Abstract

In this study we try to explore the “The Metaphor of Dance in Athol Fugard's Master Harold and the Boys” in a holistic context. The main focus of the research is on “Ball room dancing” and its relation with “south African struggle”. The research also analyzes many aspects of “Ball room dancing” and tries to gauge its effect on “the south African struggle”.

Introduction

Master Harold and the boys is great play by Athol Fugard. In the early 1982 it was first produced in the Yale reparatory theatre and its premiere on Broadway was made at the lyceum theatre on 4t may where it ran for 344 performances. Initially the production of the play was ban in South Africa. "Master Harold ... and the Boys" is a one-act play which takes place in the St. The three characters of the play, Master Harold (Hally), Sam and Willie explore the impression of apartheid and racism.

Thesis statement

Metaphor of Dancing: Ballroom dancing serves as a metaphor for a world in which the disruptions that occur in daily life under apartheid don't exist.

Discussion and Analysis

The characters of the play

Sam

Hally

Willie

The play takes place in South Africa in the apartheid era, showing how institutionalized racisms, hatred or bigotry can become absorbed by those people who live beneath it. The seventeen year old Hally spends time with two African servants, Willie and Sam, whom he has known for all his life. On a rainy afternoon both the servants were practicing ball room steps for a big competition. Sam was more talkative while Willie was not that good at speaking English.

Based upon an autobiographical incident in the author's life, the story centers upon Hally, a 17-year-old white boy, and two black men, Sam and Willie -- both in their late 30s and both employees in Hally's mother's tea room (luncheonette) in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The play is set in 1950 on a rainy afternoon as the trio reminisces of their life together. (Jacobus, 1993, p. 1228-9) They speak in metaphors offering a running, although at times cloaked, commentary on the oppressive culture in which they live. Early in the play we see that the three are, indeed, a family which crosses racial lines even within the oppressive South African Pretoria. Their “family” is torn apart, however, when their reminiscence is interrupted by a phone call from Hally's mother informing him that his drunken, bigoted, amputee father is coming home after an extended stay in the hospital.

When Sam attempts to comfort Hally, the boy begins to wallow his guilt and shame: So much for a bloody world without collisions . . . Do you know what is really wrong with your little dream, Sam? It's not just that we are all bad dancers. That does happen to be perfectly true, but there's more to it than just that. You left out the cripples. . . . That's why we always end up on our backsides on the dance floor. (Beck, 2005, p.99-103)They're also out there dancing, like a couple ...