then suddenly curtain falls. Jimmy and Helena are kissing passionately and Helena is drawing Jimmy down beside her to fallon each other. 

ACT3 

Act 3 opens with series of events several months after Alison has left Jimmy's house. It is another Sunday evening. Alison's personal belongings, such as her make-up things on the dressing table, have been replaced by Helena's. This time around, Helena is at the ironingboard wearing Jimmy's old shirt. Months have passed and she looks more attractive than before. Jimmy is notably more pleasant to Helena than he was to Alison, his legitimate wife. She actually laughs at his jokes, and the three of them (Jimmy, Cliff, and Helena) get into a comedy routine that obviously is not improvised. Cliff announces that he has decided to leave Jimmy's house. As Jimmy leaves the room to get ready for a final night out for the three of them, he opens the door to find Alison, looking like a monster. Jimmy does not even talk to her, rather he turns to Helena and says, "Friend of yours is here to see you" and he leaves immediately. The two women are left talking to each other. Alison explains to Helena that she lost her baby (as Jimmy predicted in Act 1 when he says that Alison would conceive a child and lose it), The two women reconcile, but Helena realizes that what she has done is immoral and she in turn decides to leave. She summons Jimmy to hear her decision and he lets her go with a sarcastic farewel, The play ends with a sentimental reconciliation between Jimmy ang Alison, They revive an old game they used to play, pretending to be bears and squirrels, and seem to be in a state of truce. Happiness afte harshness and tension, the real meaning of comedy.

 CHARACTERIZATION 

Jimmy Porter - Jimmy is the central character of the play. The whole issue of the play starts and ends with him. He is a tall, thin young man of about twenty-five years of age. He is a proud and ruthless human being who has got his own private morality and never submits to any man, He is always right in his own world; angry with every British institution such as the Church, the Monarchy, the government and he rants against ‘posh' Sunday papers, though he buys them every weekend. He is against all forms of upper-class manners, yet he married a girl from that class. He comes from working class background but hates working class people with passion. Though a university graduate, Jimmy and his friend, Ciff are into candy-stall business, which they have run together for many years. Jimmy frequently attacks Alison's timidity and weakness. He is dependent on Alison and this causes anxiety in him. He makes use of one of the ego defence mechanisms called ‘reaction formation’. In other words, he expresses anger and aggressive behaviour in order to hide his vulnerability and dependence. In his insecurity, he suspects Alison's devotion and submission; he doubts Alison's loyalty when he goes through her things in her absence. Jimmy and Allison actually have a marriage based on love but Jimmy's anger eventually forces Allison to leave him while carrying an unborn baby for him. However, Jimmy is accommodating. He accommodates his friend, Ciff and his wife's friend, Helena. At times, Jimmy tries to be jovial as he and his wife somehow play squirrel and bear game. The only time Jimmy becomes repentant of his actions is when Alison comes back and informs him that she loses the baby. He is a typical angry young man.

Cliff Lewis: Cliff is a longtime friend of Jimmy. He lives with Jimmy in his father's apartment in the Midlands. They both run sweet-stall business. Although Cliff is not as educated and intelligent as Jimmy claims, he's well behaved and compassionate. He is of the same age as Jimmy. He's actually short, dark, easy-going and relaxed with natural intelligence of the self-taught. Cliff is tender and lovable. He pacifies Alison whenever Jimmy castigates her or treats her badly. He comes from working class background which Jimmy abuses at will. He is able to put up with Jimmy's misdemeanors until the day he decides to leave Jimmy's house. He tells Jimmy: “I don't think I shall stay here much longer. I have just thought of trying somewhere different. The sweetstall is all right, but I think I'd like to try something else. You're highly educated, and it suits you, but I need something a bit better” (Page 112). 

Alison Porter: She is the wife of Jimmy Porter. She is tall, slim and dark. The bones of her face are long and delicate. There is a surprising reservation about her eyes which are so large and deep. Alison gets married to Jimmy in error and she never knows happiness in her marriage until her father comes and takes her away on the advice of Helena, Alison's friend. After marrying Jimmy and he starts maltreating her, she regrets a lot as she says: “Well, for twenty years, I'd lived a happy and uncomplicated life, and suddenly, this — this spiritual barbarian - throws down the gauntlet at me.” (page 89). Alison finds it difficult to confide in Jimmy. Even when she becomes pregnant, she refuses to tell him. She tells Cliff who later advises her to tell her husband. 

Helena Charles - She is a bosom friend of Alison who has come to live with her (Alison) in her matrimonial home. She is the same age as alison; medium height, always carefully and expensively dressed. sh ls very attractive. Her sense of matriarchal authority makes most men anxious to meet her. Helena receives her due respect and admiration, even from other young women like Alison. Her appearance arouses aj) the instincts in a man and she is not accustomed to having to defenq herself against catcalls. However, her sense of modestly exalteq responsibility enables her to behave with impressive show of strength and dignity. She betrays her friend, Alison by falling in love with Jimmy after Alison packed out of the house. Although when Alison comes back, she apologizes to her as she leaves the house for Alison and her husband. Colonel RedfernHe is the father of Alison Porter. A large handsome man of about sixty years of age. Colonel Redfern has spent forty years in the military as a soldier. He is soft-spoken and understanding. He decides to go and withdraw his daughter, Alison from her marriage to Jimmy Porter when the later begins to treat her anyhow. He is a loving father who still finds a space in heart to forgive her daughter after she goes contrary to their advice in marriage. Colonel Redfern is an honest and straight forward person. He admits that Alison's marriage to Jimmy is partly their fault and they have to be blamed. 

THEMES OF THE PLAY 

Love and Friendship — This is a major theme that runs across the play. It is demonstrated between Jimmy and Alison who love each other to the extent that they disregarded all odds and got married, even though the marriage did not last. It is also shown between Jimmy and Cliff who lived together for many years and the same business together all in the name of friendship. It can also be found between Alison and Helena. 

Betrayal and Treachery — Helena betrays the trust Alison has In her to bring her to her husband's house not knowing that she would later fall in love with her (Alison's) husband. Although Helena later realized that what she did was immoral, not until Alison had lost her baby and her matrimonial integrity. 

Social Class Distinction — The characters in the play belong to different social classes, in the post-World War II period in England. While Jimmy and Cliff are from working class background (the most ordinary people of the society), Alison and Helena are from uppermiddle background of rich and well-to-do people. Jimmy does not really like being associated with working class people, probably because he is now very educated. He has in some ways left his background behind, but he also doesn't feel fully comfortable and hasn't been accepted into the upper class. Alison and Jimmy's relationship is the main place where class conflict unfolds. Both portray the struggle between the two classes in military terms, focusing on the ways they fail to blend. Though the couple try to make their relationship work, the class division between them still hamstrings their effort. Jimmy, in his insecurity and inferiority complex, uses anger and aggressive behaviour to intimidate Alison, who would have exhibited chauvinism, prejudice and supremacy over him. 

Anger — Jimmy is full of inordinate anger which nearly ruins his life. Due to anger, he temporarily loses his wife, he loses what could have been termed as his first and only child. The same untold anger makes him receive insults and slaps from his wife's friend, Helena. Although they later became lovers and did a lot of things together. 

Suffering — Alison suffers so much in her marriage despite the fact that she gave a lot of sacrifices to marry her husband. She suffers neglect and alienation from her parents. She also suffers insults and abuses from Jimmy. 

Hypocrisy ~ The pretentious lifestyle of the upper class is of great concern in this play. Their hypocrisy is such that their public appearance contrasts sharply with their private conduct. Helena pities Alison for having married Jimmy and works out a way through which Alison leaves her husband's house, only for her (Helena) to fall in love with the same man she has severely condemned.

LET ME DIE ALONE -By John Kolosa Kargbo 

BACKGROUND OF AUTHOR

John Kolosa Kargbo was born in Sierra Leone in 1954 and died in 1992.  He attended the Prince of Wales’ Secondary School in Freetown together with Clifford Gaber, john Kargbo founded Songhai Theatre, known as Shegureh players, and Balangi Dramatic group founded in 1974.  They produced other plays and English plays called Choice of the Gods.  Apart from Let Me Die Alone, which was impressive, Otegu was a successful comedy about love infidelity.

