Master Harold and the Boys Essay & Criticism

Master Harold and the Boys Critical Overview

The summary of "Master Harold" 's action cannot begin to suggest its emotional intensity or its impact on an audience. Many who saw the play in its debut were greatly troubled by the society it depicted. Since that time' 'Master Harold" has continued to provoke critics and audiences alike.

Errol Durbach, writing in Modern Drama, as­serted that "Master Harold". . and the Boys is not an overtly political play, but a depiction of "a personal power-struggle With political implica­tions." The only definition that the South African system can conceive of in the relationship of White to Black is one that humiliates black people. This definition "insinuates itself into every social sphere of existence, until the very language of ordinary human discourse begins to reflect the policy that makes black men subservient to the power exer­cised by white children." In the society depicted by Fugard White equals "Master" and Black...
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