Ti-Jean and His Brothers Literary Elements

Morality play, folktale

Caribbean English Patois

Surreal Caribbean setting, colonial era

The story is narrated by the frog, who is telling the familiar story of Ti-Jean and His Brothers to the other animals. They perceive the story as an old folk tale, and Ti-Jean as its hero.

The mood of much of the play is uncanny, tense, and foreboding. The tricks Ti-Jean plays on the Devil changes the mood somewhat, making the play more humorous and whimsical. At the end, the mood is reverent and quiet. The tone is sympathetic to the three brothers and the mother, despite the failings of Gros Jean and Mi-Jean. Yet it is also somewhat sympathetic to the Devil, who is also a prisoner of his own loneliness and immortality.

The protagonist is Ti-Jean. The antagonist is the Devil.

The major conflict is between the Jean family and the Devil. This plays out in three parts, with first Gros Jean and then Mi-Jean losing to the Devil, and Ti-Jean eventually winning.

The climax comes when Ti-Jean drives the Devil to anger, winning the challenge. The play reaches the highest point of tension here because the Devil refuses to give in, putting Ti-Jean in what seems like an impossible position, because he cannot save himself even by winning the bet.

The Devil's song at the end of the prologue foreshadows the deaths of Gros Jean and Mi-Jean. Mother's warning to Gros Jean, which he ignores, also foreshadows his defeat and death.

The Devil's exclamation, "Descendant of the ape, how eloquent you have become! How assured in logic! How marvellous in invention! And yet, poor shaving monkey, the animal in you is still in evidence, that goat . . .” in Act 2 alludes to this famous quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet: "What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals. And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?"

Walcott's portrayal of the Devil as sympathetic alludes to Milton's Paradise Lost, where the Devil is famously portrayed as a complex, three-dimensional character and a highly sympathetic speaker, despite the poem's Christian framing.

The structures of the three acts all parallel one another, with each brother leaving home, speaking with the animals, meeting the old man, and finally confronting the planter.

The old man is a personification of worldly wisdom.

In the opening scene, Walcott divides the stage between the animals narrating the story of Ti-Jean, and the story of Ti-Jean being acted out. This brings their story to life and creates a smooth transition from the framing device to the main play.

The script dictates that after Gros Jean's death in the first act, his grave should be placed on stage. The same thing happens after Mi-Jean's death. This dramatic device uses the stage to foreshadow the dangers each brother will face, and to create an uncanny mood.