             It is probably Let Me Die Alone that assured Kargbo’s reputation; a meticulously researched and well-constructed script.  His early death was a tremendous blow to the development of dramatic literature in his country.

John Kargbo

SETTING OF THE PLAY 

The play is principally set at the chiefdom of Senehun in Sierra Leone before the actions move to Moyamba with casual references to some surrounding chiefdoms of Moyamba. 

BACKGROUND OF THE PLAY

The time frame is late 19th century through to 20th century when modernization is forced upon the traditional Sierra Leoneans which brings about much conflict and devastation. The play offers a strong critique of the oppression of women under a patriarchal system. Many women have been dissatisfied with this system and have felt trapped by it. Men in power have seen no reason to change the standard. The play is therefore a critique of the imposition of colonial influence on traditional Sierra Leonean society. 

PLOT OF THE PLAY 

Let Me Die Alone is a play about a historical figure called Madam Yoko, who rules Kpa Mende in the late 19th century. The play opens with Gbanya, the paramount ruler of the land who has thirty-seven wives. One of his wives, probably the one that he loves so much more than the others, Yoko demands to be crowned as the ruler of the kingdom after Gbanya's death. She has expected this leadership position and prepared well for it with everything within her capacity. Of course, it is untraditional in Africa for a woman to become a ruler, except the one that can observe the stringent rituals that can permit her to lord it over the people. In fact, in Koa Mende, a woman who wants to become a ruler of the kingdom must join the Poro, a secret society of men with tribal leadership potentials. When a woman joins this society, it means that she is ready to sacrifice her reproductive organs and remain childless for life. When she does that, she will be equal with men and she then has the right to lead the people. Yoko has consented and sha now has the right to be crowned after the death of her husband. 

Gbanya is troubled for series of things happening in his kingdom. He says, ‘And now everything seems to be happening with such rapidity. I lost my best fighters in the Ashanti and Caulker campaigns. Just as in the dream of last night, the Governor himself now comes to humiliate me in the eyes of my people.” (Act 1, Scene 1). It is during this turbulent moment that Yoko has come to persuade Gbanya to entrust the kingdom to her hand, “Then my lord, your love for me all these years has been prompted by this body. Remember you told me to bear no children as the Poro might need me. And now, on the verge of old age, you leave me to remain alone in distress. What is the value of old age without children? Now | know all my sacrifices in these past years have been in vain... Well, to whom will you leave the chiefdom?” (Act 1, Scene 1) Not many days after this, Gbanya dies and joins his ancestors. However, his death has been remotely caused by the activities of the colonial forces that have disrespected the tradition of the kingdom and even flogged the king in the presence of his people. This unthinkable disgrace weakens the king. He prefers to die but he needs to hand over the chiefdom before his death. In an attempt to prevent him from handing over the chiefdom to his wife (Yoko), Lamboi and Musa conspire and poison him but Yoko secures the power before Gbanya finally gives up the ghost. 

On becoming the ruler, Yoko's leadership begins to be challenged by her brother, Lamboi and his accomplice, Musa who is the priest. Lamboi and Musa devise a plan to overthrow Yoko because they consider it abnormal for a woman to rule in a men-dominated society. Meanwhile, Madam Yoko's reign is pleasant and peaceful even more than that of her husband. She maintains a cordial relationship with the colonial Governor and carries out the dictates of the imperial representatives, she settles disputes among her people without bias and shows love and dedication to the people of the land. In the meantime, Madam Yoko moves her chiefdom from Senehun to Moyamba where she is now administering some other smaller chiefdoms on the order of the colonial Governor. Madam Yoko loves Jeneba, the daughter of Jilo and Ndapi, and she plays with her so much. One day, Lamboi and Musa plot to kidnap and kill Jeneba ang then make people believe that Madam Yoko has used her for a sacrificg to consolidate her position as Chief. Lamboi says, “Suppose we kidnap her, take her to the bush...... Then we tell the warriors and the people that Yoko has sacrificed her to consolidate her position as Chief. We Shall tell them that she buried the child alive. That will cause a lot of trouble. Then the people will force her to give up the chiefdom and go into exile. If she refuses, then measures will be taken to depose her. And if that fails, she will definitely be killed.” (Act 2, scene 3). The plan is achieved. Jeneba is kidnapped, killed and buried in the bush. 

At the courtyard of Moyamba, elders-Ndapi, Lavalie, Ngo Musa and Lamboi are sitting when Madam Yoko enters and informs them that the colonial Governor has sent her to crown two chiefs in Taiama. Before her return, the news of Jeneba's mysterious disappearance is already everywhere and Lamboi and Ngo Musa have been able to convince the entire community that Madam Yoko has buried her alive in her quest to arrogate more power. The whole chiefdom is on fire as Ndapi, the father of Jeneba, is audaciously threatening to cause massive destruction if his daughter is not found. “Enough! Don't drag Poro into this, Ngo Musa. My daughter must be found and | don't care if I have to turn Moyamba over, tear it with my bare hands. I'll find her.” (Act 3, Scene 7) Madam Yoko is back and she is accused of killing Jeneba as everyone begins to call her different names. “Have you all in this chiefdom gone mad? Can't I pass through my own land without my people shouting murderer, devil and witch? Is that the way to greet your Queen? ... (Act 3, Scene 1). People begin to insult their Queen on the account of murder. She simply admits to die for an offence she does not commit. All of a sudden, a girl rushes in shouting, 'We have found her...behind the Sande Bush. We went to dig up some potatoes and we found the body...’ (Act 3, Scene 1). Madam Yoko is just looking at everyone who has insulted her over the matter and then, she says, “...That is the child I sacrificed alive to win the favours of the Governor. That is the child that has earned me the scorn of the entire chiefdom; the child that has caused me to be labelled witch, murderer, and devil. That is the child buried alive by me in a big pot. (Act 3, Scene 1) Ndapi, the women and everyone who have insulted Madam Yoko begin to beg for forgiveness but Madam Yoko promises to drag the matter to the Poro to know the killer of the girl. Poro reveals that Lamboi and Ngo Musa kill Jeneba. 

In the climax of this occurrence, a messenger comes from the Governor that the six villages to the North of the Tabe River in the chiefdom of Madam Yoko has been ceded to the chiefdom of Bo with immediate effect. This reduces her territorial control. Then Madam Yoko reacts and sends the same messenger back to the Governor, “Tell the Governor that I understand the contents of his letter... Tell him that I thank him... Tell him that in all my years as ruler of this chiefdom, I have never been disgraced in this manner....” Act 3, Scene 4. 

Due to the humiliation, she suffers from her people and the loss of her chiefdom, Madam Yoko reaches out for poisonous concoction prepared for her by her maid, Musu. As she is about to drink it, Fanneh, one of her maids, restrains her and says, “Madam, if you are to drink it, let me drink it first”. Madam Yoko answers Fanneh and says, “... No. You cannot. I don't want two graves to be prepared. I have savoured the fruits of power alone; I have known and enjoyed the grandeur of high office alone; if I am to die, then Jet me die alone...” (Act 3, Scene 4). she drinks it and dies. In death, she hopes to find peace and never to be used again, she connects with noble ancestors of the land to receive her; she sends word to the entire chiefdom not to be Mourn as she did not bring a child to this world. 

ACT BY ACT SUMMARY 

ACT ONE 

The action of the play begins in Gbanya's bedroom. Singing ang drumming are going on offstage but Gbanya is busy with his wife, Yoko. Gbanya has been the ruler of Mende Chiefdom for some years, but now, things are no longer like before. However, Gbanya is in the room with Yoko ready for a romantic action with her but Yoko is refusing her husband's romance because she wants to go and witness the group of Mende girls dancing around the palace. Incidentally, Gbanya and Yoko are interrupted by the appearance of a guard who brings a message from the Governor's messenger that the Governor will visit the kingdom of Mende the following day. Chief Gbanya believes that the Governor's visit must be in connection with the boys he hires to John Caulker to fight against his brother, George. Therefore, Gbanya expresses his fear and anxiety about the visit of the Governor because he has had a dream where he sees the Governor humiliating him in the presence of his people. He confesses to Yoko that he may soon join his ancestors in death. Yoko therefore reminds Gbanya of his long time promise of handing over the kingdom to her after his death but circumstances have made Gbanya to change his mind as recounted in his speech to Yoko. ‘Yoko, of all my thirty-seven wives, you know I cherish you most. At the time of making that promise, I never knew that war would be ravaging this our land. Enemies, Yoko, too many enemies are bent on wiping out my people. Look, woman, if Senehun is to survive, a man must lead her...’ (Act 1, Scene 1). 

