A Critical Analysis of Corruption Theme in The King's Elephant Play

This essay delves into Sadallah Wannous's play, 'The King's Elephant,' primarily focusing on the pervasive theme of corruption within society, supported by the secondary themes of social justice and power. Wannous, a leading Syrian playwright, critiques political leaders through dramatic techniques, using symbols, allegory, and folk tales to address authoritarianism and the psyche of the repressed majority. The play revolves around the king's elephant, highlighting societal cruelty and injustice, ultimately urging disagreement and societal change. The playwright masterfully employs satire to convey serious messages while entertaining the audience, prompting critical thinking about societal issues and advocating for the elimination of negative impacts of power, social injustice, and corruption.

Running head: THE KING’S ELEPHANT
THE KING’S ELEPHANT
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Running head: THE KING’S ELEPHANT
Sadallah Wannous in his play The King’s Elephant emphasizes mainly on theme of the
corruption of the then society. While corruption was the main theme in the play, there were two
other themes that Wannous had uses in his play in order to support the main theme. Wannous
was one of the leading Syrian playwrights who were mainly concerned with the political aspect
as the subject of in their most of the plays. Thus the discussion will begin by elaborating on the
theme of corruption and then proceeds by discussing social justice and power as the supporting g
themes to the main theme. Finally the discussion concludes by summing up the whole
discussion.
Wannous through his plays would find ways to attack the political leaders of the then
society. Thus his play The King’s elephant depicts the dramatic techniques that Wannous used in
hurling the censorship. In the play, the authoritarianism was evaluated by the playwright. Along
with that, he portrayed the repressed majority and their psyche. Thus he urged for a disagreement
and for the purpose he used the mechanisms of symbols, allegory, fables and most importantly
folk tales.
The play exclusively draws the attention of the audience to the political system of the
then society while highlighting the theme of corruption through his play. The whole story
revolves around the king’s elephant and the corruption in the society. Along with that there were
two other themes that additionally supported the main theme. The two secondary themes that
emerged from the play are social justice and power. The play revealed the then society was
exclusively predominated by power and hence social injustice prevailed within the society. The
whole course of the play depicts the cruelty of the society which ends with a note of prophesy.
The play witnessed the death of the Tunisian elephant and the suit followed by the Egyptian

Running head: THE KING’S ELEPHANT
mammoth. The creativity of the Syrian playwright was as per excellence as he gave detailed
presentation of the societal issue through the form of drama.
It must deserve mention that Wannous was successful in making such a drama that
provokes the need of thinking ability among the people. However the play was filled with all the
elements of entertainment which can amuse the audience at the same time. Thus the play can fall
under the category of satire, which conveys a serious message to the society but entertains the
audience. In this regard, it can be said the Wannous this work was truly a masterpiece of his
creativity which unfolds the hard reality of then society.
Therefore in conclusion, it will be right to assert that the main theme as well as the two
supporting themes has been successfully established in Wannous’s play. Throughout the whole
course of the play, the theme of corruption was mainly highlighted and it shows how the famous
playwright has used the satiric form in order to portray the social issues. The play was not merely
limited in portraying the negative impact of power, social injustice and the corruption on the then
society; rather it draws the immediate attention of both the state and its people to eliminate the
societal issues.