Boesman and Lena

by

Athol Fugard

Old Man Character Analysis

An old Xhosa man who wanders into Boesman and Lena’s camp. The old man highlights two important themes in the play: first, how Boesman and Lena, too, help to uphold the same racist system that is oppressing them. They treat him as lower status because he is black, while they are Coloured, and because he speaks neither English nor Afrikaans. They call him derogatory terms and are often severe and abusive toward him, even as Lena gradually treats him with more humanity and respect. The old man also helps to illuminate Lena’s desperate need for human connection. Although she initially mistreats him, Lena is thrilled when she can teach him to say her name and is excited when he listens to the stories of her life, even though he cannot really understand them. Thus, the old man reveals the importance of being witnessed and listened to as a part of making Lena feel that her life is worthwhile and that others can care about her. She chooses to sit with the old man by the fire rather than sleep inside the pondok with Boesman, demonstrating her need to have contact with someone who does not abuse her and is willing to connect with her, if only passively. Towards the end of the play, the old man dies peacefully in their camp, and Lena points out the irony of the fact that white people might come around asking questions and trying to determine whether Boesman killed the man, but they would never have cared about the man while he was alive. This fact, and Boesman and Lena’s overall treatment of the man, demonstrates why apartheid was so difficult to dismantle: it made people prejudiced against and suspicious of each other, rather than uniting to overcome an oppressive system.

Old Man Quotes in Boesman and Lena

The Boesman and Lena quotes below are all either spoken by Old Man or refer to Old Man . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Oppression, Freedom, and Self-Worth Theme Icon
).
Act One Quotes

LENA: Wasn’t it after Redhouse? Out last time here. Remember, that boer chased us off his land. Then we came here. Is that right?
[Boesman ignores her.]
Then we went to Korsten.
BOESMAN: After here we went to Korsten?
LENA: Ja. [Boesman laughs at her derisively.] How was it then? [Pause.] You won’t tell me.

Related Characters: Boesman (speaker), Lena (speaker), Old Man
Page Number: 150-151
Explanation and Analysis:

LENA: […] Even when you’re also awake. You make it worse. When I call you, and I know you hear me, but you say nothing. Sometimes loneliness is two . . . you and the other person who doesn’t want to know you’re there.

Related Characters: Lena (speaker), Boesman, Old Man
Related Symbols: Pondok
Page Number: 159
Explanation and Analysis:

LENA. Come over!
BOESMAN. Jou verdomde....
LENA: [sees the violence coming and moves away quickly] To hell with you! I want him.
[Calling.] Hey, darling! Kom die kant!
[To Boesman.] Sit in the dark and talk to myself because you don’t hear me anymore? No, Boesman! I want him! Hey! He’s coming.

Related Characters: Boesman (speaker), Lena (speaker), Old Man
Page Number: 160
Explanation and Analysis:

BOESMAN: He’s not brown people, he’s black people.
LENA: They got feelings too. Not so, Outa?
BOESMAN: You’ll get some feelings if you don’t watch that fire.
[Lena is waiting for a word from the old man with growing desperation and irritation.]
LENA: What’s the matter? You sick? Where’s it hurt?
[Nothing.]
Hey! I’m speaking to you.
[The old man murmurs in Xhosa.]
Stop that baboon language! Waar kryjy seer?

Related Characters: Boesman (speaker), Lena (speaker), Old Man
Page Number: 162
Explanation and Analysis:

LENA: […] Look, Outa. I want you to look.
[Showing him the bruises on her arms and face.]
No, not that one. That’s a old one. This one. And here. Just because I dropped the sack with the empties. I would have been dead if they hadn’t laughed. When other people laugh he gets ashamed.

Related Characters: Lena (speaker), Boesman, Old Man
Page Number: 164
Explanation and Analysis:

LENA: […] We waited for Boesman to sleep, then he came and watched me. All the things I did—making the fire, cooking, counting bottles or bruises, even just sitting, you know, when it’s too much . . . he saw it. Hond! I called him Hond. But any name, he’d wag his tail if you said it nice.
I’ll tell you what it is. Eyes, Outa. Another pair of eyes. Some thing to see you.