In the meantime, Lamboi and Musa conspire to poison Chief Gbanya in Order to stop Yoko from convincing him to pass the chiefdom to her. Initially, Musa rejects the plan but later agrees with the pair of poisoning Gbanya so that Lamboi can take over as the ruler of Senehun kingdom. When the Governor arrives at the palace of the Chief, he flogs Gbanya mercilessly before the entire people of Senehun chiefdom. As their ruler is rolling in pains, Musa begins to treat his wounds and he eventually poisons the Chief. Gbanya actually realizes that Musa has poisoned him. He invokes curses on Lamboi and Musa for giving him alligator gall to drink. As he is about to die, Yoko appears and he hands over the throne to her. She is then forced to join Poro which will make her never to bear children throughout her life time. Yoko joins Poro and remains the ruler of the kingdom. 

ACT TWO 

jilo, the wife of Ndapi is having an immoral affair with Lansana. Lansana is seen flattering Jilo with indecent words to the extent that he grabs her with his hands and pushes her into the hut and has canal knowledge of her. Jilo's husband nearly catches them. In another development, Ndapi and his warrior friend, Lavalie are discussing the unnecessary wars that Madam Yoko wants them to start fighting. Ndapi therefore advises Lavalie to advise Madam Yoko on the use of power and forget the attempt of fighting an unnecessary battle. Ndapi is in the habit of beating his wife, Jilo at slightest provocation. When he returns home and Jilo has not cooked any food, he bounces on her and beats her anyhow. It takes the efforts of a guard to rescue Jilo from him. 

After some time, Madam Yoko moves her Chiefdom from Senehun to Moyamba. As her maids attend to her, she enquires from them about their experiences and feelings at Moyamba. Musu and Fanneh confirm that they like Moyamba even more than Senehun. Madam Yoko loves Jeneba, Ndapi and Jilo's only daughter and describes her as a darling little angel and little queen. 

In the same scene, Ndapi drags his wife to Madam Yoko in the presence of all elders of the land at the palace. Ndapi has caught Jilo and Lansana in the bush having a sexual affair’, Yoko orders Jilo to be kept in stocks and two warriors to go and look fo, Lansana who has run away to Taiama. Just then, the two warriors, enter with Lansana, and Yoko orders his detention without food till she returns from her trip. Lamboi and Musa still continue in their bid to overthrow Madam Yoko. They plan to kidnap Jeneba, kill her and then inform the people that Madam Yoko has used her for sacrifice to renew her power and be getting more favour from the Governor. They believe that the incident will cause trouble in the land and Madam Yoko will be forced to abdicate or relinquish her post in the Chiefdom and Lamboi will take over as the ruler of the Chiefdom. 

The governor sends a messenger to Madam Yoko, extolling her virtues as a friendly and submissive ruler. Light fades and shines at Ndapi's house. As Jilo and Fanneh are discussing, Jeneba is left alone when Lamboi enters from the other end. He rubs some charms on the face of the little girl and carries her away. Madam Yoko is going to Taiama to crown two chiefs on the order of the Governor. She informs her people that the issue of paying tax to the Governor for their huts will be discussed when she returns. This is the time Jilo comes to inform the Queen about her missing child. Madam Yoko sends out guards to ensure that the girl is found. She appoints Lamboi to be in charge of the chiefdom, with Musa as second in command, in her absence. She then leaves for her assignment. 

ACT THREE 

This affords Lamboi to have a taste of power and enjoys the throne for a while. He vows to do anything possible to get the throne for himself, even if it means shedding the blood of an innocent. Lamboi and Musa spread the news that Madam Yoko has used Jeneba for a sacrifice. They claim that the Queen buries the girl alive in a big pot. The women are the first to believe the information and they begin to circulate it all around. On the arrival of the Queen, Ndapi bounces on her, abusing and accusing her of killing his daughter. Musa joins Ndapi in humiliating and insulting Madam Yoko. To declare her innocence, Madam Yoko volunteers to swear by the Poro, the powerful god of the land. Ndapi tells Madam Yoko that she kills his daughter because she does not know the pain of child birth. Ndapi threatens to kill Madam Yoko with his bare hands. As the tension of the missing girl is heightened, a young girl runs to the palace to announce that they have seen Jeneba's dead body where it is buried. 'We have found her...behind the Sande Bush. We went to dig up some potatoes and we found the body...’ (Act 3, Scene 1). Madam Yoko is just looking at everyone who has insulted her over the matter and then, she says, “... That is the child I sacrificed alive to win the favours of the Governor. That is the child that has earned me the scorn of the entire chiefdom; the child that has caused me to be labeled witch, murderer, and devil. That is the child buried alive by me in a big pot. (Act 3, Scene 1). Ndapi, the women and everyone who have insulted Madam Yoko begin to beg for forgiveness but Madam Yoko promises to drag the matter to the Poro to know the killer of the girl. Poro reveals that Lamboi and Ngo Musa kill Jeneba. 

In the climax of this occurrence, a messenger comes from the Governor that a portion of the chiefdom of Madam Yoko has been ceded to the chiefdom of Bo with immediate effect. Then Madam Yoko reacts and sends the same messenger back to the Governor, “Tell the Governor that I understand the contents of his letter... Tell him that I thank him... Tell him that in all my years as ruler of this chiefdom, I have never been disgraced in this manner....“Due to the humiliation she suffers from her people and the loss of her chiefdom, Madam Yoko reaches out for poisonous concoction prepared for her by her maid, Musu. As she is about to drink it, Fanneh restrains her and says, “Madam, if you are to drink it, let me drink it first” Madam Yoko answers her and says, “....If I am to die, then /et me die alone.. --”(Act 3, Scene 4). She drinks it and dies, with the hope of finding eternal; peace. 

THEMES OF THE PLAY 

Disregard of traditional institution: This is one of the cardinal themes of the play. The imperial system of government that is put in place by the British in Mende Chiefdom under the leadership of Dr, Samuel Rowe does not respect any form of traditional institution as well as norms and culture of the people. This is shown in the way Dr, Rowe treats King Gbanya when he asks him to lie down on the floor and his armed soldiers flog him mercilessly right in the presence of his people. This is an abuse of the culture and traditional institution of the people. 

Colonial superiority: The European colonial masters believe that they are powerful and superior to any other person or authorities. They come into a community and begin to exercise control using different means and methods, ranging from deceit to force and to domination. In this way, they plant fear in the heart of the people and compel them to dance to their own tune. This is the plight of the Mende people of Sierra Leone who reluctantly agree to worship the colonial masters like semi-gods. The imperial Governors in their colonial mentality and superiority impose heavy taxes on the people of the land and divide their kingdoms at will without any recourse to ancient boundary marks and rightful ownership of the land. This ts an act of injustice that makes Madam Yoko to kill herself, after she realizes that she has been used and dumped by the British. 

Gender discrimination: In African traditions, women are grossly discriminated against. They are not made to be equal with their male counterparts. This becomes evident when Yoko reminds her husband of his promise to handover the chiefdom to her in the event of his death. Despite the fact that Yoko has done everything required to be eligible for the position, Gbanya still tries to change his mind just because Yoko is a woman. This is the situation that gives Lamboi and Ngo Musa the undue opportunity to poison Gbanya and kill him as an attempt to prevent him from handing the throne over to a woman. 

Excessive ambition for power: Power does not come on the platter of gold. It has to be fought for. In her excessive ambition for power, Yoko sacrifices her womanhood i.e. the ability to give birth. She then joins the Poro cult in order to gain the control of power after the death of her husband. She agrees to remain childless throughout her life. Likewise, Lamboi connives with Musa to kill Chief Gbanya in order to ascend the throne. This excessive ambition for power also leads the same Lamboi and Musa to an evil plan of kidnapping and killing Jeneba and using her death to blackmail Madam Yoko, the Queen of the land. Bargain for power and dominance: This theme manifests in different forms in the play. Madam Yoko bargains for power by sacrificing her ability to give birth and she joins the Poro cult. Ultimately, she gets the power but not without its attendant Challenges and frustrations. In fact, she later takes her own life as an aftermath of possession of power.

