Foil

Character Role Analysis

Olunde and Jane

Although Simon and Elesin are probably more obvious opposites, Olunde and Jane are really the pairing that the play uses to tease out fundamental differences between the British and the Yoruba. For example, when Olunde reacts calmly to his father's death, Jane loses it—she just can't understand how anyone could react that calmly to his father's death. Although that's the most dramatic moment in their interaction, their whole conversation there is about how the British see things differently from the Yoruba.

However, through Olunde's reflections, we also get little glimpses of ways in which the Yoruba and the British really aren't so far from each other after all. Take Olunde's reflections on World War II, for instance: After offering the British a dubious compliment about how their great talent is survival, he says he just wishes they (the British, that is) would let other people survive "in their own way" (4.106). When Jane incredulously asks if this means allowing ritual suicide, Olunde points to World War II as a kind of parallel:

"Is that worse than mass suicide? Mrs. Pilkings, what do you call what those young men are sent to do by their generals in this war? Of course you have also mastered the art of calling things by names which don't remotely describe them." (4.108)

So, through the dialogue/pairing of Olunde and Jane, Soyinka really digs into the differences and points of common experience for the British and the Yoruba.