Abstract

One satiric device that Wole Soyinka employed in the Jero plays but which has not been given sufficient scholarly attention is abuse. A close reading of The Trial of Brother Jero reveals that Wole Soyinka employs abuse either overtly or covertly to portray his characters and to project a realistic human society, achieve humor and satirize deficiencies in individuals, institutions and societies. Although extant works on the drama of Wole Soyinka have focused on his use of language such as irony, exaggeration, sarcasm; his engagement with tragedy, and political ideology, sufficient scholarly attention has not been given to the art of abuse in his drama. This study explored the artistic significance of abuse and its forms in the playwright’s dramaturgy. It contended that abuse, as an integer of social and human interactions, has a meaningful place in the drama of Wole Soyinka, especially in its form, characterization, thematic preoccupation, and conflict creation and resolution. This paper identified and analyzed the art of abuse in the play and discussed how the art of abuse projects the comic form, characters, conflicts, and themes in the play. The study leveraged on the principles of superiority and release theory of humor as espoused by Thomas Hobbes and Henri Bergson. The study found and concluded, among others, that abuse is an effective tool in Soyinka’s social satires.