CHARACTERIZATION 

GBANYA: Gbanya is the prominent ruler of Mende Chiefdom and husband of Yoko who rules the Chiefdom after him. In the play, Gbanya is the ancient traditional figure and ruler of Mende Chiefdom. He has thirty-seven wives but he loves Yoko more than any of the wives. He always uses his throne of power to make promises to his wives in order to be granted his sexual satisfaction. As a king of the land, Gbanya fights many wars to the extent that he joins forces against the colonial Governors. This eventually makes the Governor to flog him mercilessly in the presence of his people. In this circumstance, Musa and Lamboi poison him with an alligator gall but before he dies, he hands over the throne to Yoko, his beloved wife. 

MADAM YOKO: Yoko is one of the wives of Gbanya. She becomes the ruler of Senehun and the entire Mende Chiefdom after the death of her husband. Her character is used in the play to show how important the roles of women can be in national affairs. She persuades Gbanya to fulfill his promise of handing over the throne to her before he dies. Yoko is a desperate woman who sacrifices childbearing for power. Yoko is forced to forget the pleasure of womanhood to prove to her people that she can act like a man. She finally becomes the ruler of the chiefdom after the death of her husband. During her reign, Lamboi and Musa plan to overthrow her with the belief that a woman cannot rule a chiefdom successfully. Yoko takes her own life to save her face from the shame of being continuously manipulated by the British government that has broken her kingdom and reduced her power and fame. 

LAMBO: Lamboi is Madam Yoko's brother but not loyal to her. He is an evil plotter who connives with Musa to devise Madam Yoko's downfall. His uncontrollable greed for the throne pushes him into evil scheming. He has a very terrible idea about women being in position of leadership. He describes his sister as an ambitious and power-drunk woman. He is a villain (evil doer) in the play. 

MUSA: This is the seer and medicine man of the community. He is a close friend to Lamboi and both of them represent evil machination in the play. In fact, they can be called conspirators against the wellbeing of the palace. Musa is diabolic and has a hand in almost all the evil occurrences in the Mende land. Musa and Lamboi conspire and kill Gbanya to take over the throne but they cannot finally achieve their aim after killing the king. He is also a villain (evil doer) in the play. 

NDAPI: This is the chief warrior of the chiefdom. He is one of the respected elders of Mende land. He is the husband of Jilo and father of Jeneba. He regularly beats his wife for no just cause. Consequently, his wife describes him as having pepper sprinkled all over his temper. He eventually catches his wife having a secret affair with Lansana in the bush. 

JILO: Jilo is Ndapi's wife. She is the mother of Jeneba. Jilo keeps extramarital relationship whether because of the way her husband normally maltreats her. She dislikes her husband because of his hot temper and the way he always beats her at the slightest provocation. She becomes publicly ashamed when she is caught with Lansana having a romantic affair in the bush. 

LANSANA: Lansana is a member of Madam Yoko's honourable and respected household. He has three wives at home but still falls in love with another man's wife and for some time, they have been having a secret affair until the day they are caught in the bush. To avoid disgrace and punishment, Lansana escapes to Taiama. Madam Yoko later catches and punishes him. 

JENEBA: Jeneba is the only daughter of Ndapi and Jilo. A little beautiful girl who is loved by almost everybody in the Chiefdom. Madam Yoko likes Jeneba so much and she gives her special name little ange! or little queen. Jeneba is kidnapped and killed by Lambo, and Musa to implicate Madam Yoko and make people believe that she cherishes the girl because she wants to use her for a sacrifice, Eventually, their plot is blown open but Jeneba is already dead. 

DR. SAMUEL ROWE: This is the Governor who is the sole representative of the Queen of England. Dr. Rowe carries out imperia| duty without any fear or respect for African tradition or the royal class, He dishonours the throne of Senehun by flogging Chief Gbanya right in the presence of his people. He also imposes heavy taxes on the local people, including taxes on huts where peasant people live. In fact, his actions contribute to the decision of Madam Yoko to commit suicide after she has been used and dumped by the tyrant Governor. 

FANNEH AND MUSU: They are Madam Yoko's maids. Madam Yoko loves them so much and does not regard them as mere maids. In fact, she shares some secrets of her heart with them, especially Fanneh, who has served in that household long before Madam Yoko becomes the Queen. 

QUESTION

Do you think the death of  Madam Yoko was justifiable? You think suicide was the only option for her?

Please send in your opinion through the comment section.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM - William Shakespeare 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

William Shakespeare

PLOT SUMMARY 

Theseus, duke of Athens, after conquering the warrior Amazons in battle, is in turn conquered by the charms of their queen, Hippolyta, and they are now planning to marry. To speed the time until their wedding night, he orders amusements to be staged. In a spirit of loyalty, Bottom the weaver and other tradesmen decide to prepare a play for the duke and his bride.

The preparations are interrupted by Egeus, an Athenian, who brings his daughter, Hermia, and her two suitors before Theseus, entreating him to command Hermia to wed Demetrius. Hermia pleads to be allowed to marry the other suitor, the one she loves-Lysander. The duke orders her to obey her father under penalty of death or confinement in a convent. Hermia and Lysander bewail the harsh decree and secretly agree to meet in a wood nearby and flee to another country. They tell their plans to Helena, a jilted sweetheart of Demetrius, and she, to win back his love, goes straightway to inform him of the plan.

Meanwhile, in the forest, the fairy king and queen, Oberon and Titania are at odds. In spite, Oberon bids Puck procure a love-juice to pour upon Titania's eyelids when she is asleep, in order that she may love the first thing her waking eyes behold. Just then, Oberon sees Demetrius, who has sought out the trysting-place of Lysander and Hermia only to meet Helena, much to his distaste. The lady's distress at her lover's coldness softens the heart of Oberon, who bids Puck touch Demetrius's eyes also with the love-juice, for Helena's sake.

Meanwhile, Lysander and Hermia arrive, and Puck in error anoints Lysander's instead of Demetrius's eyes, so that Lysander, happening to awake just as the neglected Helena wanders by, falls in love with her-and abandons Hermia.

The same enchanted spot in the forest happens to be the place selected by Bottom and company for the final rehearsal of their play. The roguish Puck passes that way while they are rehearsing, and mischievously and magically crowns Bottom with an ass's head, whereupon the other players disperse terror-stricken. Then he brings Bottom to Titania; and, when she awakens, she gazes first upon the human-turned-to-an-ass and falls in love.

Meantime, the four lovers are greatly bewildered. Oberon finds that Puck has anointed the eyes of Lysander instead of those of Demetrius, so Oberon anoints Demetrius's eyes with another potion which breaks the spell. When Demetrius awakes, he sees his neglected Helena being wooed by Lysander. His own love for her returns, and he is ready to fight Lysander. Helena deems them both to he mocking her, and Hermia is dazed by the turn of affairs. The fairies interpose and prevent conflict by causing the four to wander about in the dark until they are tired and fall asleep. Puck repairs the blunder by anointing Lysander's eyes, in order to dispel the illusion caused by the love-juice. Thus, when they awake, all will be in order: Lysander will love Hermia, and Demetrius will love Helena.

Titania woos Bottom until Oberon, whose anger has abated, removes the spell from her eyes. Bottom is restored to his natural form, and he rejoins his comrades in Athens. Theseus, on an early morning hunting trip in the forest, discovers the four lovers. Explanations, follow; the duke relents and bestows Helena upon Demetrius and Hermia upon Lysander.

A wedding-feast for three couples instead of one only is spread in Duke Theseus's place. Bottom's players come to this feast to present the “comic” tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe, which is performed in wondrous and hilarious fashion. After the company retires for the night, the fairies dance through the corridors on a mission of blessing and goodwill for the three wedded pairs

ACT BY ACT SUMMARY 

Act I

As Duke Theseus prepares for his marriage to Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, he is interrupted by a courtier, Egeus. Egeus asks for the Duke to intervene in a dispute. His daughter, Hermia, will not agree to marry Demetrius (whom Egeus has chosen for her) because she loves a gentleman named Lysander. The Duke asks Hermia to be obedient to her father. He offers her one of two options: she must either die or accept a celibate life as a nun in Diana's templ

Naturally upset with the offer, Lysander and Hermia plan to elope and share their secret with Helena, Hermia's friend. Helena is desperately in love with Demetrius, who seems to have abandoned her in favour of Hermia. At night, Lysander and Hermia escape from Athens; but they soon lose their way in the woods. After Helena tells him of their intention to defy the law, Demetrius decides to follow the lovers into the woods. In turn, Helena follows Demetrius in the hope that he will give up on Hermia and choose her instead.  

