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FLIPSIDE CRITICISM OF THE PSYCHO-SOCIAL DYNAMICS 
OF OLUNDE AND PILKINGS IN WOLE SOYINKA'S 

DEATH AND THE KING'S HORSEMAN

Chinedu Nwadike
Spiritan University Nneochi, Abia State

chinedu.nwadike@spiritanuniversity.edu.ng

Florence Orabueze
University of Nigeria, Nsukka
florence.orabueze@unn.edu.ng

Stella Okoye-Ugwu
University of Nigeria, Nsukka

stella.okoye-ugwu@unn.edu.ng

Abstract

The psycho-social dynamics of main characters such as Olunde and Pilkings in Soyinka' Death 
and the King's Horseman is interesting for exploring the circumstances of individuals contending 
with forces that finally impose outcomes they never really intended. Using qualitative 
methodology and textual analysis, Death and the King's Horseman was subjected to the critical 
tools of flipside theory to interrogate the depiction of people on the margins of society. The 
purpose was to shed more light on the behaviours of selected characters. This research 
establishes that it is by applying flipside theory that one can appreciate how characters on the 
margins of society can cause significant social transformations, and that Olunde and Pilkings 
are not flipside characters, neither is Death and the King's Horseman a flipside work. Flipside 
theory is an important contribution to the global toolkit of literary theories by bringing discourse 
about victims of social existence to the fore.

Keywords: Olunde, Pilkings, flipside theory, psycho-social dynamics, Soyinka

Main Text Introduction

Matias (2012) considers it important to look at “fault” within the context of human 
behaviors and, in relation to tragedy, he establishes a dialogue between Freud, Aristotle, and 
Sophocles which shows that human experiences influence the writing of literature (pp. 79-94). 
On his part, Medjigbodo (1979) describes tragic literature from Africa as a specific form of 
cultural expression that takes cognizance of the human situation and addresses social issues (p. 
70). There was this real life incident in September, 2023 in Enugu State, Nigeria when heavy rains 
generated a flood that caused a building to collapse and kill four young siblings. The parents of 
the unfortunate children were left asking themselves why that kind of tragedy struck the family at 
a time when they were still struggling to keep the family going due to a harsh economic situation.

Tragedy both in real life and in fiction underscores the importance of digging into the 
psycho-social dynamics of individuals grappling with tragedy and battling for survival. It must 
be taken into consideration that such individuals carry the weight of whatever pitiful or 
devastating experiences they are going through. In this regard, literary works with tragic plots 
interrogate tragedy to make sense of it and to enable people to harness it in productive ways. It is 

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against this background that the work of tragedy that will be subjected to critical analysis was 
selected, namely, Death and the King's Horseman which was written by Wole Soyinka in 1975 in 
the postcolonial period.

Death and the King's Horseman has been studied by many scholars and explored from a 
wide range of angles. However, no one has accomplished this using flipside criticism, to the best 
of this researcher's knowledge. This is because flipside literary theory only recently emerged as 
another tool of literary criticism.

The aim of this research carried out on Death and the King's Horseman is to uncover new 
insights about the psycho-social dynamics of select characters in the plot while the objectives are 
to show that significant features of tragedy can be found in the plot; to demonstrate how flipside 
literary criticism uncovers important insights about imbalances in social relations capable of 
making people on the margins of society mobilize and cause transformations or significant 
changes to social structures and cultural assumptions.

This research is significant because it will equip individuals with useful intellectual, 
psychological and sociological resources to sufficiently appraise tragedy in life and fiction, and 
to understand and harness its psycho-social impacts on people. This research will also equip 
students of literature with more theoretical frameworks and conceptual tools for the critical 
interrogation of works of tragedy and for the understanding of the behaviours of characters in 
plots. In addition, this research will equip lecturers with additional teaching resources to impact 
positively on the cognitive, emotive and psychomotor domains of learners. Finally, this research 
will provide readers and audiences with another platform to interrogate tragedy and to appreciate 
its psycho-social effects on individuals, and on select characters in Death and the King's 
Horseman in particular.

