Characters
Main characters
- Baroka - The Balè or reigning chieftain of Ilujinle, a Yoruba village in the realm of the Ibadan clan. A crafty individual, he is the Lion referred to in the title. At sixty-two years of age, he has already sired sixty-three children.
- Lakunle - The progressive and absurdly arrogant Westernised teacher. He is in his twenties.
- Sidi - A beautiful, yet somewhat egotistical village girl who is wooed by both Baroka and Lakunle. She is the Jewel in the title.
- Sadiku - The sly chieftess of the Balè's harem.
- Ailatu - Baroka's favourite, but not so towards the end of the drama due to an altercation over Baroka's choice to take a new wife.
Supporting characters
Village girls, a wrestler, a surveyor, schoolboys, his assorted consorts and various musicians, dancers, mummers, prisoners, traders and so on.
Read more about this topic: The Lion And The Jewel
Famous quotes containing the word characters:
“No author has created with less emphasis such pathetic characters as Chekhov has....”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“We are like travellers using the cinders of a volcano to roast their eggs. Whilst we see that it always stands ready to clothe what we would say, we cannot avoid the question whether the characters are not significant of themselves.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The Nature of Familiar Letters, written, as it were, to the Moment, while the Heart is agitated by Hopes and Fears, on Events undecided, must plead an Excuse for the Bulk of a Collection of this Kind. Mere Facts and Characters might be comprised in a much smaller Compass: But, would they be equally interesting?”
—Samuel Richardson (1689–1761)