Meanwhile, a group of working men are preparing a play of the tragic love-story of Pyramus and Thisbe to present before the Duke Theseus on his wedding day. Nick Bottom, the weaver, is to play the lover Pyramus, while Flute, the bellows-mender, begrudgingly agrees to play Thisbe. 

Act II

Nearby, Oberon - King of the Fairies—has recently quarrelled with his queen, Titania. She acquired a magical child from one of her waiting women, and now refuses to hand him over to Oberon to use as a page. Oberon begins to plot a way to get revenge on Titania for her disobedience. He sends his fairy servant, Puck, to fetch a purple flower with juice that makes people fall in love with the next creature they see.  

Afterwards, Oberon overhears Helena and Demetrius arguing in the forest. Oberon hears Demetrius mistreat Helena and tells Puck to anoint 'the Athenian', so Demetrius will fall in love with the first person that he sees. Puck mistakes the Athenian and puts the flower juice on the eyes of the sleeping Lysander. When he is woken by Helena, he immediately falls in love with her and rejects Hermia. When Demetrius rests, Oberon puts magic juice on his eyes, which makes him fall in love with Helena as well. 

Act III 

The workers' rehearsals in the wood are overheard by Puck, who plays a trick on them by giving Bottom an ass's head. After frightening the others away, Bottom is lured towards the sleeping Titania whom Oberon has anointed with Puck's magic flower juice. On waking, the fairy queen falls in love with the ass and entertains him with her fairies.  

Meanwhile, Demetrius and Lysander, still under the spell of the flower juice, pursue Helena. Hermia is jealous and confused about the lack of attention paid to her. Oberon and Puck watch the chaos, and Oberon commands Puck to put it right again. The lovers' arguments have tired them all out as they have chased one another through the woods. Puck eventually distracts the two men from their pursuit of Helena by impersonating their voices, and they get lost in the woods. The four lovers fall asleep, exhausted. Puck places restorative juice on Lysander's eyes.

Act IV

After an afternoon of being pampered by Titania's fairies, Bottom falls asleep beside her. Oberon restores Titania's sight and wakes her (thank goodness). After expressing her dismay at the sight of Bottom, she reconciles with Oberon, and she ends up giving him the little Indian prince for his page. Bottom's ass head is removed, and he returns to the city to rejoin his friends as they prepare to perform their play. The lovers are woken by Theseus and Hippolyta's hunting party. Lysander sees Hermia and falls in love with her once again. 

Act V

Happily reunited (Lysander with Hermia and Demetrius with Helena), they agree to share the Duke's wedding day. The play of 'Pyramus and Thisbe' is presented before the wedding guests. As the three couples retire to bed, Puck and the fairies return to bless the palace and its people.

THEMES

Love

The dominant theme in A Midsummer Night's Dream is love, a subject to which Shakespeare returns constantly in his comedies. Shakespeare explores how people tend to fall in love with those who appear beautiful to them. People we think we love at one time in our lives can later seem not only unattractive but even repellent. For a time, this attraction to beauty might appear to be love at its most intense, but one of the ideas of the play is that real love is much more than mere physical attraction.

At one level, the story of the four young Athenians asserts that although "The course of true love never did run smooth," true love triumphs in the end, bringing happiness and harmony. At another level, however, the audience is forced to consider what an apparently irrational and whimsical thing love is, at least when experienced between youngsters.

Marriage

A Midsummer Night's Dream asserts marriage as the true fulfillment of romantic love. All the damaged relationships have been sorted out at the end of Act IV, and Act V serves to celebrate the whole idea of marriage in a spirit of festive happiness.

The triple wedding at the end of Act IV marks the formal resolution of the romantic problems that have beset the two young couples from the beginning, when Egeus attempted to force his daughter to marry the man he had chosen to be her husband.

The mature and stable love of Theseus and Hippolyta is contrasted with the relationship of Oberon and Titania, whose squabbling has such a negative impact on the world around them. Only when the marriage of the fairy King and Queen is put right can there be peace in their kingdom and the world beyond it.

Appearance and Reality

Another of the play's main themes is one to which Shakespeare returns to again and again in his work: the difference between appearance and reality. The idea that things are not necessarily what they seem to be is at the heart of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and in the very title itself.

A dream is not real, even though it seems so at the time we experience it. Shakespeare consciously creates the plays' dreamlike quality in a number of ways. Characters frequently fall asleep and wake having dreamed ("Methought a serpent ate my heart away"); having had magic worked upon them so that they are in a dreamlike state; or thinking that they have dreamed ("I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was"). Much of the play takes place at night, and there are references to moonlight, which changes the appearance of what it illuminates.

The difference between appearances and reality is also explored through the play-within-a-play, to particularly comic effect. The "rude mechanicals" completely fail to understand the magic of the theatre, which depends upon the audience being allowed to believe (for a time, at least) that what is being acted out in front of them is real.

When Snug the Joiner tells the stage audience that he is not really a lion and that they must not be afraid of him, we (and they) laugh at this stupidity, but we also laugh at ourselves — for we know that he is not just a joiner pretending to be a lion, but an actor pretending to be a joiner pretending to be a lion. Shakespeare seems to be saying, "We all know that this play isn't real, but you're still sitting there and believing it." That is a kind of magic too.

Order and Disorder

A Midsummer Night's Dream also deals with the theme of order and disorder. The order of Egeus' family is threatened because his daughter wishes to marry against his will; the social order to the state demands that a father's will should be enforced. When the city dwellers find themselves in the wood, away from their ordered and hierarchical society, order breaks down and relationships are fragmented. But this is comedy, and relationships are more happily rebuilt in the free atmosphere of the wood before the characters return to society.

Natural order — the order of Nature — is also broken and restored in A Midsummer Night's Dream. The row between the Fairy King and Queen results in the order of the seasons being disrupted:

The spring, the summer,

The chiding autumn, angry winter change

Their wonted liveries, and the mazèd world

By their increase knows not which is which.

Only after Oberon and Titania's reconciliation can all this be put right. Without the restoration of natural order, the happiness of the play's ending could not be complete

Magic

The fairies’ magic, which brings about many of the most bizarre and hilarious situations in the play, is another element central to the fantastic atmosphere of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Shakespeare uses magic both to embody the almost supernatural power of love (symbolized by the love potion) and to create a surreal world. Although the misuse of magic causes chaos, as when Puck mistakenly applies the love potion to Lysander’s eyelids, magic ultimately resolves the play’s tensions by restoring love to balance among the quartet of Athenian youths. Additionally, the ease with which Puck uses magic to his own ends, as when he reshapes Bottom’s head into that of an ass and recreates the voices of Lysander and Demetrius, stands in contrast to the laboriousness and gracelessness of the craftsmen’s attempt to stage their play.

Dreams

As the title suggests, dreams are an important theme in A Midsummer Night’s Dream; they are linked to the bizarre, magical mishaps in the forest. Hippolyta’s first words in the play evidence the prevalence of dreams (“Four days will quickly steep themselves in night, / Four nights will quickly dream away the time”), and various characters mention dreams throughout (I.i.7–8). The theme of dreaming recurs predominantly when characters attempt to explain bizarre events in which these characters are involved: “I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what / dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about t’expound this dream,” Bottom says, unable to fathom the magical happenings that have affected him as anything but the result of slumber.

Shakespeare is also interested in the actual workings of dreams, in how events occur without explanation, time loses its normal sense of flow, and the impossible occurs as a matter of course; he seeks to recreate this environment in the play through the intervention of the fairies in the magical forest. At the end of the play, Puck extends the idea of dreams to the audience members themselves, saying that, if they have been offended by the play, they should remember it as nothing more than a dream. This sense of illusion and gauzy fragility is crucial to the atmosphere of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as it helps render the play a fantastical experience rather than a heavy drama.

