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Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University Unit 32: Roots: Characterization and Theme

Unit 32: Roots: Characterization and Theme Notes

CONTENTS

Objectives
Introduction

32.1 Themes

32.2 Summary
32.3 Keywords

32.4 Review Questions
32.5 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Elucidate that the play Roots is governed by three sources of pressure—current affairs, the
author’s attitude and the characters;
• Illustrate that the most notable qualities of the play are emotional maturity and command of
action in depth.

Introduction

Wesker’s most notable qualities are emotional maturity and his command of action in depth. The
first means that he never condescends to his characters, the second that what happens on stage is
always more interesting in performance than we would be likely to guess from quotation. Under
the surface of dialogue which, like O’Neill’s, is often limp and colourless on the page, there comes
into focus a network of relationships more significant than the interplay in the foreground, which
can be written off as a quarrel between cooks or the gushing quotation of a half-educated young
man’s ideas, accurate but uninspiring. The inner framework, on the contrary, contains social and
political issues, held together dramatically by the playwright’s urgent concern for them and by his
conviction that they affect the homely characters in front. Thus, behind Ronnie Kahn lies the
Hungarian revolution of 1956 and behind both is the fact of the author’s Russo-Hungarian descent;
behind Peter the cook lies German idealism and violence; and behind Beatie Bryant is a generation
faced with a new kind of choice. In each case there are three sources of pressure: current affairs, the
author’s attitude, and the characters in the play. This unit illustrates the themes depicted in the
play.

32.1 Themes
Arnold Wesker has tried his best explores the theme of self-discovery. Beatie Bryant, daughter of
Norfolk farm labourers, has fallen in love with Ronnie Kahn from the Chicken Soup family. She
returns from London to visit her family all of whom await the arrival of Ronnie. During the two-week

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