Character Clues

Character Analysis

Actions

Willie's a goofball who does things like throw his cleaning rag at Sam. When he misses, Hally becomes furious and throws it back at Willie. Sam stays out of it. All three characters have very different stances on violence that reveal their characters: Willie doesn't take it seriously; Hally abuses it; Sam restrains himself.

Clothing

Sam wears a white waiter's coat to show that he's a service person with some responsibility to deal with customers. Willie has his sleeves and pants rolled up because he is busy with more physical labor. Hally, meanwhile, dresses like a student with his book bag and raincoat, because that's what he is.

Names

This is a biggie in "Master Harold"…and the boys. Hally is short for Harold; it's his childhood nickname, what Sam calls him. Willie, however, calls him "Master Harold," a term of respect that indicates Hally's superiority over Willie. When Hally decides that Sam should start calling him "Master Harold," as well, things get ugly. He's using his name to try to dominate and oppress Sam.

It's also important to note that while Sam and Willie are older than Hally, he doesn't call them Mister or Master or even Samuel and William. He uses the shortened versions of their names as though they were "boys" rather than men. This inversion was common usage with white children and their black elders. White kids wouldn't have seen this as disrespectful; it's just how they were accustomed to addressing blacks, who were their "inferiors." This was typical in the Jim Crow southern U.S., too. A black man could be addressed as "boy," regardless of his age. It's a way of immediately establishing status and power.

Language

The characters' language constantly reminds the audience (yeah, you, snoozing in the back!) that the play takes place in South Africa, even though the characters rarely refer to it. The characters are always peppering their phrases with the Afrikaans word "ja" ("yes"), and Willie calls Sam "Boet Sam," another Afrikaans word for "brother" (or brother from another mother).

Each character speaks differently, and their speech defines them. Willie speaks more casually, while Sam follows formal grammar rules:

WILLIE. Because she also make the hell-in, Boet Sam. She never got the steps right. Even the waltz.
SAM. Beating her up every time she makes a mistake in the waltz? (Shaking his head) No, Willie! That takes the pleasure out of ballroom dancing. (138-142)

Hally has the largest vocabulary of the bunch and his speech is always grammatically correct; he's the one with the formal education, something denied to black South Africans. As smart as Sam is, he still needs Hally's help.

SAM. (Reading from a history textbook) […] "After concluding peace with Britain in 1802 Napoleon used a brief period of calm to in-sti-tute…"

HALLY. Introduce.

SAM. "…many reforms." (469 -475)

So the difference in language for the different characters lets you know a lot about apartheid.