CU-MA-Eng-SEM-IV-Specialization I - Postcolonial Drama-Second Draft

charcoal burner, but in his dream, he is also the king of Africa, following the instructions of an apparition of a beautiful white woman. Partly mad, partly possessed, and partly drunk, he possibly dreams the entire play in Lestrade’s cell, after a night of drunkenness in a local tavern. He is arrested for stealing coal and for disorderly conduct. In an elaborate allegorical configuration, he is the Christ figure at the beginning of his public life, performing miracles, collecting followers, and leaving behind exaggerated stories of his wonders, both betrayed and believed, as the Lion of Africa who will lead his black brethren back to Africa, but only after killing their “whiteness.” He experiences a sort of apotheosis when he kills the “white” woman who haunted him into this religious and political mission. CORPORAL LESTRADE Corporal Lestrade, a mulatto guard of the town jail, “doing the white man’s work” in jailing and questioning Makak but finally “confessing” to his blackness in the final apotheosis. At first cruel in the use of his power, he forces the villagers into hypocritically agreeing to his absurd statements and pursues Makak to “hunt” him like an animal. The name of his rank suggests his allegorical... BASIL Basil is a black man (or perhaps apparition) who appears when death is imminent for someone in the scene. Wearing a dark coat and hat, he is described by some as a cabinetmaker. Basil also plays a constant role in Makak’s journey after he reaches Monkey Mountain. He compels Corporal Lestrade to confess his sins, resulting in Lestrade’s personal epiphany. When the scene shifts to Africa, Basil reads the list of the accused. FELIX HOBAIN See Makak JOSEPHUS Josephus is the sick man who is healed by Makak. He suffers from a fever without sweat until Makak saves his life. CORPORAL LESTRADE Corporal Lestrade runs the jail and is responsible for the arrest of Makak. Lestrade is a mulatto, and at the beginning of the play identifies himself with the white authority figures. 10.4 ANALYSIS After a short epigraph (a quote by Martinican post-colonial political philosopher Franz Fanon), the play opens with a chorus singing a call-and-response while dancers cross the stage. Two jail cells appear. One holds Tigre and Souris, black men in jail for thievery, and the other is empty. The biracial Corporal Lestrade appears, dragging Makak, an older black man, whom he throws into the empty cell. Lestrade argues with the other prisoners, whom he views as animals, and then hosts an improvised trial. Makak, tired and confused, just wants to 201 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

return to his home on Monkey Mountain. He claims an apparition of a white woman inspired him. Makak dreams of a time before his arrest. His friend Moustique finds Makak on the ground outside his house, recovering from a fit. Moustique encourages Makak to come to the market, where they will sell the coal Makak has produced. Makak remembers a dream in which the apparition of a white woman told him to go back to Africa. Makak announces his desire to do so. On a country road, Moustique finds a group of people gathered around a sick man. They light hot coals beneath him, hoping to sweat out the illness caused by a snakebite. Moustique offers to fetch his friend, a healer, in exchange for bread and money. The people accept, and Moustique returns with Makak, who performs a healing ceremony. The people are so grateful that they shower Moustique with gifts. Moustique wants to use Makak’s healing power for financial gain, but Makak refuses. They head toward the market. At the market, Lestrade and an Inspector survey the scene. Rumors of a powerful healer have preceded them. Moustique appears, dressed as Makak, and puts on a show as a healer. When his identity is uncovered, the crowd surrounds him and beats him mercilessly as Lestrade watches. Makak arrives and runs to his stricken friend, but Moustique dies of his injuries, passing away in Makak’s arms. Makak falls to the ground in a fit. After another short epigraph by Franz Fanon, Makak wakes up in a jail cell again. Lestrade wakes him, along with Tigre and Souris, who notice that Makak has money and decide to rob him. They convince Makak to kill Lestrade, and Makak agrees. He feigns illness and then, using a hidden dagger, stabs Lestrade. Makak releases his fellow prisoners, and they escape into the forest. Lestrade recovers—his wound is only minor—and gives chase. In the forest, Makak’s behavior becomes erratic. He promises to take Tigre and Souris to Africa and make them generals. Makak leads the others into hiding when they hear Lestrade approach. Becoming increasingly distraught, Lestrade repents his sins and joins Makak’s quest. Makak has also convinced Souris, who now also wishes to go to Africa with him. Only Tigre refuses when given the chance to accompany them. In response, Lestrade stabs Tigre. The others leave for Africa, where the Corporal announces that he will enforce the law on behalf of Makak. A crowd carries Makak into an African court as a conquering king. Lestrade leads the calls for praise, and the crowd responds jubilantly, but Makak is not happy: He sees himself as a hollow ghost of his old self. Lestrade calls prisoners before the king. The first is a list of historical white people, many of whom are already dead. They are condemned for being 202 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

