Aspect of style and meaning in the lion and the jewel

The play is divided into three scenes, “Morning,” “Noon,” and “Night,” which follow each other in chronological order revealing the events that occur over the course of a single day. The narrative is not entirely linear, however, because in both “Morning” and “Noon” the action is interrupted by mimed dance performances which communicate to the audience the details of an episode from the past: in the opening scene the villagers perform the tale of The Stranger’s original visit to Ilujinle and in “Noon” there is a mimed performance of Baroka’s corrupt attempts to change the course of the railway works. The use of these flashback-style interludes allows the audience to have a greater depth of understanding of the characters than would be available if all of the action took place over the course of one day, with no scenes dealing with the backstory of Sidi’s meeting with the photographer or Baroka’s attempts to sabotage progress being brought to Ilujinle. The combination of a structure which covers the course of one day with sporadic flashbacks to fill in other information allows the narrative to move at a fast and entertaining pace whilst also providing background information which deepens the characterizations of the central characters. You can check more out below: