ENG 482: Poetics of Relation Research Guide: Pantomime

Derek Walcott’s polygonal use of language in the humorous and ironic play Pantomime is truly the star of the show. While the banter between Jackson Phillips and Harry Trewe catches the audience’s attention, it is Walcott’s underlying use of language that implores the reader to view the present effects of living in a post-colonial society.

It seems that Harry is still dreaming of a better time, a time when blacks knew their place and never spoke out of turn or got out of hand. Early in the play Harry suggests doing a satire emphasizing the “master-servant” relationship (109). He quickly adds the phrase “no offense”, a phrase intended to cushion the blow yet I found it to only sharpen the sting. Walcott’s display of language conveys a multitude of important ideas and as Jackson says “language is ideas”.

-Javier Robles 15’

In "Pantomime," Derek Walcott makes two, large points by establishing a parallel between Jackson and the parrot.  The first is that feelings of pain and isolation can cause individuals to act and think in ways that blindly hurt others.  Both the parrot's repeated use of "Heinegger"- a clear alteration of a racial slur- and Harry's continued insensitivity in relation to Jackson makes this point clear (Walcott 99).  Related to this, a second point has to do with how racial prejudice not only dehumanizingly isolates those being discriminated against but also those doing the discrimination.  This idea is also present in Toni Morrison's novel Beloved.  While, yes, Harry is alone in the sense that he is both emotionally and physically isolated from his ex-wife, he is rarely physically alone.  Jackson stands right next to him in almost every scene within the play.  Yet, because he does not recognize Jackson's humanity and worth, Harry further isolates himself.  In a final point of parallel to the parrot's actual death, then, Harry takes on a metaphorical death at the end of the work since, in his mind, he is isolated from all human contact.

-Grayson Hill 15’

Language can used to give agency. Jackson fluctuates between mimicking Harry’s Western language and using a less formal vernacular. However, he exaggerates this vernacular to maneuver Harry; the interplay between presumably sophisticated and unsophisticated speech mocks Harry’s conceptions about Western language. He believes Jackson to be less refined when in reality Jackson uses language as a manipulative tool to reveal Harry’s biases towards the indigenous people. Harry eventually recognizes Jackson’s method for using language as a weapon:

You mispronounce words on purpose, don’t you, Jackson? Don’t think for a second that I’m not up on your game, Jackson. You’re playing the stage nigger with me. I’m an actor, you know. It’s a smile in the front and a dagger behind your back, right? Or the smile itself is the bloody dagger. I’m aware, chum. I’m aware (140).

Language helps one to construct identity, persuade others, and accumulate power. Harry experiences a moment of recognition in which he realizes Jackson has used stereotypical informalized language to invert the binary. Although society deems Jackson to be Harry’s inferior, Jackson acquires agency through language.

-Taylor Pisel 14’

The essayist, poet, and playwright David Walcott litters Pantomime with role reversals and character transformations in a flipped rendition of Robinson Crusoe. Instead of a white man finding his cannibal black servant on a lonely island, the protagonists Harry Trewe, a retired white actor, and Jackson Phillip, his Trinidadian servant and retired calypsonian, decide to act out their rendition of Daniel Defoe’s famous novel (argued by many as the first). Before the two men begin acting, Walcott plants the seeds of literal role reversal within the master-servant relationship. On page 104, Act 1, Jackson explodes at Harry for his nakedness, accusing him of his “blasted child-[like]” appearance. Jackson continues on to pronounce the importance of “manners” to his supposed boss, a provoking statement that struck me unusually coming out of a servant. Nonetheless, Jackson and Harry resume their roles as servant and master until they begin acting the characters of Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday (or Thursday in this interpretation), respectively.

-Catherine O’Donnell 15’

Although Jackson is a servant, his calypsonian status beckons him to serve as a vocal conscience of the land. With that respect, he speaks on the colonial dynamic as well as its effect on both colonizers and colonized. Jackson simultaneously serves as a constant and living reminder of imperialism and independence.

-Aminata Dumbuya 14’

Jackson’s character at first resists Harry’s persuasions to act as Friday because he is already a servant to a white man. Pantomiming as a slave whose master is played by his own boss seems to unsettle him. But as their conversation evolves and the idea of switching their roles becomes more prominent in both of their heads, Jackson becomes increasingly interested in participating in the pantomime. He starts to develop his own vision for the play, determined that Crusoe should kill a goat and fashion himself some clothes.I read this moment as Walcott commenting on the necessary impetus for Trinidadians to realize their ability to create and perform theater. Jackson is only interested in the play when he realizes he can reverse the power dynamic and take on the master role for himself, with a white slave. Jackson’s interest in that dynamic is the reason for his passion for the play, and I saw Walcott arguing that this is the reason Caribbean writers should create plays, novels, and stories of their own. The ability to create empowers the creator and in that way Caribbean peoples are able to further distance themselves from the imposed British culture and establish a culture of their own.

-Mark Brannan 14’