Death & the King's Horseman: Themes (CIE IGCSE English Literature)

Exam responses that are led by themes, or the ideas that a writer is exploring in their text, are more likely to reach the highest levels of the mark scheme. Exploring the text thematically, specifically in relation to the question being asked, will help to increase your fluency and assurance in writing about Soyinka’s play.

Below are some of the key themes that could be explored in Death and the King’s Horseman. This list is not exhaustive and you are encouraged to identify other ideas within the play. Below you will find sections on:

• Life and death
• Power and influence
• Culture and religion
• Duty and responsibility

Death is a central theme of the play, as demonstrated in the title of the play, which refers to a Yoruba custom, a ritual sacrifice that must happen one month after the king’s death, wherein the king’s horseman becomes honour-bound to commit suicide and follow the king to the afterlife. Soyinka’s play explores how the protagonist’s lust for life hinders an honourable death.

Knowledge and evidence:

• The play opens as Elesin, the king’s horseman and protagonist of the play, prepares for a ritual suicide in order to follow the king into the afterlife
• Soyinka creates a vibrant and noisy mood in the marketplace:
  • The praise-singer, Elesin and women in the market-place sing, chant, dance and exchange light-hearted banter
  • This signifies that the village sees the occasion as significant and celebratory
  • In this way, Soyinka introduces Yoruba beliefs about death:
    • It is part of an important tradition, which the people welcome
• Nevertheless, the play’s conflict, and the means by which Soyinka explores life and death, is presented through Elesin’s obvious hesitation to die: 
  • Elesin, the play’s tragic hero, is introduced as honourable and he reassures the village he is ready for death:
    • He tells a story about the Not-I bird who visits living beings at their moment of death and says he told the bird he was prepared to die
  • Yet the praise-singer shows doubt, and Elesin’s distractions with women in the marketplace introduces his fatal flaw: his love for life and earthly pleasures:
    • He revels in attention from the women and exploits his high status
    • He asks to have sex with a young woman as his final act on earth 
  • Elesin’s hesitation to die foreshadows the tragedy
• Soyinka illustrates how Elesin’s love for the material and fleeting pleasures of life reduces Elesin as a valued member of society
• Soyinka uses the symbol of Elesin’s suicide to represent the “death” of the culture:
  • He shows how crucial the custom is to the continued existence of Yoruba culture:
    • Elesin is warned of the consequences repeatedly, with dark imagery about a “void” and an “abyss” 
    • They insist he must die in order to save the village from disorder
    • They urge him to honour the Yoruba beliefs to prevent their community’s destruction
• Soyinka’s play examines different cultural attitudes to death:
  • Both Simon and Jane Pilkings (British Christians) are horrified by the custom
  • They believe the ritual suicide is “barbaric” and work to prevent it from happening
  • However, Olunde, Elesin’s son, draws attention to the parallels between British patriotism and Yoruba tradition
  • In particular, Olunde refers to World War II as “mass suicide”
• By the tragedy’s resolution, Elesin, inevitably, is doomed for failing to die honourably:
  • His son’s sacrificial death causes him so much shame that Elesin strangles himself with his chains
• The play’s ending implies the “death” of the king’s horseman in more ways than one:
  • Olunde and Elesin’s death marks the end of the line of king’s horsemen, too
• Iyaloja delivers the play’s conclusion about life and death: 
  • She admonishes Simon for his refusal to accept death, saying that just by being alive does not mean “the stain of death will not cling”
  • She exits with Elesin’s pregnant bride and turns her attention to the “unborn”, those who are not living or dead

What is Soyinka's intention? 

• Soyinka challenges attitudes to death by making a Yoruba custom the focus of the play’s action
• 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
• Soyinka uses the form of a tragedy to raise questions about honourable deaths and dishonourable lives
• His sympathetic tragic hero examines the human instinct for life

Soyinka explores themes of power by illustrating dynamics between those who have power and those who do not. The play particularly depicts imbalances of power between men and women, native peoples and foreign rulers, and leaders and subordinates. Soyinka draws attention to the way power imbalances can influence events with disastrous consequences.

Knowledge and evidence:

• Soyinka frequently highlights the power of the women in the community
• The female characters can foresee events and are able to warn other characters of potential problems before they occur, particularly on a cultural level:
  • Jane Pilkings urges her husband, Simon, to be less reckless with his words and actions
  • She tells Simon to talk to Elesin before arresting him
  • Iyaloja, too, warns Elesin not to bed the young woman and leave behind a curse
  • Iyaloja urges Elesin not to throw the town into disorder and reverse the course of nature
• Yet the play demonstrates the lack of influence the women in the play have to change a course of action:
  • This could be interpreted as the Cassandra effect
  • This is a tool or metaphorical symbol often used in dramatic tragedy to present females as visionaries who are ignored and unable to use their power to influence the future
• Nevertheless, the women in the marketplace appear to have some power acting as a group:
  • They succeed in preventing Amusa from arresting Elesin:
    • Yet this is temporary and is depicted as a struggle between two oppressed parties 
    • Amusa, the police sergeant, is presented as a minority figure in the community
• Soyinka perhaps demonstrates how Amusa’s powerlessness comes as a result of his vague identity:
  • He is Muslim, a native Nigerian, yet works for the foreign rulers 
  • He is humiliated by the women for his subservience to the British
  • They mock his sexless marriage and his virility, calling him weak
  • Amusa represents an individual who is unable to exert influence despite his position of authority
• Soyinka’s presentation of Amusa as a sympathetic character may imply he represents victimhood in some way:
  • His shock and disgust at Simon and Jane’s ignorant disrespect for cultural beliefs shows him as a character with integrity and a moral compass
  • Yet he is repeatedly dismissed and ignored, unable to affect events 
• The play depicts the damaging influence of powerful forces with limited understanding:
  • It is the British district officer who is the play’s antagonist and the catalyst for the tragedy
  • His dismissive attitude to the customs of his community (which he calls “mumbo-jumbo”) leads to disorder 
  • When Simon is frustrated that some local customs he has failed to stamp out remain, Soyinka illustrates oppressive control 

