SATIRE IN OLA ROTIMI’S OUR HUSBAND HAS GONE MAD AGAIN AND FEMI OSOFISAN’S MIDNIGHT HOTEL
SATIRE IN OLA ROTIMI’S OUR HUSBAND HAS GONE MAD AGAIN AND FEMI OSOFISAN’S MIDNIGHT HOTEL
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study
This study aims at exploring satire as a social art in Rotimi’sOur Husband Has Gone Mad Again and Osofisan’s Midnight Hotel. On the other hand,Rotimi and Osofisan are renowned Nigerian writers who use satire as an artistic mode of expressing the social reality in contemporary Nigeria.
Tothem, the Nigerian society is obviously a chaotic one where dreams and aspirations of people remain unrealized. They have all seen with shock and unbelief the endemic corruption, moral decay and political morass that have become part and parcel of the society. Their aim of writingsthese satiric plays therefore, are to attack the aforementioned ills in the society.
It is on this light writer like Charles May says that satire is a work which ridicules or holds up to scorn the vices, crimes and absurdities of men and individuals, of class and organizations of societies and civilizations.
SATIRE IN OLA ROTIMI’S OUR HUSBAND HAS GONE MAD AGAIN AND FEMI OSOFISAN’S MIDNIGHT HOTEL
The two Nigerian playwrights are satirists who have written a great deal of works whose thematic preoccupations are of tremendous literary and social significance in African literature. They have contributed immensely to the development of African literature. Especially, in the areas of African drama and theatre and a lot of critical attention has been paid to their works by African and European critics.
However, little is said about those play-rights as great satirist in Nigeria. In other words, their satiric plays have been given scant attention thereby relegating them to their background. Rotimi’sOur Husband Has Gone Mad Again and Osofisan’s MidnightHotel share a lot of things in common in terms of the satiric mode explored in them as well as the style and characterization.
First, the two plays under consideration fall under the Horacian tradition vis-à-vis their satiric vision. Because the two playwrights use mild mockery to deride and ridicule the ills in the society. The reader is not meant to hate the characters who display human failings. The idiotic and infantile attitude of Lejoka-Brown, for example, merely evokes laughter in us, so does the naive personality of Awero in Osofisan’s Midnight Hotel.
In the same vein, the personality of Liza, despite her excessive xenomania, does not arouse contempt in the reader. Suuru’s pretentious and hypocritical nature only makes him a funny character, but not a detestable person.
Both playwrights do not poison the minds of the readers towards the characters and situations dramatized in the works, rather the reader is made to see these characters as mere human beings who are imperfect and liable to err.Rotmi for instance lampoons his hero’s idea about politics.
In the discussion between Lejoka-Brown and Okonkwo in their discussion says, why do you take politics: Are you there…? Politics is the thing, no in Nigeria mate, you want to be famous? Politics, you want to chop life? No, no… You want to chop a big slice of the national cake? Na politics (4).
Rotimi portrays Lejoka-Brown’s motive in joining politics as not dictated by his sense of patriotism and service but he sees politics as a means to amass economic wealth.
Osofisan on the other hand, isanother prolific Nigeriansatirist whose critical worksaddresses a Plethora of social vices in contemporary Nigeria.In Midnight Hotel, he questions the credibility of our Nigerian law makers who touches on political intolerance and religious charlatans in the society.
The playwright portrays the immorality, hypocrisy and flirtatious tendencies of highly placed persons as aspects of the national psyche which he subjects to criticism.
Osofisan is of the view that nepotism, corruption and favouritism have gotten deep into our political system. For instance, he pointsto corruption in the character of Awero, the only female Member of Parliament decides to take Pastor Suuru to a hotel. Thus, so that she could “sample” him before he is given a contract since, according to her; male MPS do this to the opposite sex.
But when Suuru does not compromise with her she says: For Christ’s sake, what’s wrong with you?I’m telling you its regular practice in parliament. All the male MPS are doing it even to their own nieces and cousins: everyone in our contracts and award committee is taking some member of the opposite sex somewhere or the other before jobs are given out. They call it “sampling” the goods… (13).
From the foregoing, Ola Rotimi and FemiOsofisan satirizeand condemnthe Nigeria’s political system which negates the democratic principle. Their writings expose and attack theNigerian leaders who they regard as charlatans and hypocrites through the use of satire.
1.2 Statement of the problem
Satire is as an artistic weapon used by literary writers to expose and attack the ills in every society of the world and to sanitise it. It is alsouseby writers to attack prevalent social vices confronting the masses.
For Instance,Rotimi’sOur Husband Has Gone Mad Againand Osofisan’sMidnight Hotel are examples of satirical works that depict the political corruption and other problems confronting the nation. As writers, their critical worksof artserves as atool which they sought to restore normalcy in a society that is apparently disintegrating every day.
1.3 Purpose of the study
The purpose of this research work is to critically examine the satire in Ola Rotimi’sOur Husband Has Gone Mad Again and Femi Osofisan’sMidnight Hotel.
1.4 Significance of the study
This study issignificant because:
it will help English and literature students know more about the importance of satire in literature. The study will also be of significance to other literary writersto write more about satire –in their literary play with reference to what goes round the society. The study will also be of importance to other researchers who would research on satire using the novels under investigation.
1.5 Research Methodology
This research study makes use of library literary works. The primary method used in this research work basically focus on Rotimi’s Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again and Femi Osofisan’s Midnight Hotel.The secondary sources will be on literary novels, internet, library books and other literature novels for more information in the research work.
1.6 Scope and delimitation of the Study
The scope of this research work will be delimited to Rotimi’s Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again and Femi Osofisan’s Midnight Hotel
1.7 Objectives of the Study
The following are the objectives of the study:
i to understand the meaning of satire and the use of satire in the two plays under investigation
ii to investigate Rotimi and Osofisan’s aims of writings .
iii to portrays the function and importance of satire in African literature.
Conclusion
Satire in Ola Rotimi’s Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again and Femi Osofisan’s Midnight Hotel is the main trust of this study. By way of analysing the two plays. It is seen that, satire is a vehicle for literary expression that addresses social vices confronting the Nigerian society. Moreover, it concerns itself with attacking the ills in society, in order to sanitize it.
The use of satire as an artistic weapon is an age-old phenomenon. Because the ancient Greeks employed it in deriding unwholesome tendencies in humans.
In the Roman Empire for instance, writers like Vigil, Horace, Juvenal and others employed it as a medium of satiric attack on the emperor’s excesses. People in traditional societies use folktale songs proverbs and verbal art to comment and ridicule human failings and also to attack prevalent social vices.
From the above, one can therefore see to it that, bothRotimi and Osofisan are certainly uneasy about the endemic problems of corruption, immorality, hypocrisy, political violence in the Nigerian society etc which have become an integral part of our existence.
As writers of imaginative literature, they works of art becomes a tool with which they sought to restore normalcy in a society that is apparently disintegrating every day. Their works deliberate and portrayed the farcical, naïve, idiotic and some-times erratic personalities, in making us laugh not only at those ridiculous personalities.
But also at their actions, deeds, ideas as well as the society which they personify. Laughter is not only a feature of the Horacian satire, but also a means to an end.
In this regard Rotimi and Osofisan could be said to have succeeded in exposing the idiocy, ignorance, and naivety of our leaders, in order to ridicule them. Secondly, the two plays could be seen as artistic successes because with the simplicity of the overall style, the playwrights are able to convey the message to the reader with ease.
Their works therefore stand as an artistic weapon because of the prevalent social vices confronting the Nigerian society.
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