WAEC Literature in English 2025 Theory — Question 16

Model answer

The main theme of the play is the contest between tradition and modernity. Baroka represents tradition while Lakunle represents modernity. Sidi, the village belle, is at the centre of the conflicts between Baroka and Lakunle and, as the village 'Jewel', acts as a pivotal catalyst who illuminates the contrasting personalities, ideologies and vulnerabilities of both men. For Baroka, the Bale of Ilujinle who is captivated by Sidi's youthful beauty and newfound fame from the magazine photographs, Sidi's presence and popularity momentarily eclipses his own, which he finds intolerable; this ignites his cunning and resourcefulness, forcing him to devise a ruse of feigned impotence to win her hand — an elaborate deception that showcases his extraordinary intelligence, mastery of human psychology, and his ability to manipulate situations to his advantage, ultimately drawing out his commitment to tradition as he sees marrying her as a symbolic act of absorbing a new, potentially disruptive force back into the village's established order. For Lakunle, the village schoolteacher, Sidi consistently elicits his intellectual arrogance, his superficial grasp of modernity, and his underlying insecurities; he is obsessed with marrying Sidi but refuses to pay her bride-price, viewing it as a 'savage custom' and a symbol of his disdain for tradition. Sidi's demands for the bride-price, which she equates with her own worth, continually expose Lakunle's hypocrisy and his inability to truly break free from cultural norms even as he denounces them, forcing him to articulate his verbose, contradictory arguments for 'progress', highlighting his pretentious and impractical nature.