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:
“Thus we may define the real as that whose characters are independent of what anybody may think them to be.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)
“Though they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“What makes literature interesting is that it does not survive its translation. The characters in a novel are made out of the sentences. That’s what their substance is.”
—Jonathan Miller (b. 1936)