Introduction: The Lion and the Jewel is a famous play written by Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka (1934-present). The play describes how Lakunle tries to convince to marry Sidi, the jewel of the play. Sidi is a beautiful girl from the village named Ilujinle. Lakunle, the modern school teacher of the village, falls in love with her and wants to marry her without a bride price.
Bride-price: As Lakunle wants to marry Sidi, she wants bride price from him. But Lakunle stands to the opposite of this system. He asserts Sidi as an ignorant girl and says-
“Ignorant girl, can you not understand? To pay the price would buy a heifer off the market stall.”
Hearing lakunle’s logic Sidi reveals she has no problem marrying Lakunle but if she marries him without a bride price, she will be insulted by others that Sidi has lost her virginity. Of this fear, Sidi does not agree to marry Lakunle without a bride price.
Some days later, Baroka has sex with Sidi by making a strategy. Being raped by Baroka, Sidi thinks that now she cannot take any other man as her husband. Because she knows that a woman should marry and live with only one man. So, she selects Baroka as her husband than Lakunle. Sidi’s decision proves that she has a strong concept of chastity strong belief in an age-old tradition. If she wants, could marry Lakunle instead of Baroka. But she does not it for her respect for chastity.
Though Lakunle wanted to Sidi marry after losing her chastity. But Sidi’s strong Concept of chastity is that a woman should marry and live with only one man, Lakunle’s all efforts fail to convince Sidi to marry her without a bride price.
