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The Dramatic Significance of Sick Characters in Ola Rotimi's Plays

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The Dramatic Significance of Sick Characters in Ola Rotimi's Plays
THE DRAMATIC SIGNIFICANCE OF SICK CHARACTERS IN OLA ROTIMI’S PLAYS

Odia Clement Eloghosa

ABSTRACT In this paper, the sick characters are studied through the examination of their dramatic significance and contributions to the development of Ola Rotimi’s drama. Three aspects of dramatic significance are identified in this paper and we argue that the sick:

(1) act as witness and help the healthy establish truth, (2) create crisis situations that stir up diverse emotions in the audience, and finally, (3) heighten dramatic tension which boosts the degree of suspense in the plays.

I INTRODUCTION
The paper examines the dramatic significance of sick characters in Ola Rotimi’s plays. It covers four of Rotimi’s plays because they are directly relevant to the thesis of this study. The four plays are The Gods Are not to Blame (1971), Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again (1977), If… A Tragedy of the Ruled (1983) and Hopes of the Living Dead (1985).

The purpose of this study is to examine the use of sick characters in Ola Rotimi’s drama by describing their dramatic significance as well as by assessing their contributions to Rotimi’s dramaturgy.

The methodology used in this study is mainly library research. The four primary texts have been read closely and analyzed within the context of each aspect of the thesis. Relevant secondary materials are used in supporting the arguments on which the thesis and individual sections are based.

Some critics have examined the various aspects of Rotimi’s dramaturgy, paying attention to either the content or the form. None of the critics has been able to carry out a sustained study of the dramatic significance of sick characters in Ola Rotimi’s plays. This work proposes to fill that gap.

Earlier articles by E. J. Asgill, Teresa .U. Njoku, Michael Etherton and V. U. Ola are concerned with the playwright’s indebtedness to Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex in The Gods Are not to Blame.

Asgill, for example, critically examines



Cited: 1. Akanji, Nasiru “Ola Rotimi’s search for A Technique” New West African Literature, Ed. Kolawole Ogungbesan. London: Heinemann, 1979. 21-30. 2. Akinosho, Toyin, “Behold Society’s Confusion: Contradictions and Conflicts in a Mirror of Life” This Week vol. 3, No. 10. 1987. 11. 3. Asgill, E. J. “African Adaptations of Greek Tragedies” African Literature Today. Vol. 11. 1980. 179 – 189. 4. Begho, F. O. “The Dance in Contemporary Nigeria Theatre – A Critical Appraisal” Nigerian Journal of the Humanities. Vol 2 September, 1978. 31 – 36. 5. Etherton, Michael. The Development of African Drama. London: Hutchinson University Library, 1982. 7. Gbilekaa, Saint. Radical Theatre in Nigeria. Ibadan: Caltop Publications (Nig) Ltd, 1997. 8. Illah, Egwugwu. “Rotimi and the Development of Culturalist Assertion: The Development of Cultural Elements in Kurunmi and Other plays”. Cross Currents in African Theatre. Ed. Austin Asagba. Benin City: Osasu Publishers, 2001. 117 – 138. 9. Johnson, Alex. “Ola Rotimi: How Significant?”, African Literature Today. Vol. 2. 1982. 137 – 158. 10. Njoku, Teresa .U. “Influence of Sophocles Oedipus Rex on Rotimi’s The Gods Are not to Blame” Nigeria Magazine. No. 151. 1984. 40 – 45. 11. Ola .V. U. “The Concept of Tragedy in Ola Rotimi’s The Gods Are not to Blame” Okike. No. 22. September, 1982. 23 – 31. 12. Osofisan, Femi. “The Political Imperative in African Dramaturgy and Theatre Practice” Cross Currents in African Theatre. Ed. Austin Asagba. Benin City: Osasu Publishers, 2001. 2 – 7. 13. Rotimi Ola. The Gods Are not to Blame. London: OUP, 1971. 14. …Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again. Oxford: OUP, 1977 15 16. …Hopes of the Living Dead. Ibadan: Spectrum Books Ltd, 1985 17 18. Umukoro et al. Exam Focus: Literature in English for WASSCE 1998 – 2001. Ibadan: University Press Plc, 1997. 19. Uwatt, Effiok. B. “Indices of Authentic Nigerian Drama and Theatre” Play Writing and Directing in Nigeria: Interviews with Ola Rotimi. Ed. Effiok .B. Uwatt. Lagos: Arex Books Ltd, 2002. 128 – 152. 20. …“Towards a New Form of African Theatre: Theatre-In-The-Round Performance in Ola Rotimi’s Drama.” Literature and Black Aesthetics. Ed. Ernest .N. Ernenyonu. Ibadan: Heinemann Edu. Books, 1990. 177 – 193. 21. Walen, Harry L. (ed), Types of Literature. N. Y. Ginn and Company, 1964.

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