The purpose of the following essay is to highlight on the representative elements from the play “Master Harold”… and the boys by Athol Fugard (Fugard: 10). These elements are very essential to judge the importance of the interactions that would occur during the ending of the play. These representative elements have been quite helpful to depict the important factors about the progress of the plot.

The background of the play is set in the background during 1950s. It has occurred at South Africa during the era of apartheid in the country. The important representative elements like motifs, synecdoche and symbols have been presented throughout the play. The course of the apartheid plays a huge role in this play by all the contexts. The bench used in the play is a synecdoche in this play (Fugard: 10). This highlights the separation of the people from the society and the end results of the situation. The bench in the play will bring down all the emotions of the people in various ways.

The connection between Sam and Hally is displayed through the play and the relevance of the bench comes out to be crucial when Sam pointed out Hally could not sit on that bench because this was a ‘White’s only bench”. The conflicts between the white and black people during the time of apartheid have been discussed through the use of the synecdoche of bench. This is very clear from the ending of the play. In the ending it has been seen that both Willie and Sam had been dancing together where the tone of the dance was completely different.

The use of dance as a motif can simply be used to ignore all types of conflicts between the human races. Dance has been used as a motif here that could avoid the bitter ending of the play. Sam’s advice to Willie is to dance more gracefully and smoothly so it does not look like a tragic incident anymore. Sam had also advised Willie that the element of motif will be a very powerful weapon that could connect other elements like synecdoche of bench. It means these people could very easily get rid of the conflict mongering situation and creates the love story through dance so it will look beautiful and soothing for the eyes. Apart from that, the activity of dancing together will erase the racial conflicts within the society.

The concept of dance in the play has also been used as the symbol through which tragic elements of life could be felt (Mabuk: 18). It presents the symbols of love and harmony in the play as well as getting the independence from the conflicts regarding the apartheid. The abolition of this social system has always been the main desire of these helpless people of Africa.

In the concluding section, it must be highlighted that the representative elements like motifs, symbols and synecdoche have always catered to the understanding the events of the play in a better manner. These elements are the most essential by all terms.  

References List

Fugard, Athol. ” Master Harold”–and the Boys. Vintage, 2009.

Mabuku, F. L. (2018). Exploring apartheid and the erasure of an African identity: a critical analysis of athol fugards’s’ Sizwe Banzi is dead’and Master Harold and the boys (Doctoral dissertation, University of Namibia).

Sasani, Samira. “A Postcolonial Reading of Athol Fugard’s” Master Harold”… and the Boys.” Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences 6.3 S2 (2015): 458.

Smith, Andrew. Racism and Everyday Life: Social Theory, History and’race’. Springer, 2016.