Death and the King's horseman

Question 1

“I am…”

Answer 1

I am the king’s horseman, and I must die to join him. But for now, let us celebrate, for life is but a brief passage.

Question 2

They love

Answer 2

They love to spoil you but beware. The hands of women also weaken the unwary

Question 3

Let me

Answer 3

Let me savor this moment, for it is the last of its kind. I will dance and enjoy the pleasure of the flesh

Question 4

perhaps your

Answer 4

perhaps your warmth and youth brought new insights of this world to me

Question 5

I am
theme: Elesin indulging in life’s enjoyment near the end where hes getting ready to leave

Answer 5

I am a man who has lived and enjoyed life’s pleasures. Now I am ready to go, but let me revel in this last moment of joy.

Question 6

Life is

Answer 6

Life is honour. It ends when honour ends.

Question 7

I am
Theme: Pilking disrespecting native music

Answer 7

I am getting rattled. Probably the effect of those bloody drums.

Question 8

Don’t tell

Answer 8

Don’t tell me all that holy water nonsense also wiped out your tribal memory.

Question 9

Amusa, you

Answer 9

Amusa, you don’t believe in that mumbo-jumbo do you?

Question 10

Some strange

Answer 10

Some strange custom they have sir. It seems because the King is dead some important chief has to commit suicide.

Question 11

Through ritual

Answer 11

Through ritual suicide? Is that worse than mass suicide?

Question 12

This affair

Answer 12

This affair for instance, we didn’t know they still practised the custom did we?

Question 13

Bastard

Answer 13

Bastard isn’t just a simple swear-word in these parts, you know.

Question 14

As it

Answer 14

As it called out to his father before him and will to his son after him

Question 15

Never known

Answer 15

Never known a native to tell the truth

Question 16

We don’t

Answer 16

We don’t want the eater of white left-overs at the feast their hands have prepared.

Question 17

If we

Answer 17

If we all let these little things slip past us where would the empire be eh?

Question 18

I don’t

Answer 18

I don’t find it morbid at all. I find it rather inspiring. It is an affirmative commentary on life.

Question 19

What can

Answer 19

What can you offer him in place of his peace of mind, in place of the honour and veneration of his own people?

Question 20

You’re a

Answer 20

You’re a savage like all the rest.

Question 21

Well, I

Answer 21

Well, I did my duty as I saw fit. I have no regrets.

Question 22

Who would

Answer 22

who would have known that the white skin covered our future, preventing us from seeing the death our enemies had prepared for us.

Question 23

It rides

Answer 23

It rides ahead of your laggard will.

Question 24

“Ghostly one”

Answer 24

Insult to the white people to show their lack of respect as a defence mechanism

Question 25

I have

Answer 25

I have no father

Question 26

To entertain the prince

Answer 26

Why Jane wears ancestral mask

Question 27

Umbilical cord

Answer 27

The cord that links us all

Question 28

Not-I bird

Answer 28

symbol and a servant of death, and Elesin uses his welcoming of this bird to prove to the Praise-Singer and Iyaloja that hes ready

Question 29

The captain and the ship

Answer 29

The captain and the ship symbolize the sacrifice the king’s horseman will make for his people.

Question 30

Dancing

Answer 30

Dancing permeates the text. It is part of the ritual, and is directly connected to Elesin’s suicide. Elesin, the women, and the praise-singer dance to enact the ritual. However, Pilkings and Jane also dance, but their dance is awkward and representative of their outsider status.

Question 31

Rule Britannia include one line

Answer 31

Motif for British imperialism
“Britons never, never, never will be slaves.”
Inappropriate as British made Nigerians slaves and it was played badly to show people’s resistance

Question 32

Act 1 summary [3]

Answer 32

1) Elesin rushes to the market for the women but the praise singer warns him of his duty
2) Elesin fetches a young woman and plans to get married to her
3) Elesin uses motifs like “Not-I bird” and “honor” to reaffirm his duty to commit suicide as proof he won’t be distracted

Question 33

Act 2 summary [3]

Answer 33

1) Pilkings dances in egungun costume and Amusa is disgusted
2) Pilking is given a note that Elesin will commit ritual suicide at night
3) Pilkings disrespect native customs and religion

Question 34

Act 3 summary [3]

Answer 34

1) Opens in the market where Amusa returns to his people to be teased as he is considered a left-over eater of the white
2)Elesin marries his bride and left his seed on earth
3) Praise singer speaks to Elesin as if he is the ancestors and prepare for Elesin’s death

Question 35

Left-over eater

Answer 35

Insult to someone who eats the trash of other, a lower being

Question 36

But this

Answer 36

But this young shoot has poured its sap into the parent stalk

Question 37

The world

Answer 37

The world is set adrift and its inhabitants are lost.

