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This means that Pilkings will never be able to understand why Elesin had to die, even if hesitating was potentially natural. Active Themes Elesin turns to his bride and says that first he blamed Pilkings for his failure, then the gods, but now, he wants to blame her.
- Act 2
Jane asks Pilkings and Joseph whether Olunde was Elesin 's...
- Act 2
Elesin admits that even he does not understand it. One interpretation is that the intrusion of Simon Pilkings at the crucial point in the ritual was the cause for Elesin’s failure.
Though Pilkings says that Elesin dying wouldn't be a great loss—he's had run-ins with Elesin in the past and finds Elesin difficult to deal with and annoyingly entrenched in native customs—Pilkings does fully believe in the Christian idea that suicide is a sin.
Published in 1975, the play Death and the King’s Horseman tells the story of the obstacles that Elesin Oba—the king’s horseman—faces on the night he is supposed to commit ritual suicide to follow the recently departed king into the afterlife.
His distraction proves his downfall. The ritual suicide is delayed while Elesin takes his new bride to bed, and the delay is enough time for Simon to have him arrested. The failure is Elesin’s not Simon’s, though Elesin tries to put the blame on the “alien race.” Iyaloja rejects this interpretation.
This is confirmed when later, Elesin fails to commit suicide. Though he blames Pilkings (who arrests Elesin at the moment he tries to die), the gods, and his bride in turn, Elesin eventually admits that he loved life too much and didn't entirely want to die.
People also ask
How does Simon Pilkings stop Elesin's death?
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Why did Elesin fail to die?
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Why does Elesin change his customs after he dies?
There are several layers of blame in terms of why Elesin fails. There is the problem with Elesin himself, who demonstrated that he was firmly tied to the sublunary world and was not quite ready for death. There is Pilkings, the individual man who used his power to intervene in the ritual.