What is Soyinka's intention? 

• Soyinka’s tragedy points to the damaging effects of imbalanced power structures 
• The play highlights how abusive and oppressive authorities can disenfranchise those under their control and influence
• Soyinka raises the profile of quieter, neglected voices in a community
• While Soyinka makes it clear the play explores circumstances without judgement, the play closely examines the power and influence of foreign rule on a small community

One of the key ideas examined in Death and the King’s Horseman is the way ignorance leads to misunderstandings, which in turn lead to conflict. Soyinka sets his play in a village with diverse religious beliefs and traditions to explore intolerance and prejudice specifically related to religious and cultural beliefs. 

Knowledge and evidence:

• The play is set in Nigeria during World War II at a time when the country was under British rule
• Soyinka demonstrates how this creates conflict in the village:
  • It could be argued that the village represents any town under foreign rule
• Oyo, the Nigerian village, is managed by a British district officer, Simon Pilkings:
  • He is charged, as officer of the British Empire, with spreading the doctrine of Christianity to the African people 
  • He is also in charge of ensuring the community adheres to British customs and values
• The play immediately introduces audiences to the culture of the Yoruba tribe:
  • The play makes reference to significant religious objects and myths within the Yoruba tribe that pertain to the Ifa religion:
    • The play mentions an opele and a sigidi within the story of the Not-I bird
  • The religious references present the Yoruba as spiritual and superstitious
• The play focuses on the way Yoruba customs are not understood or acknowledged by the British residents:
  • Simon, especially, disregards the native customs as “nonsense” and is annoyed some customs still remain under his watch
  • Jane and Simon “desecrate” egungun traditional costumes that are significant in a native religious ceremony by wearing them to a costume party to win a prize
  • They do not know what the drumming outside signifies and must ask a villager
• In particular, Soyinka presents Jane and Simon Pilkings’s vague religious beliefs in contrast to the strong faith demonstrated by the community:
  • When Amusa reacts to this with disgust and refuses to talk with them or look at them, Jane says, “I think you've shocked his big pagan heart” 
  • Simon mentions Amusa is Muslim, not pagan, and adds he should not be offended by their costumes as a result
• Additionally, Simon offends his servant, Joseph, a native recently baptised as Christian:
  • Joseph represents an African man who has changed religions as a result of British rule
  • Simon says that Joseph must surely remember the tribal customs as the “holy water” cannot have been so powerful to wipe clear the memory of his culture
• Jane and Simon’s attitude to Olunde’s education in England highlights misunderstandings as a result of cultural attitudes:
  • Jane is shocked that Olunde has not denied his African culture having spent time in England:
    • She believes her culture to be superior and civilised
  • Simon maintains he has saved Olunde by sending him to England, although it is made clear this was done against his father’s will

What is Soyinka's intention? 

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

Death and the King's Horseman closely examines the idea of an individual’s personal duty and responsibility to community. Soyinka’s main characters, from two different cultures, both deny their duties, and this raises questions about the human instinct for self-preservation.

Knowledge and evidence:

• In Death and the King’s Horseman, the protagonist and the antagonist both fail to carry out their duties to their community
• Soyinka’s tragedy presents these failures as a consequence of hubris and an irresponsible attitude towards duty 
• The play introduces Elesin’s fatal flaw as his selfish desire for personal pleasure:
  • Elesin is preoccupied with the women’s attention and praise
  • He convinces Iyaloja to allow his final request, despite her warnings, and marries a young bride who is already engaged to Iyaloja’s son
  • Iyaloja warns him this may disrupt the social order
• Simon Pilkings fails to fulfil his duties as district officer:
  • He is unable to maintain order over his district
  • He is a poor representative of the British Empire 
• Simon’s concern with the visiting British prince and the costume party present him as self-absorbed
• Iyaloja, in contrast, makes a personal sacrifice to maintain the integrity of the village:
  • Her son will be unable to marry the girl once she is wedded to Elesin
  • His impending death, thus, will leave a less than ideal legacy
• Olunde is presented as dutiful and honourable:
  • He tries to teach Jane about Elesin’s duty to his community with an analogy:
    • He mentions the sense of duty that urges soldiers to fight in World War II
  • He expresses his strong belief in the idea of personal responsibility:
    • He refers to a British naval captain who sacrificed himself to save lives
  • His personal sacrifice to fulfil his father’s duty is presented as heroic

What is Soyinka's intention? 

• The play is an examination of shared responsibility
• Soyinka highlights the dangers of self-interest 
• Soyinka illustrates the consequences of an individual’s disregard for their duty