Jealousy

The theme of jealousy operates in both the human and fairy realms in Midsummer Night’s Dream. Jealousy plays out most obviously among the quartet of Athenian lovers, who find themselves in an increasingly tangled knot of misaligned desire. Helena begins the play feeling jealous of Hermia, who has managed to snag not one but two suitors. Helena loves Demetrius, who in turn feels jealous of his rival for Hermia’s affections, Lysander. When misplaced fairy mischief leads Lysander into an amorous pursuit of Helena, the event drives Hermia into her own jealous rage. Jealousy also extends into the fairy realm, where it has caused a rift between the fairy king and queen. As we learn in Act II, King Oberon and Queen Titania both have eyes for their counterparts in the human realm, Theseus and Hippolyta. Titania accuses Oberon of stealing away with “the bouncing Amazon” (II.i.). Oberon accuses Titania of hypocrisy, since she also loves another: “How canst thou thus for shame, Titania, / Glance at my credit with Hippolyta, / Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?” (II.i.). This jealous rift incites Oberon to command Puck to fetch the magic flower that eventually causes so much chaos and confusion for the Athenian lovers

Mischief

In Midsummer, mischief is primarily associated with the forest and the fairies who reside there. Accordingly, the fairies of traditional British folklore are master mischief makers. The trickster fairy Puck (also known as Robin Goodfellow) is the play’s chief creator of mischief. Puck’s reputation as a troublemaker precedes him, as suggested in the first scene of Act II, where an unnamed fairy recognizes Puck and rhapsodizes about all the tricks Puck has played on unsuspecting humans. Although in the play Puck only retrieves and uses the magical flower at Oberon’s request, his mistakes in implementing Oberon’s plan have the most chaotic effects. Puck also makes mischief of his own accord, as when he transforms Bottom’s head into that of ass. Puck is also the only character who explicitly talks about his love of mischief. When in Act III he declares that “those things do best please me / That befall prepost’rously” (III.ii.), he effectively announces a personal philosophy of mischief and an appreciation for turning things on their head.

CHARACTERIZATION 

Oberon

Titania

BACKGROUND TO THE AUTHOR 

Ralph Waldo Ellison was born March 1, 1914, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to Lewis Alfred Ellison, a construction foreman who died when Ellison was only three years old, and the former Ida Milsap, a church stewardess, who used to bring him books she borrowed from the houses she cleaned. Ellison attended Frederick Douglass School in Oklahoma City, receiving lessons in symphonic composition. He began playing the trumpet at age eight and, at age eighteen, attended Tuskegee Institute in Montgomery, Alabama, studying music from 1933 to 1936. During that time, he worked at a variety of jobs including janitor, shoeshine boy, jazz musician, and freelance photographer. He also became a game hunter to keep himself alive, a skill he says he learned from reading Hemingway.

A renowned novelist, short story writer, and critic, Ellison taught at several colleges and universities and lectured extensively at such prestigious institutions as Yale University, the Library of Congress, and the U.S. Military Academy.

In 1970, Ellison became Albert Schweitzer Professor of the Humanities at New York University, where he served until 1980. He also received the prestigious Chevalier de L'Ordre des Artes et Lettres, one of the highest honors France can bestow on a foreign writer. In 1982, he was named professor emeritus at NYU, teaching for several years while continuing to write.

Ellison died of cancer on April 16, 1994, at his home in New York City.

BACKGROUND TO THE NOVEL

Invisible Man was published in 1952, during the literary period of modernism and postwar American fiction. The author of the novel, Ralph Ellison, was deeply influenced by the works of T.S. Eliot and Richard Wright. T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and Four Quartets had great influence on Ellison’s style. Ellison was also influenced by his friend, Richard Wright’s works Black Boy and Native Son, which are both talking about the hardships and discrimination faced by African-Americans in the United States. In 1930s and 1040s, Ellison was involved in Communist politics, and this probably gave him the bases to portray the Brotherhood similar to the Communist Party. The writing of Invisible Man begun in 1945 and finished in 1952. This was the time right after America’s victory in World War II, and it created a period of serious discrimination against blacks, especially in the South. 

Often described as a bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story, Invisible Man is the tale of a black man's search for identity and visibility in white America. Convinced that his existence depends on gaining the support, recognition, and approval of whites — whom he has been taught to view as powerful, superior beings who control his destiny — the narrator spends nearly 20 years trying to establish his humanity in a society that refuses to see him as a human being. Ultimately, he realizes that he must create his own identity, which rests not on the acceptance of whites, but on his own acceptance of the past. 

PLOT SUMMARY OF INVISIBLE MAN

Invisible Man is the story of a young, college-educated black man struggling to survive and succeed in a racially divided society that refuses to see him as a human being. Told in the form of a first-person narrative, Invisible Man traces the nameless narrator's physical and psychological journey from blind ignorance to enlightened awareness — or, according to the author, "from Purpose to Passion to Perception" — through a series of flashbacks in the forms of dreams and memories. Set in the U.S. during the pre-Civil Rights era when segregation laws barred black Americans from enjoying the same basic human rights as their white counterparts, the novel opens in the South (Greenwood, South Carolina), although the majority of the action takes place in the North (Harlem, New York).

In the Prologue, the narrator — speaking to us from his underground hideout in the basement (coal cellar) of a whites-only apartment building — reminisces about his life as an invisible man. Now in his 40s, he recalls a time when he was a naïve young man, eager to become a renowned educator and orator. The narrator begins his story by recalling his high school graduation speech, which attracted the attention of the white school superintendent who invites him to give the same speech at a local hotel to the town's leading white citizens. But when he arrives at the hotel, the narrator is forced to participate in a brutal blindfolded boxing match (the "battle royal") with nine of his classmates, an event, which, he discovers, is part of the evening's entertainment for the "smoker" (a kind of stag party). The entertainment also includes a sensuous dance by a naked blonde woman, and the boys are forced to watch. The boxing match is followed by a humiliating event: The boys must scramble for what appear to be gold coins on an electrified rug (but, which turn out to be only worthless brass tokens). Then the narrator — now bruised and bleeding — is finally allowed to give his speech in front of the drunken white men who largely ignore him until he accidentally uses the phrase "social equality" instead of "social responsibility" to describe the role of blacks in America. At the end of his speech — despite his degrading and humiliating ordeal — the narrator proudly accepts his prize: a calfskin briefcase containing a scholarship to the state college for Negroes.

That night, the narrator's dead grandfather — a former slave — appears in a dream, ordering him to open the briefcase and look inside. Instead of the scholarship, the briefcase contains a note that reads, "Keep This Nigger Boy Running." The dream sets the stage. For the next 20 years of his life, the narrator stumbles blindly through life, never stopping to question why he is always kept running by people — both black and white — who profess to guide and direct him, but who ultimately exploit him and betray his trust.

Focusing on the events of one fateful day, the narrator then recalls his college days. Assigned to chauffeur Mr. Norton, a prominent white visiting trustee, around the campus, the narrator follows Mr. Norton's orders and takes him to visit two sites in the nearby black neighborhood — the cabin of Jim Trueblood, a local sharecropper, and the Golden Day, a disreputable bar/half-way house for shell-shocked World War I veterans. The narrator, however, is expelled from his beloved college for taking Mr. Norton to these places and sent to New York, armed with seven letters from his dean (Dr. Bledsoe). The letters, he believed, are letters of recommendation, but are in reality letters confirming his expulsion.

Arriving in New York City, the narrator is amazed by what he perceives to be unlimited freedom for blacks. He is especially intrigued by a black West Indian man (later identified as Ras the Exhorter) whom he first encounters addressing a group of men and women on the streets of Harlem, urging them to work together to unite their black community. But the narrator's excitement soon turns to disillusionment as he discovers that the North presents the same barriers to black achievement as the South.

Realizing that he cannot return to college, the narrator accepts a job at a paint factory famous for its optic white paint, unaware that he is one of several blacks hired to replace white workers out on strike. Nearly killed in a factory explosion, the narrator subsequently undergoes a grueling ordeal at the paint factory hospital, where he finds himself the object of a strange experiment by the hospital's white doctors.

