Published Paper Details:

The play The Lion and the Jewel, written by Wole Soyinka depicts the Yaruba culture of Nigerian society. The play is about the African community, its cultural and custom richness. Many ceremonies, traditional festivals and customs are presented in the play that is rich with proverbs, metaphors, legends, myths, and taboos. The play mainly speaks about the roles of women. Most of the society in Africa is patriarchal. They give more importance and roles on the male much more than the female. Women had to struggle with the notion of double colonization. Double colonization is coined by Ketu Katrak, referring to the notion that women in formerly colonized societies were doubly colonized by both imperial and patriarchal ideologies became a catch-phrase of postcolonial and feminist discourses in the 1980s (in Ashcroft, 1996:240). This condition leads to the more complex, struggle and movement of women. Women have been suppressed, harassed and exploited by male dominated society. The playwright brings the pathetic condition of women of Nigerian society on the stage. Their Each and every attempt to escape from the clutches of male supremacy ends in vain. Men, the center of the society holds all power. They treat women as things and never let them enjoy their freedom. This paper is an attempt to discuss the status of subjugated women as depicted in the play.