white and written out of history as punishment. Next, Moustique is dragged before the court and accused of betraying Makak’s dream. Though he pleads with Makak, claiming that Makak has grown mad, old, and blind as king, Makak looks away. Moustique is taken away to be executed. Finally, the apparition of the white woman is brought forth. Lestrade demands her execution as she is a temptation. He hands Makak a sword. Makak insists on privacy, and, when everyone leaves, he executes the apparition. In the Epilogue, the dream has ended, and Makak is once again in his jail cell. This time, when Lestrade asks him his name, he answers that he is Felix Hobain. He accepts his identity and, when Moustique arrives, Makak and Moustique return happily to Monkey Mountain. This is the portentous and surrealistic dream around which the whole action of the play centers. Makak, an old hermit, has lived alone on Monkey Mountain his whole life. The dream he dreams one night forces him off the mountain and on a journey toward Africa. How Makak will get from a small Caribbean island to Africa does not seem to trouble him in the least. With his only friend, Moustique, unwillingly accompanying him, Makak becomes a sort of faith healer. When Moustique is killed in a marketplace riot, Makak is jailed and once he manages to escape with two other convicts, he only wants to go home to Monkey Mountain. The play represents Makak’s search for home, but it is also about native man being oppressed by colonial rule and the clash of West Indian and English culture. The play ends not with a beheading, “but with a man’s reaching an accommodation with his environment. Makak returns to his mountain retreat a new man because of his increased insight. Makak (monkey), a poor, ugly, old charcoal burner, is in prison on “drunk and disorderly charges.” While being interrogated by Corporal Lestrade, the mulatto enforcer of white laws, he tries to tell his story to the military and his two fellow prisoners, Tigre (tiger) and Souris (rat). They will not listen, but the audience relives Makak’s dream. In his dream on Monkey Mountain, Makak experiences a visitation from a white Apparition. She declares that he is the son of African kings and as such, he should return to Africa. Empowered and acting like a prophet, Makak and his friend Moustique (mosquito) set forth for the village. The doubtful Moustique at first humors his friend, but when Makak cures a villager of fever, Moustique becomes his disciple and agent and, if the price is right, his impersonator, for Makak’s growing renown precedes him. Moustique’s impersonation of Makak is exposed by Basil, the carpenter and coffin maker. This swindle costs Moustique his life at the hands of an angry mob. Again, we see Makak in his cell, but he escapes after wounding Corporal Lestrade. Along with Souris and Tigre, he sets off for Africa to claim his kingship but is pursued by Lestrade into the forest at the foot of Monkey Mountain. There, the Corporal experiences a 203 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

revelation that leads him to accept his blackness. With his transformation, he becomes the advocate for black law and condemns all that is white. Meanwhile, Makak rethinks his back- to-Africa decision and, in a dream-within-a-dream, foresees the violence that will result from the frenzy for power and revenge. Makak, a black charcoal-burner, has been imprisoned for his own safety, after getting drunk and smashing things in the local market. In jail he has a vision of a white Goddess, who urges him to return to Africa. Unhappy about the way the mulatto warder Corporal Lestrade approves of ‘white man’s law’, Makak despises himself for being black and longs to lead his people back to Africa, where, in his dreams, he will become a fearless warrior. Even Lestrade will join his exodus, while various hangers-on pretend to lend Makak his support while trying to undermine and rob him. Amazingly, he receives a floral tribute from the Ku Klux Klan. Finally, he beheads the white apparition. Waking from his drunken dream, he finds he has overcome his obsession with whiteness and calls himself by his real name, Felix Hobain. Reconciled to life on his Caribbean Island, Makak resolves to return to his home on Monkey Mountain and looks forward to a new life. In it the playwright, himself of mixed race, urges his fellow countrymen neither to imitate the whites nor to get trapped in dreams of returning to Africa. Instead, he encourages his audience to embrace the multiracial, multicultural character of Caribbean society and celebrate its richness, which is reflected in the mixture of languages and theatrical styles, including song and dance. Monkey Mountain is about many things. It’s about the West Indian search for identity, and about the damage that the colonial spirit has done to the soul. Makak [the central figure] and the people he meets in the play are all working out the meaning of their culture; they are going through an upheaval, shaking of concepts that have been imposed on them for centuries. Dream on Monkey Mountain is a hero/quest myth. The motif of the hero/seeker Makak, who must defy odds and gods to achieve his quest, is to find his selfhood. Makak becomes the representative of all downtrodden and impoverished blacks who long to be redeemed, and of the transformation that brings about such redemption. The transformation comes in the form of a dream in which Makak describes himself as walking through white mist to the charcoal pit on the mountain. He is traveling through consciousness, going from whiteness to blackness, through vagueness toward a solid identity. He envisions a spider web heavy with diamonds, and “when my hand brush it, let the chain break.” The chain symbolizes the chain of slavery, both psychological and actual, while the 204 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