Following his release from the hospital, the narrator finds refuge in the home of Mary Rambo, a kind and generous black woman, who feeds him and nurses him back to health. Although grateful to Mary, whom he acknowledges as his only friend, the narrator — anxious to earn a living and do something with his life — eventually leaves Mary to join the Brotherhood, a political organization that professes to be dedicated to achieving equality for all people. Under the guidance of the Brotherhood and its leader, Brother Jack, the narrator becomes an accomplished speaker and leader of the Harlem District. He also has an abortive liaison with Sybil, a sexually frustrated white woman who sees him as the embodiment of the stereotypical black man endowed with extraordinary sexual prowess.

But after the tragic death of his friend Tod Clifton, a charismatic young black "Brother" who is shot by a white policeman, the narrator becomes disillusioned with the disparity between what the organization preaches and what its leaders practice. As a result, he decides to leave the Brotherhood, headquartered in an affluent section of Manhattan, and returns to Harlem where he is confronted by Ras the Exhorter (now Ras the Destroyer) who accuses him of betraying the black community. To escape the wrath of Ras and his men, the narrator disguises himself by donning a hat and dark glasses. In disguise, he is repeatedly mistaken for someone named Rinehart, a con man who uses his invisibility to his own advantage.

The narrator discovers that the Harlem community has erupted in violence. Eager to demonstrate that he is no longer part of the Brotherhood, the narrator allows himself to be drawn into the violence and chaos of the Harlem riot and participates in the burning of a Harlem tenement. Later, as he flees the scene of the burning building and tries to find his way back to Mary's, two white men with baseball bats pursue him. To escape his assailants, he leaps into a manhole, which lands him in his underground hideout.

For the next several days the sick and delusional narrator suffers horrific nightmares in which he is captured and castrated by a group of men led by Brother Jack. Finally able to let go of his painful past — symbolized by the various items in his briefcase — the narrator discovers that writing down his experiences enables him to release his hatred and rediscover his love of life.

THEMES

1. Identity and Invisibility

Invisible Man is the story of a young man searching for his identity, unsure about where to turn to define himself. As the narrator states at the novel’s beginning, “All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned somebody tried to tell me what it was.” It is undoubtedly clear that the narrator’s blackness comprises a large part of his identity, although this isn’t something he has necessarily chosen. For others in the novel, it is simply convenient to define the narrator through his blackness.

Ellison’s narrator explains that the outcome of this is a phenomenon he calls “invisibility”—the idea that he is simply “not seen” by his oppressors. Ellison implies that if racists reallysaw their victims, they would not act the way they do. The narrator recognizes his invisibility slowly—in moments like the hospital machine, when he realizes he is being asked to respond to the question of who he is in terms of his blackness. Ultimately, the narrator is forced to retreat to his hole, siphoning off the light from the white-owned power company, itself a symbol of an underground resistance that may go unacknowledged for a long time.

However, invisibility doesn’t come from racism alone. Just as poisonous for the narrator are other generalized ways of thinking about identity—ideas that envision him as a cog in a machine instead of a unique individual. This is true for the narrator both at the unnamed black university and at Liberty Paints. However, it is the Brotherhood, a thinly veiled take on the Communist Party, that proves to be most disillusioning for the narrator. The Brotherhood provides a systematic way of thinking about the world that claims to be the solution to racism and inequality.

When the narrator first meets Brother Jack, Jack says, “You mustn’t waste your emotions on individuals, they don’t count.” At first, the narrator embraces this ideology of the Brotherhood and structures his identity around it. However, he comes to discover that the Brotherhood is perfectly willing to sacrifice him for its own potentially flawed ends. Thus the novel can be read not only as a story about a black man’s struggle against racism, but a black man’s struggle to grow up and learn to be himself, against the backdrop of intense social pressures, racism among others.

2. Race and Racism

In Invisible Man, race is a constant subject of inquiry. As a young black man in the middle of 20th century America, the narrator most often confronts the idea of race through experiencing the racism of others – from the degradation he experiences in the battle royal to his realization of his token role in the Brotherhood. However, the novel also explores the question of whether race might be an authentic marker of individual identity, outside the context of racism and other narratives imposed by others. The narrator quickly realizes that his blackness is highly significant, but cannot easily decipher what it should mean to him.

At the novel’s beginning, a younger narrator’s take on race is relatively simple. In his graduation speech, he is happy to repeat Booker T. Washington’s words, explaining that blacks should cheerfully cooperate with the whites that are in power. As the narrator travels through the world of the novel, he meets an array of characters shaped by the complex history of race, and his views grow more complex. The most important of these figures are black, though also included are overtly or unintentionally racist whites, like the pompous Mr. Norton. Characters like Dr. Bledsoe and Lucius Brockway are characters that control their small domains within the white system but are either cynical or unaware of their compromised positions.

Many of the experiences of the novel revolve around the narrator’s acceptance of one notion of race, only to discover that there exceptions and difficulties in the ideas he encounters. For example, Ras the Exhorteroffers the inflammatory message of rejecting whites wholesale. This has a seductive appeal for the narrator, despite being irrational and dangerous. Near the novel’s end, the narrator attempts to enact his grandfather’s strategy of “yessing them to death,” but his plan backfires during his fling with Sybil, the wife of a powerful Brotherhood member.

Ellison offers no solution to the complicated legacies of race. Although the narrator withdraws into his hole at the novel’s end, he still boldly states, “I couldn’t be still even in hibernation. Because, damn it, there’s the mind…It wouldn’t let me rest.” Ellison hints that the only way to find an authentic relationship with race is to puzzle it out for oneself, and only an active, individual mind can locate his own relationship with history.

3. Power and Self-Interest

Throughout the novel, the narrator encounters powerful institutions and individuals, all of which are bent on maintaining influence over events. At the novel’s beginning the narrator is exposed to the white power elite of his town, who act one way in the public eye but have no shame about their racist and sexist actions within a private club. The very moment they sense a threat from the narrator (when he mentions the word “equality”), they prepare to destroy him. These men arm themselves with the story that they are upstanding businessmen and community leaders, but this narrative is in contradiction with their naked desire to maintain power.

The Brotherhood is one of the best examples of another group that uses a powerful narrative that seems to perfectly explain the world. By suggesting that all events are part of a science of history that can be perfectly understood, they seek to impose their subjective vision on others who buy into their philosophy. However, this ideology is flawed: although the Brotherhood is originally interested in combating oppression, it is clear that characters like Brother Jack come to relish their power above any other altruistic motive.

The black community is no freer from the self-interested drive to consolidate and maintain power at all costs – only they are limited by white oppression. Dr. Bledsoe is an example of a figure the narrator looks up to, only to find out that he is more interested in holding onto the enclave of power he has carved out than in the ideals of humility and cooperation he espouses in public. Later, the figure of Rinehart comes to represent a similar impulse within the black community: a cynical attempt to profit in the short term by exploiting the ignorance of others.

He is a pimp, gambler, racketeer, lover and preacher all in one, but only because he can rely on the weakness and desperation of other members of the black community. At the novel’s end, the narrator remarks, “I’ve never been more loved or appreciated than when…I’ve tried to give my friends the incorrect, absurd answers they wished to hear.” By retreating into the underground, the narrator hopes to distance himself these stories that destroy individual integrity while shoring up power structures.

4. Ambition and Disillusionment

Invisible Man can in many ways be thought of as a coming of age novel, in which an ambitious young man attempts to rise up through a broken system that ultimately rejects him. The novel is structured into a series of hopes and dashed expectations, beginning with the promise of the unnamed university, where the narrator assumes he will model himself after the Founder. Later, in the working world and in the world of the Brotherhood, the narrator similarly invests hope in the goodwill of others, only to find his expectations and ambitious thwarted.

His experience mirrors the whole generation of young black individuals who expected that they could rise up in an increasingly equal society. The ex-doctor from the mental hospital is a reflection of these dashed ambitions. After receiving recognition in France, the ex-doctor learns that he will never be truly respected due to his race. Denied his dignity, the surgeon gives up hope of recognition and ultimately ends up as another nameless member of the asylum. His advice for the narrator is to “Play the game, but don’t believe in it.”