Question 38

Act 4 summary [3]

Answer 38

1) Rule Britannia is played in contrast to the indigenous drums we hear through the play it is played poorly
2) Olunde comes back to honor his father and explains why it is important (cultural clash)
3) Olunde lost respect for Elesin as he sees he is still alive

Question 39

Act 5 summary [3]

Answer 39

1) Elesin makes up excuses and blames Pilkings, Iyaloja breaks the excuse by admonishing his weak will and showing the dead body
2) The praise singer chants about the broken order and the lost of cycle of life while showing the dead body of Olunde
3) Elesin kills himself, simon tries to save him but stopped by Iyaloja as it is Elesin’s responsibility

Question 40

Classic tragedy [3]

Answer 40

1) Death and the King’s Horseman explores themes of life and death in an intensely emotional story about a ritual suicide
2) the idea of fate:
It is Elesin’s destiny as king’s horseman to follow the king to the afterlife
Elesin understands this finally when he is jailed and unable to carry out his duty. “I am stopped from fulfilling my destiny”

Question 41

Fatal flaw in Elesin

Answer 41

Revels in attention from women and asks to have sex with a bride as his last act

Question 42

Soyinka’s purpose [3]

theme : Power and influence

Answer 42

1)effects of imbalanced power structures
2) how abusive and oppressive authorities can disenfranchise those under their control and influence
3) Soyinka speaks for ones with weaker power

Question 43

Soyinka’s purpose [4]

Theme: life and death

Answer 43

1) Makes a Yoruba custom to commit ritual suicide as the focus to challenge attitudes to death
2) By setting the play at the time of British rule and World War II he is able to highlight hypocritical reactions to cultural beliefs about death
3) Soyinka uses the form of a tragedy to raise questions about honourable deaths and dishonourable lives
4) His sympathetic tragic hero examines the human instinct for life

Question 44

Soyinka’s purpose [3]

Theme: culture and religion

Answer 44

1) The play presents a native culture and religion as a threat to colonists
2) Soyinka raises the profile of oppressed cultures through the play’s focus on the Yoruba tribe and their religious beliefs
3) Through the form of tragedy, Soyinka implies ignorance and intolerance is disastrous for a community

Question 45

Soyinka’s purpose [3]

Theme: duty and responsibility

Answer 45

1) The play is an examination of shared responsibility
2) dangers of self-interest
3) consequences of an individual’s disregard for their duty

Question 46

Opening of act 1 vs act 2 and its effects [3]

Answer 46

1) Act 1 opens in the busy and vibrant Yoruba market where Elesin revels in women
2) Act 2 opens in the home of the Pilkings dancing tango to an old gramophone
3) these two scenes effectively foreshadow conflict as audiences see barriers between the local people and the British residents

Question 47

ending of act 1 vs act 2 and its effects [3]

Answer 47

1) Act 1 ends with Iyaloja’s earnest words, “Prepare yourself Elesin”, leaving his future in the balance:
2) The sombre mood is emphasised with lighting: “lights fade out on the scene”
3) Act 2 occurs in the Pilkings’ home and audiences are left unaware, like the British residents, of progress outside

Question 48

Opening of act 3 vs act 4 and its effects [3]

Answer 48

1) Act 3 opens in the market with a “swelling, agitated hum of women’s voices” as they attempt to protect Elesin and their community
2) This contrasts the opening of Act 4 in the Pilkings home of “tawdry decadence” where a band “plays ‘Rule Britannia’, badly”
3) The incongruity of this is designed to highlight the weak leadership of the British and the shared bond and spirit of the Nigerian community

Question 49

because he

Answer 49

because he could not bear to let honour fly out of doors, he stopped it with his life.

Question 50

The passage

Answer 50

The passage is clogged with droppings from the King’s stallion; he will arrive stained in dung

Question 51

Now forget

Answer 51

Now forget the dead, now forget even the living. Turn your mind only to the unborn