spider’s web represents all the problems resulting from history, racism and colonialism. The diamonds are the oppressed people. Thus, in his dream, Makak transcends time and space and moves from being almost an animal to royalty and God-like. The author sees Makak’s dream as a revolution. “[It] projects the psychological realities of the Black man’s relationship with both the White West and with the African past.” The fantasies belong not just to Makak, but to Moustique, Tigre, Souris, and the jailer, Corporal Lestrade. In a sense, the dream is a kind of escape, but it is also an affirmation of self, black selfhood. Makak affirms his human identity because he has the capacity to dream; from a despised and self-hating hermit he emerges from the dream with a triumphant sense of his own humanity. So when he is released from the prison, the gaining of his physical freedom is like a new life, a revolutionary beginning for Makak and his people. In the progression of the dream, Walcott creates characters who are altar egos to show the contradictions of Makak’s undeveloped Black consciousness. Moustique’s ugliness is a physical reflection of Makak’s selfloathing. However, when Moustique tries to turn Makak’s healing powers into a quick dollar, he represents the exploitative motives that are present in Makak’s early development. “Makak and Moustique together represent the ambiguity of the undeveloped revolutionary self.” By the same token, the extreme anti-Black stance of the mulatto Lestrade represents Makak’s self-hatred. Lestrade (meaning “stand” or “platform” in French) who straddles the middle ground, and when he is converted to Makak’s Black cause, he urges him to destroy all that is white, including his white Apparition. Lestrade’s confession is also Makak’s and propels him into beheading the Apparition so that he can enter black selfhood. 10.5 THEMES The Source of Disillusionment The Source of New Wisdom and Accommodation With Present Diaspora Of Caribbean Negros Denial Of Self, Space and Power When the playwright was asked about his play, he replied: “Monkey Mountainis about many things. It’s about the West Indian search for identity, and about the damage that the colonial spirit has done to the soul. Makak and the people he meets in the play are all working out the meaning of their culture; they are going through an upheaval, shaking off concepts that have 205 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

been imposed on them for centuries. Makak is an extreme representation of what colonialism can do to a man—he is reduced to an almost animal like state of degradation. When he dreams that he is the king of a united Africa, some sort of spiritual return to Africa can be made. The romanticized pastoral vision of Africa that many black people hold can be an escape from the reality of the world around us. The problem is to recognize our African origins but not to romanticize them. In the first half of the play, the concept of the beginning of the world and the evolution of man is - basically white. Then, when Corporal Lestrade, the brainwashed colonial servant, retrogresses to become an ape and emerges as a man to walk through the primeval forest, the play swings over to a black Adamic concept of evolution. But the same sins are repeated, and the cycle of violence and cruelty begins again. When the two criminals who are virtually brothers fight, the dream breaks for Makak. He thought he was going to an Africa where people would be primal and communal. Instead, it’s back to original sin, with the tribes killing one another. He ultimately rejects both insanities—the extremity of contempt for the black and the extremity of hatred for the white. At the end, having made a spiritual trip to Africa and survived the middle passage, he compares himself to a drifting tree that has put down roots in the new world. 10.6 METAPHORS AND THE RECLAMATION OF BLACKNESS IN DREAM ON MONKEY MOUNTAIN Dream on Monkey Mountain is designed to be sequenced as one might imagine a dream to be sequenced; it is illogical, contradictory, and does not follow typical aspects of spatial and temporal awareness. In order to overcome the loss of reality that a reader might feel when reading the play, Walcott must depend on the language of the dream to give meaning to the message. As a result, Walcott litters his language with puns, metaphors, imagery, extended associations, and symbolism. Of all these stylistic devices, Walcott depends mainly on the use of metaphor to illustrate the key concept in his play: the reclaiming of blackness in order to forge an independent West Indian identity. In his use of metaphors, Walcott appears to be enticing not only a new, ameliorated perspective of blackness, but also seems to be creating the foundation for a new, individual West Indian identity that is separate from the identity habitually contrived by West Indians and based on Western European culture and influences. The metaphors introduced by Walcott not only attempt to make the familiar concepts unfamiliar, but also attempt to realign traditional notions of whiteness and blackness. The investigation into Walcott’s reclaiming of blackness will derive its basic foundations from linguistic precedents that have been established regarding metaphor’s powers to institute both semantic change and conceptual change. Walcott attempts to tweak the normal associations linked with whiteness and blackness in order to not only reconfigure the definition of these 206 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