The scope of this research ranges from the primary text, Wole Soyinka's Death and the 
King's Horseman, to secondary texts relevant for the success of a research like this such as critical 
essays that discuss drama from a wide range of perspectives.

The limitations to this research included problems with easily accessing both the primary, 
and secondary texts relevant for this research, and with funding to cover all that.

Materials: Literature Review

Ready (1988), and Birbalsingh (1982) share some interesting opinions. Birbalsingh 
applied a comparative approach and historical analysis and his findings underscores the point 
that “Death and the King's Horseman is based on actual historical events employed 
imaginatively in roughly the same way that history is used in such plays as Shaw's Saint Joan and 
Brecht's Galileo” (p. 202). The tragic plot is derived from historical events that occurred in the 
Yoruba city of Oyo in 1946 when Nigeria was a British colony: “A Yoruba king had died and 
custom required his horseman, Olori Elesin, after about one month, to commit ritual suicide and 
go to serve his king in heaven. Suicide being illegal under British law, the local District Officer 
arrested Elesin” (p. 202). Similarly, Ready (1988) connects the 1986 Novel Prize for Literature 
won by Soyinka with Death and the King's Horseman which was specially cited by the awarding 
committee. Ready recounts that it was in 1974 doing his tenure at Churchill College, Cambridge 
that Soyinka discovered how to appropriate history in drama. Ready also holds that Soyinka was 
influenced by the great tragedies of the Greek Classical period and by Shakespeare and “Soyinka 
wishes to ensure that a play such as Death and the King's Horseman affirms the ritual origins of 
tragedy” (p. 711).

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Scholars like Talajooy (2015), Ojaide (1992), and Reed (1988) call attention to the impact 
of cultural differences on literary productivity and hegemonic bias on its appreciation. In their 
view, Western structural and conceptual prejudices undermine remarkable talents and creativity 
by writers from the southern hemisphere and global critical reception of literary works by writers 
of African descent. Using a historical approach and comparative analysis, Reed (1988) points out 
that “Soyinka said as much in the course of an Interview with The New York Times. Currently, the 
American intelligentsia… embrace a smugly blind attitude toward 'the other,' the fashionable 
metaphor for the Third World…. As one [racist Western] columnist put it…. The uplift of the 
Third World will only happen through the graces of 'Western civilization'” (p. 705).

On his own part, Ojaide (1992) used a comparative approach and among his findings is 
the view that the plot of this tragic drama “is not typical of works written in Africa in the 1970s, 
which generally deal with socio-political protest against government corruption. It is more like 
works of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which express cultural conflict between the African and 
the European (Western) worlds” (p. 210). Ojaide also notes that “African literary works are 
classified in the West as postcolonial, but never construed so by African writers and their primary 
audience of Africans…. African critics of African literature in Africa and some more nationalistic 
ones abroad speak of 'post-independence African literature' instead of the postcolonial” (p. 210). 
Towing a similar line, Talajooy (2015) holds that “traditional structures and themes appear in 
modern forms to renegotiate people's cultural identity… and mythologize the positive aspects of 
history to redefine cultural identity with the best their cultures offer” (p. 379).

Ikyoive and Sheik (2017), and Jain (1986) recommend that Death and the King's 
Horseman deserves deep level critical analysis. Ikyoive and Sheik (2017) applied an analytic 
approach to Death and the King's Horseman and analysis of data gathered showed that ritual 
suicide is a component of culture rather than a form of personal escape. Jain (1986) used cultural 
studies and sociological analysis and among his findings, holds that Death and the King's 
Horseman is not “a play about the colonial situation, or about cultural clash” which are 
interpretations even Soyinka himself rejects (p. 252). For Jain, this play also differs from other 
Soyinka plays because neither the satiric nor the comic overarches the plot whereas the 
“dominant strategy of the play is irony, and the reversal at the end happens to be a tragic reversal” 
(p. 252). Jain finds a metaphysical dimension to Olunde's suicide and accords only incidental 
significance to the colonial factor and the historicity of the main event (p. 252).

