Anansi - Themes Techniques & Structure

Themes, Techniques & Structure (in)
Anansi by Alistair Campbell
Themes
 History of Slavery/ Effects of slave trade

 Resourcefulness – intelligence/wisdom
 Deception and Trickery
 Strength & Resilience (Strength of the enslaved Africans) vs. Weakness
 Relationships – Parent child/family relationships// slave & master/
oppressed vs. oppressor// anti-hero & the duped (those who are
tricked/prey)
 Oral traditions – stories and storytelling
 Hope vs. Hopelessness
 Captivity vs. Freedom (freedom of mind and soul specifically)
Dramatic Techniques
Technique Examples
Setting and Set Time period 1791 – The Good Ship Hope (the hold & the
Design beam in the centre, cabin, the deck)/ Kingston Harbour/
The Forest of Stories)
Props The boy’s diary, web, bamboo tree used to measure Snake -
the trap, the calabash, Tiger’s coat
Juxtaposed Scenes the ship vs the forest – scenes with boy/captain and
woman/girl
Foils boy/captain, woman/girl, boy/girl, captain/woman
Humour Identify humorous instances (SO MANY OF THEM) eg.
Anansi’s ending rap of Act 2 after he catches Snake. Also
consider how humour affects understanding of theme and
character development
Dramatic Irony Identify instances of dramatic irony (SO MANY OF
THEM) eg. Snake completely unknowing of being trapped by
Anansi in the end. Ask yourself, how does this affect
audience response? (also remember definition of dramatic
irony. – HINT – the audience knows something the other
characters in the scene don’t know or realize)
Lighting the light through the beam on the ship/ light vs. darkness
Stage Directions  (Stage directions are show actions and thoughts of
characters. They are the italicized parts in the text. In a
real play, there is no narrator, the stage directions are
just acted out.)– pg 7, pg 19, pg 33 the boy pg 43 and SO
MANY MORE. Ask yourself what different things they
reveal.
Symbol web, the ship (name ironic), the spider on the ship’s beam
Monologue The Girl’s expression of fear on the ship, the girl pg 45,
boy pg 8 anansi pg 15 captain pg 40 AND MORE!
Soliloquy Anansi’s rap in Act 2 pg 14 (note that rhyme adds to
humour and lightens mood)
Sound effects coughing (this represents the disease rampant on the ship)
– pg 10, girl is crying in the darkness, pg 12, pg 33, cough
cough cough, pg 43 the captain coughs violently.
NB. These examples are not exhaustive. It is your turn now to figure out
the rest of them and of course ensure you analyse the dramatic
significance of each.
Structure of Anansi by Alistair Campbell
~The analysis below is taken from csecenglishmadeeasy.com

(Just some extra information to explain the structure of Anansi. It is not as
confusing as you think.)
In the play, Anansi by Alistair Campbell, the playwright does not divide the play
into the traditional Acts or scenes. Instead, the playwright presents different
aspects of the story (what might have traditionally been scenes) in the form of
events happening in different sections of the boat (The Hold, The Cabin, etc)
along with different Anansi stories.
The first question is: ‘why?’. Why did the playwright choose to present the
action of the play in this way? What is the significance of this?
I can posit that Campbell structured the play in this way to allow the events of
the play to mirror the journey and feelings of the characters. At first glance,
there is a sense of disorientation as one reads the play. However, the structure
of the play allows the playwright to weave all the events of the plot together
like a web.
Yet, if you look closely you would realize that the playwright has retained the
traditional play structure (Acts and scenes). The Acts are indicated by large
bold lettering starting first with The Good Hope Ship West African Coast,
1781 then moving on to The Forest of Stories then back to the ship in On
Board. This is the general pattern of the play. The playwrights in relating the
events of the play often moving us (the audience) from the ship to stories then
back to the ship and back to the stories. It is almost as if we are taken from
the real world to fantasy and back to the real world again.
Whereas, ‘The scenes’ are physically separated by dotted lines and held in a
different location. The playwright juxtaposes the action in the cabin to that of
the deck and the Hold to show perspective on the slave trade along with the
impact.
In a number of Shakespeare’s plays; he presents the Subplot in different

scenes this allows the sub-plot to run parallel (alongside) to the main plot. This
allows the sub-plot to be a secondary storyline in the play.
Time to think:
 Are the stories of Anansi a subplot?
 Are there moral lessons that can be learned from the plot?
In closing, it must be noted that this is just one perspective of the structure of

the play. What are your analyses and thoughts on the structure of the play?

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Themes, Techniques & Structure (in)

Anansi by Alistair Campbell

 History of Slavery/ Effects of slave trade

Structure of Anansi by Alistair Campbell

~The analysis below is taken from csecenglishmadeeasy.com

In a number of Shakespeare’s plays; he presents the Subplot in different

In closing, it must be noted that this is just one perspective of the structure of

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