notions, but also to change the actual conceptions that speakers of English have in relation to these terms. In Walcott’s view, language provides a direct link to one’s identity and, therefore, Caribbean English is capable of providing the West Indies with a unique identity, a true cultural identity. Walcott considers the preservation of the West Indian dialect to be of paramount importance and strongly believes that it needs to be protected from the possibility of its condemnation as mimicry. To Walcott, if the West Indian dialect is fated to be nothing more than mimicry, then the hope of a distinctive West Indian culture is impossible, and Caribbean culture will be meaningless, except perhaps as an image of Western Europe (Caribbean 7). According to Walcott (1974), language, within the West Indian dialect, is the image of release that the “new world Negro” will depend on to overcome their “disappointingly ordinary” existence. The ordinary black West Indian, who, according to Walcott, needs to be stirred into bitterness, thence perhaps to action, has the propensity to be as avaricious and as banal as those who had enslaved him. To Walcott, what would deliver the new West Indian from servitude is the possibility of a language that goes beyond the obstructions of mimicry-- a language or a dialect which had the ability and force to invented names for unique cultural perspective and item. For Walcott, what would create this new language and hence a new identity is poetics and unique, inimitable symbols. Hence, language has the power of creation and the people, like actors, are awaiting this new language; a language he helps to form through his works; a language which basis is seen in the metaphors used in Dream on Monkey Mountain --the same metaphors that help the main character, Makak, shed his dependence on Western European thought. Language, with deference to metaphor, is used by Walcott in Dream on Monkey Mountain to approach the problem of cultural identity within the mind of the colonized. In wrestling with this dilemma, Walcott carries on a tradition of postcolonial criticism that was first begun by Naipaul and later by Fanon. For Fanon, identity for the colonized was problematic because all attempts at an individual identity were likely to be seen as nothing less than mimicry. 10.7 SUMMARY  After a short epigraph (a quote by Martinique post-colonial political philosopher Franz Fanon), the play opens with a chorus singing a call-and-response while dancers cross the stage.  Two jail cells appear. One holds Tigre and Souris, black men in jail for thievery, and the other is empty. 207 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 The biracial Corporal Lestrade appears, dragging Makak, an older black man, whom he throws into the empty cell.  Lestrade argues with the other prisoners, whom he views as animals, and then hosts an improvised trial.  Makak, tired and confused, just wants to return to his home on Monkey Mountain.  He claims an apparition of a white woman inspired him.  Makak dreams of a time before his arrest.  His friend Moustique finds Makak on the ground outside his house, recovering from a fit.  Moustique encourages Makak to come to the market, where they will sell the coal Makak has produced.  Makak remembers a dream in which the apparition of a white woman told him to go back to Africa.  Makak announces his desire to do so.  On a country road, Moustique finds a group of people gathered around a sick man.  They light hot coals beneath him, hoping to sweat out the illness caused by a snakebite.  Moustique offers to fetch his friend, a healer, in exchange for bread and money.  The people accept, and Moustique returns with Makak, who performs a healing ceremony.  The people are so grateful that they shower Moustique with gifts.  Moustique wants to use Makak’s healing power for financial gain, but Makak refuses.  They head toward the market.  At the market, Lestrade and an Inspector survey the scene. Rumors of a powerful healer have preceded them.  Moustique appears, dressed as Makak, and puts on a show as a healer.  When his identity is uncovered, the crowd surrounds him and beats him mercilessly as Lestrade watches.  Makak arrives and runs to his stricken friend, but Moustique dies of his injuries, passing away in Makak’s arms.  Makak falls to the ground in a fit.  After another short epigraph by Franz Fanon, Makak wakes up in a jail cell again.  Lestrade wakes him, along with Tigre and Souris, who notice that Makak has money and decide to rob him.  They convince Makak to kill Lestrade, and Makak agrees. He feigns illness and then, using a hidden dagger, stabs Lestrade. 208 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 Makak releases his fellow prisoners, and they escape into the forest. Lestrade recovers his wound is only minor and gives chase.  In the forest, Makak’s behavior becomes erratic.  He promises to take Tigre and Souris to Africa and make them generals.  Makak leads the others into hiding when they hear Lestrade approach.  Becoming increasingly distraught, Lestrade repents his sins and joins Makak’s quest.  Makak has also convinced Souris, who now also wishes to go to Africa with him.  Only Tigre refuses when given the chance to accompany them.  Lestrade stabs Tigre.  The others leave for Africa, where the Corporal announces that he will enforce the law on behalf of Makak.  A crowd carries Makak into an African court as a conquering king.  Lestrade leads the calls for praise, and the crowd responds jubilantly, but Makak is not happy  He sees himself as a hollow ghost of his old self.  Lestrade calls prisoners before the king.  The first is a list of historical white people, many of whom are already dead.  They are condemned for being white and written out of history as punishment.  Next, Moustique is dragged before the court and accused of betraying Makak’s dream.  Though he pleads with Makak, claiming that Makak has grown mad, old, and blind as king, Makak looks away.  Moustique is taken away to be executed.  Finally, the apparition of the white woman is brought forth. Lestrade demands her execution as she is a temptation.  He hands Makak a sword. Makak insists on privacy, and, when everyone leaves, he executes the apparition.  In the Epilogue, the dream has ended, and Makak is once again in his jail cell.  This time, when Lestrade asks him his name, he answers that he is Felix Hobain.  He accepts his identity and, when Moustique arrives, Makak and Moustique return happily to Monkey Mountain. 10.8 KEYWORDS  Negro- negro is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage 209 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 Black People-is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin Color-based category for specific populations  Warrior-a person who fights in a battle, a soldier  Devil-the most powerful evil being, according to the Christian, Jewish and Muslim religions  Pantomime-a type of play for children, with music, dancing and jokes, that is usually performed at Christmas  Aspiration-a hope or ambition of achieving something  Protagonist- (in literature) the main character in a play, film or book  Spiritual-concerning deep thoughts, feelings or emotions rather than the body or physical things  Typical-having or showing the usual qualities of a particular person, thing or type  Goddess-a female god 10.9 LEARNING ACTIVITY 1. Examine the Loss and Recovery of Identity in Derek Walcott's Dream on Monkey Mountain ___________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ 2. Analyze the Dream on Monkey Mountain as a Journey from Self-hatred to Self- Acceptance ___________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ 3. Interpret Metaphors and the Reclamation of Blackness in Dream on Monkey Mountain ___________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ 10.10 UNIT END QUESTIONS A. Descriptive Questions Short Questions 1. What is the significance of the dream in Dream on Monkey Mountain? 2. What is the purpose of the motifs of journey and home in Dream on Monkey Mountain? 210 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

