The Major Themes in The Marriage of Anansewa by EFUA T. SUTHERLAND
There are lots of themes in the The Marriage of Anansewa play if you want to analyse it critically but you might not completely exhaust it.
Greed
A desire to be wealthy, Ananse pushed himself beyond measure to see his impoverished condition change to live like every other rich and wealthy man and majorly overcoming the ugly experience life beset him and his daughter.
It could be traced that lack of money is the reason Ananse seldom went to church and he desperately needed to change this status quo in order to be found among those giving collection in the church when they start calling up; people born on Sunday, born on Monday, born on Wednesday which he was among the The KWAKUS born on Wednesday.
On the other hand, comfort-ability can also be underscored here or treated separately as a theme as to what led to Ananse nursing greed which drives him to write to persuade four Chiefs to marry his daughter after he had complained to his daughter about lack of leaked-proof roof, comfortable chair, bed, car and etc in their house.
Marriage
Ananse’s craftiness was targeted toward the marriage of his only daughter by the four Chiefs he wrote to. Ananse established nothing else with the Chiefs other than the marriage of his daughter which triggers a beneficial relationship for him from which he derives lots of benefits from their gifts. Ananse is extremely smart and cunning in his selection of a serious way he could get the four Chiefs under his control in a competition.
In other word, marriage is the factor Ananse could get the reputable attention of the four Chiefs from different Cardinal points.
Love
Despite the fact Ananse’s cunning scheme to persuade the four Chiefs to compete for his daughter – Anansewa, both he and his daughter had one specific Chief in mind on the possibility of him winning the bet. Ananse and his daughter – Anansewa had falling in love with the Chief so-called “Chief-who-is-Chief”. Reason, probably arising from making a good husband prospect compared to other Chiefs or youthful. This is traceable in the last event of the play during the resolution part.
Following the visitation of the four Chiefs’ messengers to Ananse’s house on account of his daughter’s death in disguise, as the three Chiefs’ messengers did as ordered by their respective Chiefs to pay homage to their object of interest (dead Anansewa) with gifts for her burial ceremony; as none of the Chief was tie with the responsibility of giving her a proper burial; since none perform the official rite of giving the head-drink to the bride’s family which is rather regarded as the marriage custom of the land.
However, with all the Chiefs’ gifts presented to the family of their dead bride for her funeral, none of the three Chiefs gave a head-drink, except the one whom Ananse and the pretended dead bride loved who came with all his affluence and immeasurable gifts to honor his lover despite the ugly situation he heard about his object of interest and which was no other person but “Chief-who-is-Chief”.
This really provoked Ananse to bring his daughter back to life, sensing genuine love from him.
See also:The Major Conflict in The Marriage of Anansewa
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