Related Characters: Lena (speaker), Boesman, Old Man
Related Symbols: Dog
Page Number: 166
Explanation and Analysis:

LENA: […] And even when they’re down, when you’ve made your place and the fire is burning and you rest your legs, something stays heavy. Hey! Once you’ve put your life on your head and walked you never get light again.

Related Characters: Lena (speaker), Boesman, Old Man
Page Number: 168
Explanation and Analysis:
Act Two Quotes

LENA: […] That’s not a pondok, Boesman. [Pointing to the shelter.] It’s a coffin. All of them. You bury my life in your pondoks. Not tonight. Crawl into darkness and silence before I’m dead. No! I’m on this earth, not in it.

Related Characters: Lena (speaker), Boesman, Old Man
Related Symbols: Pondok
Page Number: 182
Explanation and Analysis:

BOESMAN: […] That’s all it is, tonight or any other night. Two dead Hotnots living together.
And you want him to look? To see? He must close his eyes. That’s what I’ll say for you in the kaffertaal.
Musa khangela! Don’t look! That’s what you must tell him. Musa khangela!

Related Characters: Boesman (speaker), Lena, Old Man
Page Number: 188
Explanation and Analysis:

BOESMAN: Well, I’m just warning you, you better have answers ready. Dead man! There’s going to be questions.
LENA: About him? About rubbish? […] Hot stuff, hey. ‘What’s his name?’ ‘Where’s he come from?’
BOESMAN: Never saw him before in my life!
LENA: ‘Who did it?’
BOESMAN: [sharply] Did what? He died by himself.
LENA: Too bad you can’t tell them, Outa.
BOESMAN: I did nothing.
LENA: Why don’t they ask some questions when we’re alive?

Related Characters: Boesman (speaker), Lena (speaker), Old Man
Page Number: 191
Explanation and Analysis:

LENA: […] That’s the worst. When you didn’t do it. Like the hiding you gave me for dropping the empties. Now you’ll know what it feels like. You were clever to tell me. It hurt more than your fists. You know where you feel that one? Inside. Where your fists can’t reach. A bruise there!

Related Characters: Lena (speaker), Boesman, Old Man
Page Number: 193-194
Explanation and Analysis:

LENA: […] What’s your big word? Freedom! Tonight it’s Freedom for Lena. Whiteman gave you yours this morning, but you lost it. Must I tell you how? When you put all that on your back. There wasn’t room for it as well.

Related Characters: Lena (speaker), Boesman, Old Man
Page Number: 195
Explanation and Analysis:

LENA [pause….she is loaded]: Is that the way it was? How I got here?
BOESMAN: Yes.
LENA: Truly?
BOESMAN: Yes.
[Pause.]
LENA: It doesn’t explain anything.
BOESMAN: I know.
LENA: Anyway, somebody saw a little bit. Dog and a dead man.

Related Characters: Boesman (speaker), Lena (speaker), Old Man
Related Symbols: Dog
Page Number: 196-197
Explanation and Analysis:
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Old Man Quotes in Boesman and Lena

The Boesman and Lena quotes below are all either spoken by Old Man or refer to Old Man . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Oppression, Freedom, and Self-Worth Theme Icon
).
Act One Quotes

LENA: Wasn’t it after Redhouse? Out last time here. Remember, that boer chased us off his land. Then we came here. Is that right?
[Boesman ignores her.]
Then we went to Korsten.
BOESMAN: After here we went to Korsten?
LENA: Ja. [Boesman laughs at her derisively.] How was it then? [Pause.] You won’t tell me.

Related Characters: Boesman (speaker), Lena (speaker), Old Man
Page Number: 150-151
Explanation and Analysis:

LENA: […] Even when you’re also awake. You make it worse. When I call you, and I know you hear me, but you say nothing. Sometimes loneliness is two . . . you and the other person who doesn’t want to know you’re there.

Related Characters: Lena (speaker), Boesman, Old Man
Related Symbols: Pondok
Page Number: 159
Explanation and Analysis:

LENA. Come over!
BOESMAN. Jou verdomde....
LENA: [sees the violence coming and moves away quickly] To hell with you! I want him.
[Calling.] Hey, darling! Kom die kant!
[To Boesman.] Sit in the dark and talk to myself because you don’t hear me anymore? No, Boesman! I want him! Hey! He’s coming.

