Dream on Monkey Mountain (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Derek Walcott
- First Published: 1970
- Type of Work: Play
- Type of Plot: Allegory
- Time of Work: The 1960’s
- Setting: A West Indian island
- Genres: Drama, Allegory
- Subjects: 1960’s, Self-discovery, Caribbean, Colonialism, Race, Revolutions, Dreams, Individuality
- Locales: West Indies, Islands
Characters Discussed
Makak, “an old Negro,” the hermit of Monkey Mountain. Sixty years old and ugly, he was named for the macaque monkey, which he resembles. He is by trade a wood- gatherer and charcoal burner, but in his dream he is also the king of Africa, following the instructions of an apparition of a beautiful white woman. Partly mad, partly possessed, and partly drunk, he possibly dreams the entire play in Lestrade’s cell, after a night of drunkenness in a local tavern. He is arrested for stealing coal and for disorderly conduct. In an elaborate allegorical...
[The entire page is 1014 words long]
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