Death and the King's Horseman

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1975

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Summary

Background

Act Summaries & Analyses

Acts I-III

Acts IV-V

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Leftovers

Content Warning: This section of the study guide references ritual suicide and death by suicide.

Throughout the play, Yoruba characters accuse one another of eating “leftovers.” This slight symbolizes that an individual has no sense of honor. They are content to do with what others throw away, meaning that they have little dignity or self-respect. When Amusa goes to the market attempting to stop Elesin’s suicide, the girls that block his way call him an “eater of white left-overs” (39) and tell him he is not welcome at their mothers’ table. Amusa has abandoned his Yoruba principles and attempted to assimilate into British culture, but he remains on the lowest rung of the social ladder, shunned by both cultures.

Later, both Olunde and Iyaloja turn this insult on Elesin. Iyaloja tells the disgraced man that he has settled for fighting cats and mice “for the left-overs of the world” (68). Elesin abandoned the glory awaiting him for fulfilling his duty in favor of leftovers fit only for animals, signifying his complete loss of honor.

The Not-I Bird

The Not-I bird is an important symbol of the Yoruba mentality toward death in the play. In the first act, Elesin tells the Praise-Singer a story about the bird, which flies around in the service of death but is met with cries of “not I” from the people and animals it encounters. The bird’s call leaves otherwise brave individuals paralyzed with fear and locked in their houses, illustrating the futility of fearing death—it prevents the characters in the story from truly living. The story of the Not-I bird suggests that death should not be feared but rather welcomed and faced with courage and honor. Elesin tells the Praise-Singer that he has heard the bird’s call and sent it “happily away.” He claims to be ready to face his death. However, in the end, he reacts like the other characters in his story and hides from the Not-I bird’s call.

The Plantain Shoot

Both Elesin and Iyaloja refer to a plantain shoot as a symbol of Elesin’s suicide and its importance. When he convinces Iyaloja to let him marry before completing the ritual, Elesin insists that he is in “the twilight hour of the plantain” (20). As it withers, it is only natural that the parent stalk gives its sap to the younger shoot, and this is what Elesin aims to do with his bride, passing on his last bit of life force before his death.

After he fails to complete the ritual, Iyaloja turns the symbol of the plantain on Elesin. She confirms that the natural order of things is for the parent stalk to give life to the young shoot, but with Olunde’s death by suicide, this order has been reversed, and “the son has proved the father” (75). The plantain shoot thus becomes the symbol of the natural order that Elesin has disrupted by failing to complete his duty. Olunde is the “young shoot that poured its sap into the parent stalk,” but Iyaloja insists, “this is not the way of life” (75).