Significance and relevance of The Lion and the Jewel, first scene.

The first scene is significant because it is in this scene that Soyinka introduces the central theme of the play..... the conflict between tradition and progress. Soyinka begins exploring this theme in Sidi and Lakunle first interaction, during which, Sidi represents the village's traditional views, and Lakunle stands for modernity and progress, dismissing the traditions of the village as no longer relevant. For modern audience members in Western countries - where a man paying money to buy a wife is not a cultural norm - Lakunle’s stance that he will refuse to pay to marry Sidi could initially seem like an unambiguously positive development. He tells Sidi that: “To pay the price would be / To buy a heifer off the market stall. / You’d be my chattel, my mere property” (8). The values Lakunle expresses here are consistent with the values of many liberal democratic societies and it may therefore, on the surface, initially seem to the audience that Lakunle is in the right and that Sidi should come around to his way of thinking. Note, Soyinka does not allow any of the characters in this play to be straightforwardly right or wrong in their views.