Ifatimehin (2017) and Williams (1993) look at differences in cultural practices and their 
social implications. Using cultural studies and sociological analysis, findings by Williams 
includes the view that ritual is an essential cultural feature of feudal societies and was “part of a 
complex and insidious apparatus of cultural and political reproduction employed by the 
dominant groups” (p. 67). Ifatimehin (2017) applied the method of deconstruction to explore 
contrapuntality, alterity and the trope of culture clash in Death and the King's Horseman and 
came to the conclusion that the reading of clash of cultures rather enriches appreciation of the 
play and its social relevance.

Barnaby (2004), Afolayan (2019), and Sere (1984) insist that African works should be 
read without bias to avoid undermining their literary merits and social relevance. Sere's (1984) 
critical studies maintain that African playwrights like Soyinka compete favourably with their 
Western counterparts and that Soyinka, with respect to his tragic drama, “enjoins the reader (or 
director) to aim at the more difficult task of bringing out what is essential in the play and which is 
latent in the threnody, or song of lamentation, as given in the play. When a reader does this, 
Soyinka insists, he will find that the confrontation in the play is largely metaphysical” (p. 229). 

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Using a historical approach and qualitative method, Afolayan's (2019) findings include the view 
that griots (oral storytellers or court poets) are relevant to modern African societies.

Abakporo (2022) and Booth (1988) share some views in common. Booth (1988) adopted 
the tools of hermeneutics and among his findings is the view that Death and the King's Horseman 
can be approached from the angle of the metaphysics of sacrifice. He points to Brian W. Last who 
argues that “Olunde's climactic sacrifice can only be understood in metaphysical terms” (p. 529). 
Booth also affirms Ralph-Bowman's (1983) view that Soyinka accomplished something 
outstanding because “While effectively utilizing the conventions of 'Western' tragedy in the play, 
he has triumphantly succeeded in refuting both the ideology and the esthetic upon which these 
conventions are based” (p. 529). Booth holds that the drama shows an un-Western theme and 
literary technique. Abakporo (2022) uses the historical approach to counter Western critics like 
Ruth Finnegan who deny competence in African drama for want of conformity with the 
Aristotelian template. Abakporo argues that Africa has every right to differ from Western 
conventions in order to build on its own tradition.

Using a qualitative method and critical analysis, Kesur and Patil (2022) establish through 
Death and the King's Horseman an interpretation of African drama as a tool of resistance against 
foreign hegemony and oppression. George (1999) adopts a historical approach and cultural 
analysis and his findings show that Death and the King's Horseman attracts a stream of critical 
reviews because Soyinka produced “a drama of archetypes, developing in the process a vision of 
history, society, and tragic drama” which is “based on socio-cultural passion, even as the 
playwright's oeuvre constitutes an attempt to work through the passion by means of art” (p. 67).

Garuba (2022), and Ralph-Bowman (1983) see African drama as a tool for social 
criticism. Using a historical approach and sociological analysis, Ralph-Bowman (1983) holds 
that, “It is difficult to resist the sense of déjà vu in the selection of events in Death and the King's 
Horseman, difficult to resist the conclusion that the forces at work in colonial 1946 are seen by 
Soyinka to be at work in postcolonial 1974” (p. 81). Garuba's comparative study of Soyinka's 
theatre and Beckett's theatre underscores the view that the two playwrights exhibit a modernist 
interrogation of man's existence but that the former shows an inclination towards traditional 
conventions whereas the latter inclines towards non-conformity. 

Ofoego (2016), Topper (2019), and Ogundele (1994) have some interesting views about 
Death and the King's Horseman. Ogundele adopted a comparative approach and sociological 
analysis which highlight how Soyinka set down instructions concerning the correct stage 
interpretation of Death and the King's Horseman as well as stating that the “threnodic essence” of 
the play is mainly the metaphysical confrontation exhibited by events that unfolded around 
Elesin. Ogundele also holds that “With its emphasis on the use of the human body–through 
dance, music, songs, and chants, a reported sexual act, and two deaths–to complement dialog that 
expresses those feelings, values, and beliefs, the play's subject is also textured by aesthetic 
rituals” (p. 47).

