Death & the King's Horseman: Writer's Methods & Techniques (CIE IGCSE English Literature)

“Writer’s methods and techniques” is an umbrella term for anything the writer does on purpose to create meaning. Using the writer’s name in your response will help you to think about the text as a conscious construct and will keep reminding you that Wole Soyinka purposely put the text together.

The best responses at IGCSE don’t limit their analysis to individual words and phrases. Examiners are really looking for analysis of Soyinka’s overall aims, so try to take a “whole-text” approach to writer’s methods and techniques. There are a number of dramatic methods and techniques used in Death and the King’s Horseman:

• Form
• Structure
• Visual and sound effects
• Imagery and symbolism

Death and the King’s Horseman qualifies as a tragic drama as it adheres to the three unities of time, place and action. It has also been called a poetic drama due to its musicality. 

• The play adheres to the three unities of time, place and action:
  • The events in the play take place either in the district officer’s residence or in the village market
  • The play unfolds over a period of one day, focusing especially on the night
  • The night marks the one month anniversary of the king’s death
  • The play centres on Elesin’s ritual suicide in his position as king’s horseman and according to local custom:
    • This must be done by midnight
    • In the climax, Soyinka draws attention to the moon and the clock striking midnight
• The play can also be classed as a poetic drama:
  • It contains singing, dancing and music 
• The musical elements of the play draw attention to the spiritual nature of the Yoruba culture:
  • Stage directions state that the play should open with Elesin “pursued by his drummers and praise singers”
  • He is described as a “man of enormous vitality” who “speaks, dances and sings with that infectious enjoyment of life”
• Soyinka uses poetic language to deliver the play’s messages about life and death:
  • African characters, such as the praise-singer and Iyaloja, speak in proverbs that relate West African myths and ancient wisdoms
  • These are delivered in song or are accompanied by wailing or drumming
• Soyinka contrasts the loud drums, singing and music of the Yoruba people with the “poorly” played European band music in the Pilkings’ home:
  • The waltz and the tango are to be played “not of the highest musical standard”
• Soyinka conveys barriers in communication by contrasting the elevated and symbolic language of the native people with the emphatic statements of the British district officer:
  • For example, his response to the ritual is to say “Nonsense” 
  • He adds, “I don’t have to stop anything”

Written in five acts, the play is designed to be performed without interruption so as to mimic the rising tension in the village as the night draws on. However, Soyinka’s plot also builds suspense as audiences are kept unaware of simultaneously occurring events elsewhere in the village. 

• As each act transitions to the next, the setting changes:
  • This depicts events that occur simultaneously across the village
  • For example, Act 1 centres on a vibrant Nigerian marketplace, where Elesin revels in the strong community spirit as he prepares for death
  • Act 2 opens in the British district officer’s home where Simon and Jane Pilkings dance to a “tango” playing from an “old hand-cranked gramophone”
  • These two scenes effectively foreshadow conflict as audiences see barriers between the local people and the British residents  
• This structure draws attention to contrasting cultures:
  • The Pilkings’ celebration is in stark contrast to the Yoruba one in the village:
    • Act 3 opens in the market with a “swelling, agitated hum of women’s voices” as they attempt to protect Elesin and their community
    • This contrasts the opening of Act 4 in the Pilkings home of “tawdry decadence” where a band “plays ‘Rule Britannia’, badly”
  • The incongruity of this is designed to highlight the weak leadership of the British and the shared bond and spirit of the Nigerian community
• Soyinka’s alternating settings build suspense and create tension:
  • Act 1 ends with Iyaloja’s earnest words, “Prepare yourself Elesin”, leaving his future in the balance:
    • The sombre mood is emphasised with lighting: “lights fade out on the scene”
  • Act 2 occurs in the Pilkings’ home and audiences are left unaware, like the British residents, of progress outside
  • Act 3 turns to events in the market, ending in a dramatic scene where Elesin goes into a deep trance:
    • The audience is left in suspense about the outcome although it is implied Elesin dies
  • In Act 4 it is presumed the ritual has been successful as Jane, Olunde (and the audience) hear the drumming stop and believe Elesin dead:
    • However, the act ends with a dramatic reveal that Elesin is alive and captured
• Soyinka’s deliberate changing of settings illustrates Elesin’s reversal of fortune:
  • In contrast to Act 1, surrounded by the women in the marketplace, in Act 5 Elesin is chained and locked in a disused slave cell
  • He is separated physically and spiritually from the praise-singer and Iyaloja by a line that Simon has drawn on the floor

Music and other sound effects, as well as visual effects, play important roles in the drama to create mood and to give the audience further information about characters’ thoughts and motivations.

