Summary вЂ“ Analysis Of The Island By Athol Fugard Antigone is just a young girl but she assumes the moral authority to challenge the king. Athol Fugard chose the story of Antigone to highlight the conditions in South Africa where the majority community was kept down by ruthless rulers who like King Creon passed laws which went against GodвЂ™s own rules. Antigone was staged there once with Mandela playing the role of King Creon. The play вЂThe IslandвЂ™ draws on the real-life experiences of some of the prisoners who were incarcerated on Robben Island. On June 11, 1964, they were sentenced for life and imprisoned in Robben Island. Nelson Mandela and his associates were arrested while at a meeting in Rivonia. Shifting sand from one heap to another all day long or pulling a road roller round and round were some of the cruel and meaningless punishments devised. Extra judicial killings were common and the punishment dished out to the political prisoners aimed at breaking their spirit. Any opposition to apartheid from the blacks was put down ruthlessly. Related Notes Analysis of 'AliceвЂ™s Adventures in Wonderland', by Lewis CarrollД®very aspect of the native AfricanвЂ™s life was affected by these rules that aimed at segregating the blacks from the whites. In order to perpetuate white rule in South Africa, they brought a catalogue of draconian laws aimed at apartheid which in Afrikaans meant separateness. During this period, South Africa was run by the white Afrikaner National Party. The most renowned inmate of this prison was Nelson Mandela who spent twenty-seven years incarcerated here. The notorious island prison called Robben Island is the setting for this play. He has also acted in movies like AttenboroughвЂ™s Gandhi and The Killing Fields which is about the Pol Pot regimeвЂ™s massacre of innocent Cambodians. He won several awards and a lot of his plays have been converted into movies. FugardвЂ™s plays kept the issue of the absence of individual freedom in South Africa at the forefront and drew the whole worldвЂ™s attention to it. His passport was revoked when his play Blood Knot was staged in England and his criticism of the practice of segregating theatre audiences in South Africa brought on more restrictions. Later, he organized a multiracial theatre which caused a direct confrontation with the white government. His job as a court clerk made him keenly aware of the injustices of apartheid which is the theme for most of his plays. Later, Fugard returned to South Africa and married Shiela Meiring, an actress, who ignited in him the love for theatre. Along with a friend, he hitchhiked till Port Sudan in North Africa where he worked on a steamship. Then dropped out a few months before the final examination. He went on to study anthropology and philosophy at the University of Cape Town. He grew up in Port Elizabeth which forms the setting for most plays. Analysis of the Island by Athol Fugard вЂ“ Athol Fugard was born to an English father of mixed European descent and an Afrikaner mother.

The island by athol fugard pdf reader