On his own part, Ofoego (2016) applied a historical approach and sociological analysis 
and among his findings, he holds that crafting an engaging work of tragedy involves a high level 
of creativity. With respect to character development, he says that, “It seems to me that too swift a 
diagnosis of Simon Pilkings' motivations obscures both the meaning of ideology, and more 
importantly, its working-out, the ways in which our understanding of the functioning of ideology 
in a colonial context are” (p. 259). Topper (2019) adopted a historical approach which 
underscores how the colonial system imposed a secularist worldview on Africans held together 
by strong bonds of ritual and culture and that it was the forced transition from ritual to secularism 

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that caused the tragedy (“cosmological trauma”) in Death and the King's Horseman (pp. 53-79). 
Topper also recounts that the initial title of the drama was “Death and the District Officer” and 
that a scene that was later deleted drew a parallel between the proposed ritual suicide of Elesin 
and the suicidal disposition of Simon Pilkings, the District Officer, who desired to join the British 
army in World War II (p. 53).

The different methodological approaches used by these scholars as reviewed are 
interesting. However, they do not offer the use of flipside theory to understand the psycho-social 
dynamics of Olunde and Simon Pilkings in Death and the King's Horseman, which is what this 
research offers.

Theoretical Framework: Flipside Literary Theory

Flipside literary theory emerged in 2018 from a decade of field work carried out by 
ChineduNwadike on the life conditions of the poor and the less privileged compared to the life 
conditions of the rest of society and the attitudes of people towards these two social classes. 
Findings from this field work which he carried out in the South-eastern and Middle Belt parts of 
Nigeria inspired a collaborative research paper he published in 2018 with Chibuzo Onunkwo. He 
also published another paper in 2018 that principally detailed the operational principles of 
flipside theory. The core contribution of flipside theory to literature is to bring to the fore and 
interrogate how less privileged people in general are depicted compared to the depiction of the 
rest of society.

Flipside theory broadly divides society into two categories, namely, flipview society 
(people in mainstream life), and flipside society (people on the margins). The term “flipside” can 
be likened to the tail (hidden side) of a coin while the other side which is the head (visible side) is 
the “flipview” side. The social concern that people with the means or the opportunity should not 
oppress other people if we will have a balanced and sustainable society can be likened to the real 
fact that a coin is made up in equal measure by a head and a tail, and by the scientific fact that even 
though one can fly an airplane on one engine, it is much safer doing so on two engines.

With reference to the plots of literary works, flipview society refers to characters who are 
depicted as living in (relative) comfort while flipside society refers to characters who are placed 
on the margins of society such as roadside beggars, mentally-afflicted people, dumpster 
scavengers, children hawking wares in traffic jams, poor and homeless people, victimized 
refugees and migrants, and people wrongly accused of crimes. This general category of people 
can be described as victims of social existence because oftentimes they find themselves in those 
circumstances by reason of family background, social or natural disaster or some other factors 
hardly within their control.

In this wise, when the plots of literary works draw more attention to flipview characters, 
that is, characters from mainstream society, this can be called plot prejudice. It is also plot 
prejudice when plots show a bias for characters from flipside society. For similar reasons, when 
literary writers and consumers of literary works (readers and audiences) are drawn more to plots 
whose main characters come from flipview society, plot prejudice is also at work. Same applies to 
having a major interest in main characters drawn from flipside society.

The emergence of different literary theories over time has been an interesting 
phenomenon as each literary theory was developed to answer some felt needs. Currently, the 
global toolkit of literary theories has an impressive array of theories with areas of interest that cut 
across human and environmental concerns. It is against this background that one can appreciate 

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Leitch's (2001) view that, “The task of literary history is thus only completed when literary 
production is not only represented synchronically and diachronically in the succession of its 
systems, but also seen as a special history in its unique relationship” (p. 5). However, while there 
are existing theories that, for instance, explore the depiction of women (feminism), gender 
(gender theory, queer theory), social relations of power between the poor and the rich (Marxism), 
and race relations (critical race theory), there is no single theory that interrogates the depiction of 
less privileged people in general in works of literature. This is the gap that flipside theory now 
fills.

Furthermore, flipside criticism can synergize with some other forms of criticism where 
relevant to achieve a robust critical analysis of a literary work rather than treated like an isolated 
field. Flipside theory pushes discourse about people on the margins of society centre stage in a 
world where, ironically, national and world leaders and international groups have been talking 
quite loudly about care for the poor and the less privileged, and yet, there has been no single 
literary theory that answers to that need.

The operational principles of flipside criticism come in the form of three determinant 
questions that interrogate every work of literature, and a fourth one that determines whether a 
literary work qualifies as a flipside work or not (Nwadike, p. 112). These determinant questions 
are: (a) Did a plot constitute a flipside character as its protagonist or give that position to a 
flipview character? (b) Did this protagonist, if a flipside character, cause significant 
transformations in the society (the rise or fall of important individuals, groups, ideas or events) 
while still a member of flipside society rather than developed to become a member of flipview 
society? (c) Is the disposition of the flipside protagonist towards other flipside characters 
favourable and empowering, favourable and disempowering, unfavourable and empowering or 
unfavourable and disempowering? For the fourth requirement, a plot must have a flipside 
protagonist whose disposition towards other flipside characters is favourable and empowering to 
qualify as a flipside work. This requirement underscores the social concern that the dignity and 
rights of victims of social existence should be respected, that they should be treated well even by 
their colleagues, and that they should be empowered to live better like the rest of society.

Fall's (1979) The Beggars' Strike has an interesting plot where beggars in Dakar rally 
together to protest the disrespect of describing them as polluting the tourist industry and the 
humiliation of eviction from city streets on the orders of MourNdiaye, the Director of Public 
Health Services and Hygiene. These beggars were manhandled into a settlement zone but they 
went on strike against accepting alms from people anymore. Their refusal even to return to the 
streets to accept alms made it impossible for other people like Mour Ndiaye, the protagonist, to 
give alms in fulfilment of religious obligations. This turn of events caused a crisis powerful 
enough to destroy his political ambition to become the Vice President of the Republic. However, 
this novel does not qualify as a flipside work because Mour Ndiaye is a flipview character. This 
contrasts with Nwadike's(2014) The Holy Heist where the protagonist, Austen, is a flipside 
character. He is an unemployed university graduate who went into drugs and became mentally-
challenged but whose activities destroyed the bourgeois ambitions of some flipview characters. 
He remained a flipside character in the plot and exhibited a favourable and empowering 
disposition towards other flipside characters. Thus, The Holy Heist qualifies as a flipside work.

Humanism is clearly at the core of flipside theory but this humanism welcomes religion if 
some characters incline towards it rather than hoisting atheism as the ideal. Flipside humanism 
considers religion part of the humanistic equation of such characters, that is, as part of what 
makes them human and members of society. Flipside humanism also calls into question any 

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justifications that may be provided for ideologies, social institutions, racial or cultural 
assumptions and systemic practices such as the slave trade and slavery, colonialism and its 
various modern forms that generate, legitimize, or promote inhuman practices. 

Methodology

This research uses a qualitative methodology and applies textual analysis for the critical 
exploration of the psycho-social dynamics of Olunde and Simon Pilkings in Death and the King's 
Horseman. This process is carried out in a systematic way.

This research covers the primary text, namely, Death and the King's Horseman. Some 
secondary texts considered relevant to this research are also accessed.

The primary source of data for this research is the tragic drama under study, namely, 
Death and the King's Horseman. Secondary sources of data include other relevant materials 
ranging from printed works to online publications that make contributions to this research.

Data from these two sources are subjected to the critical tools of flipside theory. The 
application of this theory is done in a systematic way to achieve specific objectives.

Results and Discussion: Flipside Analysis of the Psycho-Social Dynamics of Olunde and 
Pilkings

The main characters selected from Death and the King's Horseman that will be subjected 
to flipside criticism are Olunde and Simon Pilkings. This selection does not undermine the roles 
of other characters like Iyaloja, Praise-Singer, and Jane Pilkings.

(a)	 Olunde

As the first son of the Elesin Oba, a highly-placed man in the society, Olunde lived a 
privileged life and enjoyed some rights and privileges. Olunde's father, the king's Chief 
Horseman and a titled chief, made sure he put things in place to groom him properly as his 
successor after his death. In Olunde's eyes, when his father meets his fated death by ritual suicide, 
a path he will also tread in his own time, nothing can be offered in place of winning “the honour 
and veneration of his own people” (4.356).

Olunde also was lucky to enjoy the benevolent attention of the British Colonial District 
Officer, Simon Pilkings. Pilkings expropriated Olunde from Elesin and sent him to England to 
train as a medical doctor despite his father's objections (2.329; 2.330). The Pilkings even 
imagined him also gifted enough to be a poet (2.329). In anger, his father publicly disowned him 
but culturally, how he did it made it ineffective (4.360–361). The privilege of living in Europe 
afforded Olunde an opportunity to learn how Europeans live and think and to draw comparisons 
between them and his Yoruba people back home. It was from this that Olunde, right after 
returning from England, replied Jane Pilkings with some scorn when she wondered whether he 
was shocked that she and her husband trivialized the sacred egungun masquerade attire by 
wearing it to a ball in honor of a visiting British prince:

OLUNDE. (Mildly) And that is the good cause for which you desecrate an ancestral 
mask?

JANE. Oh, so you are shocked after all. How disappointing.

OLUNDE. No I am not shocked, MrsPilkings. You forget that I have now spent four years 

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among your people. I discovered that you have no respect for what you do not 
understand. (4.353)

Although he became quite busy working in a hospital taking care of wounded or dying 
British soldiers as the Second World War raged on (4.360), Olunde had a change of heart about 
staying away from cultural responsibilities after a relation sent him a cable from home that just 
said: “Our King is dead” (4.355). He knew he had to leave England and return home to bury his 
father who was expected to die by ritual suicide in a month's time and be buried along with the 
king (2.328).

Olunde denied his European benefactors the opportunity of stopping him by returning 
without informing them (4.361–362) and he was lucky to travel in the same ship that conveyed 
the British prince to Nigeria under escort (4.356). He strongly disapproved of efforts by the 
Pilkings to stop the ritual suicide (4.356; 4.361) and, to him, Elesin was already dead and he was 
just eagerly waiting to see him in the nature of a corpse for him to carry out the customary rites 
befitting an Elesin (4.359–360). He knew he would become the next Elesin after that (2.330; 
4.359) but he still nursed hopes of returning to England to complete his medical studies and 
become a first-class medical doctor (2.329; 4.358).

However, when it dawned on Olunde that Elesin has failed in his primary duty after the 
two of them met by chance with Elesin surprized to see his son already back home and 
Olundesurprized to see his father still alive and in chains, Olunde disowned him:

ELESIN. Olunde? (He moves his head, inspecting him from side to side.) Olunde! (He 
collapses slowly at Olunde's feet.) Oh son, don't let the sight of your father turn 
you blind.

OLUNDE. (He moves for the first time since he heard his voice, brings his head slowly 
down to look on him.) I have no father, eater of left-overs. (4.365)

Thereafter, Olunde took it upon himself to remedy the damage and protect the dignity and 
privileges of the Elesin position that was his family's birth-right. This included an effort to 
reconcile with his father (5.367–368). He made himself a substitute for his father and carried out 
the ritual suicide instead. He preferred to take that radical step to living to see his father's failure 
shamefully cast the family down from its elite status to the margins of society. For Olunde, ritual 
suicide for the community is akin to the self-sacrifice of an English sea captain who remained on 
board to blow up his ship that has become dangerous and save the population living by the 
harbour (4.354). He also characteristically compared it to the suicidal mindset of soldiers sent 
into battle by their commanders to die in the ongoing war like doing a mass suicide (4.357).

