A CRITICAL INVESTIGATION OF THEMES, CHARACTER ANALYSIS AND SOCIAL CRITICISM IN ASODIONYE EJIOFOR'S WHO THEN IS SANE?

Abstract

Dramatic literature is a creative reflection of the activities and
actions inherent in society. The playwright in his or her creative
wisdom encapsulates the microcosm in the society into drama in
order to discuss and analyze issues of concern. Most of these
issues revolve around human improprieties that hinder peaceful
coexistence. The playwright's intention to query moral ineptitude and sanity in human society is always conveyed and explicated in
his or her dramatic and creative exploits. It is on the foregoing
assertion that this work is set to investigate the themes, character
analysis and social criticism in Ejiofor's Who then is Sane? in order
to assimilate the playwright's social vision. In dramatic literature,
subject matters are mainly deduced from the thematic thrust and
character analysis amongst other variables in literary works. The
playwright's desire to ask the rhetorical question: Who then is
sane? captures the biblical allusion that say “for all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God' (Roman 3: 23). This human
ineptitude constitutes lacuna to achieving moral and social
cohesion in society. The human imperfections are propelling
forces that spur the playwright to investigate and criticize human
factors such as mental instability amongst others in the society in
order to maintain sanity and moral decorum. In realizing the aim of
the study, the work deployed the use of secondary data collection
such as: Textbooks, scholarly journals, Bible and internet amongst
others. The work employed genre and incongruity theories as
critical shoulders in the analysis of this comic-satire. It is the
modest recommendation of this work that playwrights should be
encouraged to use the instrument of drama to query and criticize
human inadequacies that hinder social harmony in the society