Related Characters: Boesman (speaker), Lena (speaker), Old Man
Page Number: 160
Explanation and Analysis:

BOESMAN: He’s not brown people, he’s black people.
LENA: They got feelings too. Not so, Outa?
BOESMAN: You’ll get some feelings if you don’t watch that fire.
[Lena is waiting for a word from the old man with growing desperation and irritation.]
LENA: What’s the matter? You sick? Where’s it hurt?
[Nothing.]
Hey! I’m speaking to you.
[The old man murmurs in Xhosa.]
Stop that baboon language! Waar kryjy seer?

Related Characters: Boesman (speaker), Lena (speaker), Old Man
Page Number: 162
Explanation and Analysis:

LENA: […] Look, Outa. I want you to look.
[Showing him the bruises on her arms and face.]
No, not that one. That’s a old one. This one. And here. Just because I dropped the sack with the empties. I would have been dead if they hadn’t laughed. When other people laugh he gets ashamed.

Related Characters: Lena (speaker), Boesman, Old Man
Page Number: 164
Explanation and Analysis:

LENA: […] We waited for Boesman to sleep, then he came and watched me. All the things I did—making the fire, cooking, counting bottles or bruises, even just sitting, you know, when it’s too much . . . he saw it. Hond! I called him Hond. But any name, he’d wag his tail if you said it nice.
I’ll tell you what it is. Eyes, Outa. Another pair of eyes. Some thing to see you.

Related Characters: Lena (speaker), Boesman, Old Man
Related Symbols: Dog
Page Number: 166
Explanation and Analysis:

LENA: […] And even when they’re down, when you’ve made your place and the fire is burning and you rest your legs, something stays heavy. Hey! Once you’ve put your life on your head and walked you never get light again.

Related Characters: Lena (speaker), Boesman, Old Man
Page Number: 168
Explanation and Analysis:
Act Two Quotes

LENA: […] That’s not a pondok, Boesman. [Pointing to the shelter.] It’s a coffin. All of them. You bury my life in your pondoks. Not tonight. Crawl into darkness and silence before I’m dead. No! I’m on this earth, not in it.

Related Characters: Lena (speaker), Boesman, Old Man
Related Symbols: Pondok
Page Number: 182
Explanation and Analysis:

BOESMAN: […] That’s all it is, tonight or any other night. Two dead Hotnots living together.
And you want him to look? To see? He must close his eyes. That’s what I’ll say for you in the kaffertaal.
Musa khangela! Don’t look! That’s what you must tell him. Musa khangela!

Related Characters: Boesman (speaker), Lena, Old Man
Page Number: 188
Explanation and Analysis:

BOESMAN: Well, I’m just warning you, you better have answers ready. Dead man! There’s going to be questions.
LENA: About him? About rubbish? […] Hot stuff, hey. ‘What’s his name?’ ‘Where’s he come from?’
BOESMAN: Never saw him before in my life!
LENA: ‘Who did it?’
BOESMAN: [sharply] Did what? He died by himself.
LENA: Too bad you can’t tell them, Outa.
BOESMAN: I did nothing.
LENA: Why don’t they ask some questions when we’re alive?

Related Characters: Boesman (speaker), Lena (speaker), Old Man
Page Number: 191
Explanation and Analysis:

LENA: […] That’s the worst. When you didn’t do it. Like the hiding you gave me for dropping the empties. Now you’ll know what it feels like. You were clever to tell me. It hurt more than your fists. You know where you feel that one? Inside. Where your fists can’t reach. A bruise there!

Related Characters: Lena (speaker), Boesman, Old Man
Page Number: 193-194
Explanation and Analysis:

LENA: […] What’s your big word? Freedom! Tonight it’s Freedom for Lena. Whiteman gave you yours this morning, but you lost it. Must I tell you how? When you put all that on your back. There wasn’t room for it as well.

Related Characters: Lena (speaker), Boesman, Old Man
Page Number: 195
Explanation and Analysis:

LENA [pause….she is loaded]: Is that the way it was? How I got here?
BOESMAN: Yes.
LENA: Truly?
BOESMAN: Yes.
[Pause.]
LENA: It doesn’t explain anything.
BOESMAN: I know.
LENA: Anyway, somebody saw a little bit. Dog and a dead man.

Related Characters: Boesman (speaker), Lena (speaker), Old Man
Related Symbols: Dog
Page Number: 196-197
Explanation and Analysis: