How Efua Sutherland Portrays Ananse in The Marriage of Anansewa

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Exploring the way Efua Sutherland portrays Ananse in The

Marriage of Anansewa, showing its significance in the play

Efua Sutherland’s hilarious and interesting play, The Marriage of

Anansewa, is a about a Ananse’s cunning arrangements for his

daughter’s marriage, at the same time, using the bride prices to turn

round his financial difficulties. I intend to explore how Efua T.

Sutherland portrays his character and its significance in the play.

Efua Sutherland first portrays Ananse as cunning and deceitful person

when he deceives his daughter into typing letters that she did not

know was for her own marriage in Act 1. We can note how Ananse

succeeds in convincing Anansewa in typing for him whiles she wants to

go out. He intentionally complains about the world and hardships in

life in order to make her feel sad and eventually agree to type. From

this, we can observe that one of tactics that he uses in cunning

people is by making people feel bad using psychological means to

remind his victims about undeniable difficulties that they are facing

and talking about the negative consequences. An example of this is how

he often asks Anansewa questions such as; “will your fees be paid by

the time you return home?” and “will the leaking ceiling be fixed by

the time you return?” Its significance to the play is that, it is the

first event that Sutherland uses to portray Ananse’s cunning and

deceitful character, so we are introduced to the kind of atmosphere we

are going to meet in the rest of the play.

Another act that Sutherland uses to portray Ananse’s character is when

he lies to his mother and aunt about the burning farm in order to

drive them away. She portrays Ananse’s character by showing how he

relates oth...

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... He can be seen as a

religious person who is cares about his reputation. This is seen in

act 1 when he asks Anansewa, “Will I be able to go to memorial

services this week in a fine cloth, next week in a suit or a different

cloth? Will I be able, if I go, to thrust my hand confidently into my

pocket in public and take out a five-guinea donation?”. We could see

that he would like to go to church if he had money but would rather

stay at home because he does not so that he is not seen as a poor man.

Personally, I think that Ananse is a character in the play, which

makes me like him. His cunning and deceitfulness is not intentional

done, but is forced to act as such because of the environment around

him. He creates the suspense in the story and makes the story

hilarious with his cunning. This play would not be memorable as it is

if he were not present in it.

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