An Examination of The Comic Elements in Wole Soyinka’s “The Trials of Brother Jero and The Lion and the Jewel”

ABSTRACT

Study of the comic elements in Wole Soyinka’s “The Trials of Brother Jero and The Lion and the Jewel. The literature is said to be interpretation of life itself and it’s in three segment, which are prose, Drama and Poetry. Drama which is the most relevant on this study. Drama has been defined as a literary composition that tells a story usually representing human conflict by means of dialogue and action as portrayed by Wole Soyinka in “Trial of Brother Jero and The Lion and the Jewel. Soyinka uses comic element to project and achieved his aim without jeopardizing the message intended to the audience. For instance “Trial of Brother Jero” where he portrayed the lust of Brother Jero for women, especially at the beach and the mocking of his followers prayer by referring to them speaking Jabber and in The Lion and the Jewel where Soyinka portrayed Baroka speaking both pidgin and English together like “guru m morin” and also mocking stance of Lakunle whom he portrayed to represent the western culture. For instance when Lakunle tries to carry a pale of water from Sidi head and which he eventually pour the water on his body.Soyinka lets us know that Comic Is not only by oral but also by action, as we can see in Trial of Brother Jero and The Lion and the Jewel.