In line with the operational principles of Flipside criticism, Olunde, by his social position 
and the power and privileges that accrued to it, was a flipview character. Although he was not 
constituted a protagonist, he was developed to remain a member of flipview society throughout 
the plot. Furthermore, he caused significant social transformations through his radical suicide to 
save his community from collapsing and to prevent the cosmic catastrophe expected with his 
father's failure to fulfil his duty. Olunde's disposition towards flipside characters was favourable 
and empowering considering that he was determined to do all in his power to serve the interests of 
all the members of his community.

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In conclusion, Olunde was a flipview character and was developed to remain a flipview 
character in the plot of Death and the King's Horseman but he was not the protagonist. He was 
able to cause significant social transformations while his disposition towards flipside characters 
was favourable and empowering. Going by the four principles of flipside criticism, the drama 
does not qualify as a flipside work.

(b)	 Simon Pilkings

Simon Pilkings was the colonial District Officer and represented the enormous power and 
privileges enjoyed by members of the British colonial administration in that part of the world. He 
was very determined not to permit any activity on the part of natives to jeopardize colonial 
interests. That was why he quickly gave orders to stop the ritual suicide of Elesin as soon as he got 
wind of it (2.326; 2.333). In addition, when he realized that Sergeant Amusa failed in that task, he 
had to go and get things done by himself (4.351–352; 4.362–363), including handling the market 
women's riot after he arrested Elesin (4.349; 4.363).

Pilkings had the bearings of an oppressor and this was felt even by his wife, Jane and some 
white colleagues. He let people know he was in charge and this made it difficult for him to take 
Jane's advice to treat the natives with open-mindedness (2.325; 2.327; 2.331). He considered it 
part of his job to mock cultural practices he did not understand, confiscated and desecrated the 
egungun attire, and used derogatory words on the natives and their cultural practices (2.325). He 
even occasionally extended his attacks on religion to some Christian practices (2.330–334). 

Pilkings was not a man to let anyone talk down on him and he felt upset when the Resident 
did so after stumbling on information about the ritual suicide and the market women's riot 
(4.349). Although Olunde found favour in his eyes, he still impressed it upon both Olunde and 
Elesin, his father, that things must go his own way (2.329). He plotted with Olunde and sent him 
to England to study medicine despite opposition from his father who needed him to stay around to 
be groomed as his successor (5.367). Actions like that created serious antagonism between the 
two men:

PILKINGS.	 I seem to be fated to clash more often with that man than with any of the 
other chiefs. (2.328)

Going by the determinant principles of flipside criticism, Simon Pilkings was not 
constituted the protagonist of the drama but he was a flipview character who remained a member 
of flipview society till the end of the drama. 

He caused significant social transformations by causing the humiliation of Elesin when 
he prevented his ritual suicide and also arrested and imprisoned him. His action also threatened 
the entire community with a cosmic catastrophe. Olunde indicated this when he thought Pilkings 
had failed to stop the ritual suicide:

OLUNDE. Mr Pilkings, I appreciate what you tried to do. I want you to believe that. I can 
tell you it would have been a terrible calamity if you'd succeeded. (4.261)

In addition, his disposition towards flipside characters was unfavourable and disempowering.

In conclusion, Simon Pilkings was a flipview character and remained in that position. He 
was not constituted the protagonist but was able to cause significant social transformations while 
his disposition towards flipside characters was not favourable and empowering. Going by the 
four determinant principles of flipside criticism, Death and the King's Horseman does not qualify 
as a flipside work.

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4.5	 Conclusion
The systematic application of flipside criticism on select characters in Wole Soyinka's 

Death and the King's Horseman uncovered interesting insights about Olunde and Simon 
Pilkings, two characters that were selected for analysis. This has added to a better 
appreciation of these literary works.

Flipside critical analysis showed that both Olunde and Pilkings were not flipside 
characters and none of them was constituted the protagonist of the tragic drama. Furthermore, 
each of them was developed to remain in flipview society till the end of the drama just as each of 
them was able to cause significant social transformations. However, in the area treatment of 
flipside characters, Olunde had a favourable and empowering disposition while Pilkings had an 
unfavourable and disempowering disposition. Finally, Soyinka's Death and the King's 
Horseman does not qualify as a flipside work because it fails the four determinant principles for 
that.

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