• Elesin’s tragic flaw is at first presented as a positive characteristic: 
• The stage directions instruct a drummer to draw a “rhythm out of his steps” as Elesin “chants the story of the Not-I bird” 
• He is described as a “born raconteur, infecting his retinue with his humour and energy”
• Soyinka employs call and response chanting to portray the strong community voices and their support for the ancient custom:
• The praise-singer sings encouragement to Elesin and the women echo his words by adding to them or exclaiming enthusiastically 
• Elesin’s honoured status in the village is illustrated by the fine clothes the women dress him in for his ritual:
• He is described as “resplendent in rich clothes, cap, shawl, etc. His sash is of a bright red alari cloth”
• Soyinka uses sound to present the powerful influence of colonial rule:
• When Iyaloja steps over a line that Simon Pilkings has drawn, it is directed that “The air is rent by piercing whistles”
• Later in the play, Soyinka portrays ominous warnings about Elesin’s fate with a drumming that rises to a “crescendo and then suddenly, it is cut off”:
• This is replaced by a “new beat” that “begins, slow and resonant”
• Olunde is calm, sure that this means his father’s suicide has been successful, but Jane’s horrified reaction presents the barriers in their cultural beliefs 
• Soyinka effectively conveys the tragedy in the final act with music and visual effects:
• The women enter “intoning the dirge ‘Ale; le,le;’ and swaying from side to side”
• The object they bring in front of Elesin in his cell is described as a “longish object roughly like a cylindrical bolt, covered in cloth”
• Its hidden contents hint at sinister consequences to events
• This is accompanied by a drummer who does not drum but ”intones under the Praise-singer’s invocations”
• Stage directions state that the “dirge rises and falls”, which increases the tension

Imagery and symbolism in the play are present both in the motifs and in the dialogue.

• Soyinka uses motifs and symbolic language to highlight cultural differences that affect communication:
  • During the ritual, Elesin, the praise-singer and the women refer to African myths that encourage Elesin and pay tribute to his sacrifice for the tribe
  • Communication between the living and the dead emphasises the strength of their ritual:
    • Messages are sent between the dead king and spirits in the afterlife and Elesin through the praise-singer
  • In contrast, the notes that are delivered between Amusa and the British district officer lead to confusion and misunderstanding:
    • When Simon reads the note Amusa says Elesin is to “commit death”, which Simon interprets as murder
• Natural imagery within the native characters’ dialogue and song imply their beliefs are rooted in nurturing relationships:
  • Elesin sees the women in the village as his mothers:
    • He says “This market is my roost. When I come among the women I am a chicken with a hundred mothers”
    • Iyaloja uses the metaphor of a plantain to describe parental relationships
• A close bond with nature is emphasised by the repeated reference to the order of the universe:
  • The danger of not adhering to the Yoruba custom is portrayed with dark imagery about the “abyss” or “emptiness” that would follow
  • The praise-singer asks Elesin if he wants to sit by as the world “smashes on boulders of the great void”
• Soyinka uses symbolism that alludes to slavery in order to show oppressive forces in the community:
  • Elesin is chained up and locked in “where the slaves were stored”
  • Soyinka makes allusions to the idea of slavery in the dramatic depiction of Elesin’s downfall
  • By killing himself with his own chains, Soyinka may be highlighting his powerlessness in the face of stronger forces of authority
  • Nevertheless, Elesin’s final act is one of defiance and some autonomy as he wraps the chains around his neck in a “swift, decisive pull”