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Anansi CSEC Review

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39 views

Anansi CSEC Review

Uploaded by

Natasha
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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DRAMA

ANANSI BY ALLISTAIR
CAMPBELL

CSEC REVISION: 2024


LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Explore the setting of Anansi


• The significance of the social context: 1791
• Discover the key themes of the play.
• Exploring the dramatic techniques used in the play.
• Examine the relationships of the characters at the beginning and then at the end of the play
(Boy and Girl, Anansi and Soliday, Boy and Captain etc.)
THE PLOT

• On board the slave ship (Boy and Captain, Girl and Woman, Sailor and Boy)
• In the Forest (Anansi and the other animals)
• Forest of Stories and The slave ship (Fantasy vs Reality)
ANANSI: SETTING

• The play opens with Boy and Captain in scene with books and ledgers – this
sets them apart as educated Europeans whose concern is the profits of the slave
ship.
• Our sympathy is evoked with the images of the ‘Hold’ where the slaves are
kept and transported to the West Indies. It is described as dark and filthy and
the ‘Slaves are huddled together like cattle.’
• The playwright then uses the character ‘Woman’ to inspire ‘Girl’ to reimagine
her current state of affairs through the ‘Anansi’ stories considered to be a
happier setting – which was used to liberate ‘Girl’s’ mind
HISTORY: • In the play we are taken back to the year 1791 and
SOCIAL the Atlantic Slave trade. At that time, enslaved
CONTEXT OF persons from Africa were brought to the West Indies
and auctioned to plantation owners.
ANANSI
THEMES

• Power & Prejudice


• Relationships - parent/child, family relationships/ slave & master
• Freedom vs captivity
• Dreams and Aspirations
• Growth and Manipulation
• Oral traditions – stories and storytelling
• Hope vs hopelessness
• Role of women
The female characters in Anansi are strong and bold.

THEMES • Here we find a slave woman whose role is to assist


the young girl to overcome her fears and inspire her
CONT’D to transcend her experience.
• Childhood experiences. (Boy and Girl)
Ref: CSEC Study Guide for English B 2017
• Irony – When a moment of dialogue or plot contradicts what
the audience expects from a character. (eg. Boy and Captain)
• Dramatic Irony (Girl, Anansi )
• Stage Directions (are show actions and thoughts of characters.
They are italicized parts in the text. In a real play there is no
narrator the stage directions are acted out ) What different
things does each stage direction reveal? (Ref: Ethan-Dale
DRAMATIC Brown scribd.com )
TECHNIQUES • Imagery/Symbol
• Similes and Metaphors – (Mancrow & Soliday, Her, Anansi,
Girl)
• Personification (Girl’s description of her journey from Africa)
“the river, carrying me further and further away from my
mother on its great brown back.”
• “the clean fresh wind singing from the ropes” to the “putrid
smells of the moaning grates”
RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN
CHARACTERS

• Boy (ideas contradicts that of the European slave masters) and Captain (antagonist)
• Girl and Woman (Protagonist)
• Anansi and the other animals
• Anansi (Villain and a Hero) – representing the core of the West African slaves
• Anansi and Soliday
(Ref CSEC Study Guide for English B)
PRACTICE QUESTION

• Write an essay in which you describe the relationship between TWO female
characters in the play. In the essay, you must also discuss how the relationship
of TWO male characters compares to theirs.
• In one of the relationships described, examine ONE dramatic technique that
Campbell uses to present the nature of the relationship in the play.

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