In the Brotherhood, the narrator finally feels as though he is beginning to achieve recognition. However, he quickly begins to discover that the actions of the Brotherhood are designed to keep him in place. Ultimately, the Brotherhood’s betrayal culminates in the race riot at the end of the novel. The narrator realizes that he has been kept out of affairs in order to help incite the riot without his interference. The narrator’s retreat into the hole represents the final stage of the narrator’s disillusionment, though on an ambiguous note.

Completely dissatisfied with all existing institutions and accepted ways of behaving in the world, the narrator says he is in “hibernation,” waiting for the time to come when he can begin to achieve his aims. By secluding himself in his hole, the narrator precludes himself from either ambition or disappointment. However, the narrator acknowledges that this is only a temporary state, one that allows him to narrate his story from a distance, but that he will soon emerge from his hiding.

CHARACTERIZATION

1. The narrator

The nameless protagonist of the novel. The narrator is the “invisible man” of the title. A black man in 1930s America, the narrator considers himself invisible because people never see his true self beneath the roles that stereotype and racial prejudice compel him to play. Though the narrator is intelligent, deeply introspective, and highly gifted with language, the experiences that he relates demonstrate that he was naïve in his youth. As the novel progresses, the narrator’s illusions are gradually destroyed through his experiences as a student at college, as a worker at the Liberty Paints plant, and as a member of a political organization known as the Brotherhood. Shedding his blindness, he struggles to arrive at a conception of his identity that honors his complexity as an individual without sacrificing social responsibility.

2. Brother Jack

Ellison uses Brother Jack, the leader of the Brotherhood, to point out the failure of abstract ideologies to address the real plight of African Americans and other victims of oppression. At first, Jack seems kind, compassionate, intelligent, and helpful, a real boon to the struggling narrator, to whom he gives money, a job, and—seemingly—a way to help his people fight against prejudice. But as the story progresses, it becomes clear that the narrator is just as invisible to Jack as he is to everyone else. Jack sees him not as a person but as a tool for the advancement of the Brotherhood’s goals. It eventually becomes clear to the narrator that Jack shares the same racial prejudices as the rest of white American society, and, when the Brotherhood’s focus changes, Jack abandons the black community without regret.

The narrator’s discovery that Jack has a glass eye occurs as Jack enters into a fierce tirade on the aims of the Brotherhood. His literal blindness thus symbolizes how his unwavering commitment to the Brotherhood’s ideology has blinded him, metaphorically, to the plight of blacks. He tells the narrator, “We do not shape our policies to the mistaken and infantile notions of the man in the street. Our job is not to ask them what they think but to tell them!” Throughout the book, Jack explains the Brotherhood’s goals in terms of an abstract ideology. He tells the narrator in Chapter 14 that the group works “for a better world for all people” and that the organization is striving to remedy the effects of too many people being “dispossessed of their heritage.” He and the other brothers attempt to make the narrator’s own speeches more scientific, injecting them with abstractions and jargon in order to distance them from the hard realities that the narrator seeks to expose.

To many black intellectuals in the 1930s, including Ellison, the Communist Party in particular seemed to offer the kind of salvation that Jack appears to embody—only to betray and discard the African-American cause as the party’s focus shifted in the early 1940s. Ellison’s treatment of the Brotherhood is largely a critique of the poor treatment that he believed the black community had received from communism, and Jack, with his red hair, seems to symbolize this betrayal.

3. Tod Clifton

A black member of the Brotherhood and a resident of Harlem. Tod Clifton is passionate, handsome, articulate, and intelligent. He eventually parts ways with the Brotherhood, though it remains unclear whether a falling-out has taken place, or whether he has simply become disillusioned with the group. He begins selling Sambo dolls on the street, seemingly both perpetrating and mocking the offensive stereotype of the lazy and servile slave that the dolls represent.

4. Ras the Exhorter

One of the most memorable characters in the novel, Ras the Exhorter (later called Ras the Destroyer) is a powerful figure who seems to embody Ellison’s fears for the future of the civil rights battle in America. Ras’s name, which literally means “Prince” in one of the languages of Ethiopia, sounds simultaneously like “race” and “Ra,” the Egyptian sun god. These allusions capture the essence of the character: as a passionate black nationalist, Ras is obsessed with the idea of race; as a magnificently charismatic leader, he has a kind of godlike power in the novel, even if he doesn’t show a deity’s wisdom. Ras’s guiding philosophy, radical at the time the novel was published, states that blacks should cast off oppression and prejudice by destroying the ability of white men to control them. This philosophy leads inevitably to violence, and, as a result, both Ellison and the narrator fear and oppose such notions. Yet, although Ellison objects to the ideology that Ras embodies, he never portrays him as a clear-cut villain. Throughout the novel, the reader witnesses Ras exert a magnetic pull on crowds of black Americans in Harlem. He offers hope and courage to many. By the late 1960s, many black leaders, including Malcolm X, were advocating ideas very similar to those of Ras.

Ras, who is depicted as a West Indian, has reminded many critics of Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican-born black nationalist who was influential in the early 1920s. Like Ras, Garvey was a charismatic racial separatist with a love of flamboyant costumes who advocated black pride and argued against integration with whites. (Garvey even endorsed the Ku Klux Klan for working to keep whites and blacks separate.) However, Ellison consistently denied patterning Ras specifically on Garvey. If any link does exist, it is probably only that Garvey inspired the idea of Ras, not that Ellison attempted to recreate Garvey in Ras.

5. Rinehart

A surreal figure who never appears in the book except by reputation. Rinehart possesses a seemingly infinite number of identities, among them pimp, bookie, and preacher who speaks on the subject of “invisibility.” When the narrator wears dark glasses in Harlem one day, many people mistake him for Rinehart. The narrator realizes that Rinehart’s shape-shifting capacity represents a life of extreme freedom, complexity, and possibility. He also recognizes that this capacity fosters a cynical and manipulative inauthenticity. Rinehart thus figures crucially in the book’s larger examination of the problem of identity and self-conception.

6. Dr. Bledsoe

The president at the narrator’s college. Dr. Bledsoe proves selfish, ambitious, and treacherous. He is a black man who puts on a mask of servility to the white community. Driven by his desire to maintain his status and power, he declares that he would see every black man in the country lynched before he would give up his position of authority.

7. Mr. Norton

One of the wealthy white trustees at the narrator’s college. Mr. Norton is a narcissistic man who treats the narrator as a tally on his scorecard—that is, as proof that he is liberal-minded and philanthropic. Norton’s wistful remarks about his daughter add an eerie quality of longing to his fascination with the story of Jim Trueblood’s incest.

8. Reverend Homer Barbee

A preacher from Chicago who visits the narrator’s college. Reverend Barbee’s fervent praise of the Founder’s “vision” strikes an inadvertently ironic note, because he himself is blind. With Barbee’s first name, Ellison makes reference to the Greek poet Homer, another blind orator who praised great heroes in his epic poems. Ellison uses Barbee to satirize the college’s desire to transform the Founder into a similarly mythic hero.

9. Jim Trueblood

An uneducated black man who impregnated his own daughter and who lives on the outskirts of the narrator’s college campus. The students and faculty of the college view Jim Trueblood as a disgrace to the black community. To Trueblood’s surprise, however, whites have shown an increased interest in him since the story of his incest spread.

10. The veteran

An institutionalized black man who makes bitterly insightful remarks about race relations. Claiming to be a graduate of the narrator’s college, the veteran tries to expose the pitfalls of the school’s ideology. His bold candor angers both the narrator and Mr. Norton—the veteran exposes their blindness and hypocrisy and points out the sinister nature of their relationship. Although society has deemed him “shell-shocked” and insane, the veteran proves to be the only character who speaks the truth in the first part of the novel.

11. Emerson

The son of one of the wealthy white trustees (whom the text also calls Emerson) of the narrator’s college. The younger Emerson reads the supposed recommendation from Dr. Bledsoe and reveals Bledsoe’s treachery to the narrator. He expresses sympathy for the narrator and helps him get a job, but he remains too preoccupied with his own problems to help the narrator in any meaningful way.

12. Mary

A serene and motherly black woman with whom the narrator stays after learning that the Men’s House has banned him. Mary treats him kindly and even lets him stay for free. She nurtures his black identity and urges him to become active in the fight for racial equality.

13. Sybil

A white woman whom the narrator attempts to use to find out information about the Brotherhood. Sybil instead uses the narrator to act out her fantasy of being raped by a “savage” black man