3. Is Dream on Monkey Mountain a play on one’s search for identity? 4. Who is Makak in Dream on Monkey Mountain? 5. Who is Basil in Dream on Monkey Mountain? Long Questions 1. Explain various themes depicted in Dream on Monkey Mountain 2. Critically evaluate the colonial concepts dealt in 'Dream Monkey Mountain' 3. Sketch the character Makak in 'Dream on Monkey Mountain' 4. Summarize the story of the drama 'Dream Monkey Mountain' 5. Explain the theme of the drama 'Dream Monkey Mountain' B. Multiple Choice Questions 1.__ is a black man who walks with a limp a. Makak b. Monkey c. Moustique d. Souris 2. Who disguises himself as Makak to exploit the people? a. Corporal Lestrade b. Moustique c. Souris d. Fact 3.__ a young black thief in jail when Makak is arrested a. Tigre b. Corporal Lestrade c. Fact d. Souris 4.____ breaks out of jail and follows Makak to Monkey Mountain. a. Corporal Lestrade b. Fact c. Souris 211 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

d. Tigre 5.____ represents the thief who was damned in the allegorical parallel. a. Tigre b. Corporal Lestrade c. Fact d. Souris Answers 1-c, 2-b, 3-a, 4-d, 5-a 10.11 REFERENCES Reference books  Black, M. \"More about Metaphor.\" Metaphor and Thought. Ed. A. Ortony. Cambridge: Cambridge University: 19-43. Print.  Brown, Lloyd. \"West Indian Literature: Road to a New World Sensibility.\" Journalof Black Studies 1 (June, 1977): 411-436. Print.  Fanon, Frantz. Black Skins, White Masks. Trans. Charles Lam Markmann. London:Penguin Press, 1965. Print.  Fowler, Roger. Linguistic Criticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.Print. Textbook references  Walcott, Derek. Dream on Monkey Mountain and other Plays. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1970. Websites  https://credencepressltd.com/journal/uploads/archive/202116138844286376164711.p df  https://www.jstor.org/stable/3818202  https://www.peterlang.com/view/9781433136825/xhtml/chapter22.xhtml  https://www.britannica.com/art/Nigerian-theatre 212 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)