Death and the King's Horseman (Edexcel IGCSE English Literature): Flashcards
Exam code: 4ET1
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Fill in the gap: "Life is ＿＿＿＿＿. It ends when honour ends"
Elesin, Act 1
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Cards in this collection (10)
Fill in the gap: "Life is ＿＿＿＿＿. It ends when honour ends"
Elesin, Act 1
Answer: "Life is honour. It ends when honour ends"
Fill in the gap: "just when did you become a social ＿＿＿＿＿, that's what I'd like to know"
Simon Pilkings, Act 2
Answer: "just when did you become a social anthropologist, that's what I'd like to know"
Fill in the gap: "you don't believe in all this ＿＿＿＿＿ do you? I thought you were a good Moslem"
Simon Pilkings, Act 2
Answer: "you don't believe in all this nonsense do you? I thought you were a good Moslem"
Fill in the gap: "I no like trouble but duty is ＿＿＿＿＿"
Amusa, Act 3
Answer: "I no like trouble but duty is duty"
Key quote: "...don't turn the food to rodents' droppings in their mouth. Don't let them taste the ashes of the world"
Iyaloja, Act 1
Analysis
Iyaloja's proverb warns that Elesin's failure will poison the whole community's afterlife. It raises the stakes of his ritual death.
Key quote: "If they want to throw themselves off the top of a cliff or poison themselves for the sake of some barbaric custom what is that to me?"
Simon Pilkings, Act 2
Analysis
The word "barbaric" exposes Pilkings's colonial contempt for Yoruba beliefs. His rhetorical question shows his indifference to their lives.
Key quote: "...you who play with strangers' lives, who even usurp the vestments of our dead, yet believe that the stain of death will not cling to you"
Iyaloja, Act 5
Analysis
The metaphor of an indelible "stain" blames Pilkings for the deaths. It shows he cannot escape responsibility for meddling in the ritual.
Key quote: "We don't want the eater of white left-overs at the feast their hands have prepared"
Girl, Act 3
Analysis
The market women mock Amusa as the colonisers' "pet". Their scorn asserts the community's female power against British authority.
Key quote: "...this thought that killed me, sapped my powers and turned me into an infant in the hands of unnamable strangers"
Elesin, Act 5
Analysis
The imagery of an "infant" shows Elesin powerless under British rule. He blames colonial influence for his failure to act.
Key quote: "Women, let my going be likened to / The twilight hour of the plantain"
Elesin, Act 1
Analysis
The plantain proverb frames Elesin's death as natural cosmic order. The old must die so the young can grow, showing his Yoruba faith.
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