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Boesman and Lena notes
- Course
- English (ENGL6212)
- Institution
- University Of South Africa (Unisa)
Boesman and Lena notes
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1Boesman & Lena - notes
• many modern playwrights dispense with plot and are concerned solely with the articulation of the personal
existential quest, so that the audience is not presented with a coherent cosmos with its traditional measures
of harmony & meaning, but with a complex vision of dissolution
• action is free of linear extension of time, social action and defined location
• setting is unspecified and an acting force in its own right, not just a background to action
• characters are depicted as depersonalised, archetypal, everyman subjects stripped of heroism & functioning
as mouthpieces for points of view & states of mind rather than explorations of individual psychology
• playwright is the creator of literature for performance - multi-sensory nature of drama
• Boesman & Lena are two coloured people living in a squatter camp on the mud flats of PE who are forced to
witness the demolition of their shack by a bull-dozer
• Fugard depicts the fragmentation of the individual psyche under the pressures of a hostile society & the
painful realisation of being locked into a situation where choice has become obsolete
• Boesman & Lena are not merely ‘little men’, they are the downtrodden; ‘We’ve been thrown away.
Rubbishes’ (277)
• their actual predicament however, extends beyond being trapped by their very real socio-political situation
& their ethnic heritage to a plane which concerns their existence in a spiritual context
• much modern drama underlies the futility of man’s quest for self-validation in the face of devalued systems
of absolute belief, there are elements in modern plays which militate against this nihilism
• man’s impotent endeavours to pit himself against ‘a world in dissolution’ are revealed,
• Boesman & Lena a modern tragedy, not concerned with nobles or intellectuals who are free to make choices
• B & L deals with the common man, not acting but rather acted upon by forces beyond his control or
ultimate comprehension
• B & L social outcasts - representing the downtrodden, ostracised members of an oppressed race
• B & L depicts a situation in which there is very limited development as Fugard essentially wished to
communicate a complex vision of dissolution in a concentric plot without a solution
• ACT 1:
• opens on an empty stage in semi-darkness
• no recognisable frame of reference - atmosphere of bleakness, barrenness
• B enters ‘heavily burdened’ (239) & slumps down exhausted
• L appears, ‘similarly burdened’ (239)
• descriptions of B & L significant - defined only as ‘ciphers of poverty’ (239) whose ages have been obscured
by a ‘lifetime of hardships & dissipation’ (239)
• B & L further depersonalised as they are known by first names only
• exact nature of their relationship is nebulous but one might infer they have been living together for some
time as L is described as having been ‘reduced to dumb animal submission’ (239)
• stage directions crucial - furnish details which assist the audience in deriving an understanding of the
characters within their social & psychological contexts
• B & L are shoeless, L wears a ‘sad’ dress, & Boesman’s faded, torn sports blazer has a particular ring of
irony as it denotes membership of a privileged fraternity: his ‘membership’ extends only to being part of
the human race
• a sense of despair at their deplorable situation is introduced by the first words spoken in the play:
‘Here’ (239)
, 2
• for L, the world seems to be divided into ‘here’ and the intractable, unattainable ‘there’ - she defines ‘here’
as ‘this’ and ‘now’ which amounts to mud & misery - ‘tomorrow’ might be unknown with regard to
geographic location, but not its nature: ‘and that will be like this. Vrot’ (240)
• ragged Lena with her feet in the mud cursing and shaking her fist at the liberty of the bird is a dramatic
image, particularly of their plight as members of a cast-out race - yet in her frustration & anger, longing &
envy of the bird, she literally & figuratively rises above her physical exhaustion - defiance
• L’s subsequent dialogue highlights other aspects of their predicament such as her remoteness from Boesman
& the feeling of disharmony between the couple & their surroundings
• B undisguisedly belligerent & violent toward L
• L perceives the world as an alien force, believing the elements seem to oppose them, daunted by the vast
emptiness of the surrounding wasteland
• B & L are rejected by society because they are poverty-stricken coloured people, classified as 2nd class
citizens - locked into a situation in which they have no choice - ‘determinism’ (individuals have no free will
& cannot be held morally responsible for their actions)
• as the play develops however, we discover there are possibly limited, yet important areas in which they are
able to make choices
• B & L’s state of disharmony is conveyed through the progression of Act 1 - L sustains the illusion of a
conversation as Boesman remains mute - morose & aggressive
• L’s desire to make sense of life is fundamentally a quest for identity, a ploy to validate her existence. Her
tentative unravelling & ordering of places and events lead her to discovering when & how she got where she
is. When B tauntingly challenges her to ‘find herself’ (252) that is declare who she is, she rises to the
occasion: (252). L’s words, ‘I want to be Mary’ (253) take on biblical connotations - her implied bitter
comparison of B with Christ, ‘Wie’s die man’ echoes the biblical ‘Ecce homo - Behold the man’
• upon reflection, we become aware of L’s inner journey & its implication regarding the discovery of identity in
this scene (253)
• the physical & spiritual activities of the 2 characters are mutually reflexive - B is rather inactive, occupying
himself with the erection of another shelter - made no positive spiritual progress - as withdrawn &
belligerent as he was at the beginning of the play, answering L’s questions with taunts & threats of ‘a
bloody good hiding’ (253) - in contrast, L is hyperactive even if only circular - she makes tentative, yet
positive progress
• a steady build up of tension between B & L - L feels isolated & betrayed by B who openly rejects her: ‘You
think I want you?’ (244)
• as the impassive witness to B & L’s bitter battle, Outa is more than a mere catalyst in the dramatic action -
his arrival unlocks contrasting reactions in the couple which in turn reveal the complexity of their
frustrated desires - L’s impassioned plea for the company of ‘another person’ (258) endorses her
humaneness, ‘To hell with you! I want him’ (256) - B characteristically hostile, showing that he himself is not
above the very philosophy which has caused his own misery, namely racial discrimination ‘…Kaffer …’(256) -
on another level his reaction confirms his remoteness from mankind
• despite the fact that the characters interact, they remain completely isolated & removed from each other,
as there is no comprehension of each other’s needs.
• L’s loneliness & desire to have her life witnessed goad her into insisting on Outa’s presence - yet she also
suggests he might require help (256) - is her assistance of Outa an act of altruism or an almost aggressive
attempt into forcing him to lend ‘a pair of eyes’ (262) or both?
• outa’s silence does not inhibit L’s urge to describe her life to give it form & therefore significance - she
relates to him matters which she cannot share with B: the history of a failed relationship & failed
motherhood through the squalid details of several still-births, the fruits of which they buried ‘behind us
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