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Summary ENG1501 The road to Mecca mind maps
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Mind maps made for ENG1501 The road to Mecca in preparation for the exam for Foundations In English Literary Studies
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All plays contain similar features:The dramatis personae is the list of characters in the play.
The stage directions tell the director and actors what is happening on the stage at any point in the Nieu Bethesda
play: it gives instructions such as who is coming onto the stage, who is moving across the stage and A little town, approximately 12 hours’ drive
who is leaving it, as well as the way characters should say their lines. from Cape Town.
The dialogue is the words spoken by the characters in the play. It is situated in the Karoo. It is, a farming
community, where values and norms are
conservative, most people know each other
and strangers are few.
Nieu Bethesda became famous after Helen
Important themes and aspects: Martins’ death because of her art.
The characters;
Symbols;
THE ROAD TO MECCA
Fugard’s representation of the position of women;
The role of art. ATHOL FUGHARD
Introduction:
The Road to Mecca, by Athol Fugard, is a playscript.
It belongs to the dramatic genre
Plays are meant to be performed; therefore they are
written with the intention of appearing on a stage.
All the action takes place via spoken words, (or
dialogue) with characters’ names attached to them The book contains some textual items before
and stage directions to indicate what the scene is the playscript begins:
supposed to look like, including the movement of • There is “A Note on Miss Helen” by Athol
actors, characters, and the setting. Fugard, the author,
• There is a list of Characters. This list of
characters /
Dramatis Personae. The list contains only
Genres and their subdivisions three names:
• Prose (whether fiction or non-fiction) uses chapters to 1. “Miss Helen”,
divide sections of the text from one another. 2. “Elsa”
• Poetry uses stanzas. A stanza is a paragraph in verse. 3. “Marius Byleveld”.
• Drama uses Acts for major divisions. Acts may be
divided into scenes, so that the location of the action
can change from one scene to another in the same Act.
, Helen Martins (“Miss Helen”)
Helen Martins is one of South Africa’s most famous artists
The important events in Helen Martins’ life:
Her divorce from her husband
Her return to Nieu Bethesda in the 1930s to care for her ill mother. Her mother died in 1941 and she was left
alone.
She was ill one night and watched the moon shining through her window. That night, she thought that her life
had become drab and grey, and she decided that she would change it by bringing light into her environment.
From that one moment of self-reflection sprang the entire transformation of the Owl House (what her house
is called).
The marriage between Helen and Stefanus, which took place many years before the action of The Road to
Mecca, gives Helen the opportunity to reflect on what really matters in her life and whether marriage (which
was expected of women in small villages) provided her with real fulfilment.
Elsa Barlow
Helen had one important friendship in the last
years of her life. She is a school-teacher in the
play
The play opens with Elsa’s arrival at Miss Helen’s CHARACTERS
house
She has just driven for twelve hours from Cape
Town, and appears to be tired and somewhat
irritable. One of the first things she tells Helen, is
that she gave a lift to a young woman and her
baby on the road. This nameless woman, whom
Elsa describes as “African”, is extremely Dominee Marius Byleveld
important. Marius Byleveld presides over the church.
As an ordained minister his job is to take care of everyone who
As Elsa explains her personal problems to Helen, attends his church. Their spiritual well-being and beliefs, and
we realise that she is a single woman who has whether they are living lives that are both good and happy.
been having a relationship with a married man Helen describes Marius as an old friend, but it is evident that her
and has fallen pregnant. She had an abortion friendship with him is not as deep as her friendship with Elsa. In
and is deeply scarred by the experience. Explains fact, there is a conflict between Marius and Helen over religious and
why she is so upset by woman and her baby on artistic issues, although it is expressed in polite terms and is not
the road, although her reaction is extreme. violent in any way.
Elsa and Helen have a deep and special Marius believes in and serves the Christian religion. We can assume
friendship. that most of the people in the village belong to his church. Helen’s
Despite the differences between their ages, art offends him because they refer to another religion or vision of
occupations and cultural backgrounds (Elsa is life: they do not fit into his views of what widowed old ladies are
English while Helen Afrikaans. Helen and Elsa supposed to do.
agree that the thing that makes it special, is
“trust”. Can let their defences down, show their Marius remembers how Helen missed church to make her first
faults and vulnerabilities, and be truly statue of an owl, and it is clear that he views the making of the
themselves with each other.And that is the only statues as a kind of competition in Helen’s mind and life with her
way a relationship between two people can faith in Christianity.
mean anything. To Elsa, though, the statues are an expression of Helen’s vision of
life and her desire for beauty and light.
The play ends on a note of hope. The final line is
spoken by Elsa. This line means that, after all the
problems and difficulties they have dealt with
during the evening, they are still able to take
comfort in their friendship
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