Suicide In Death And The King's Horseman

In a culture, groups of people usually stick to and successfully carry out their roles. In Death and The King’s Horseman, this bears true for most of the characters. On the Yoruban side, the Praise-Singer and Iyaloja do their part by readying the ritual. On the English side, the District Officer and his helpers complete theirs by successfully arresting Elesin. Even though two deaths occur rather than one, they still stick to their anti-ritual suicide belief. In between all of these cultural successes, Elesin is singled out as being the only character that fails due to his inability to commit suicide.. Through highlighting only Elesin’s failure, Wole Soyinka is attempting to prove that failures in cultural identity do not happen in the whole