Leave Taking: Writer's Methods and Techniques (AQA GCSE English Literature)

Leave Taking: Writer’s Methods and Techniques

Playwrights employ various dramatic devices and techniques to convey meaning, using a range of methods to evoke thoughts and emotions in the audience. 

Here we will explore the way that Pinnock uses:

• Dramatic features and stagecraft

• Setting

• Motifs and symbolism

Dramatic features and stagecraft

It is important to remember that Leave Taking is a play. It was written to be performed on the stage and should be studied with this in mind. Pinnock uses the dramatic form in several ways to create meaning. Think about how what you are reading might appear on stage and what its effect might be. Often, stage directions or costumes can have as much of an impact on the audience as the dialogue. 

• Pinnock uses sound and speech effects throughout the play:

  • While discussing her emotions and relationship with her mother in Scene 8, Enid's broken speech pattern reveals her difficulty in expressing her true feelings

  • Brod, Mai, and Enid speak with a distinct Jamaican dialect that serves as a constant reminder of their status as Windrush-era immigrants:

    • Their dialect also reflects how separated they feel from the white English community

  • Viv and Del speak in a dialect typical of south-east London, emphasising the generational and cultural divide between them and Enid, Brod, and Mai

• Sounds often represent Jamaican culture in the settings:

  • In Scene 1, at Mai’s bedsit, the crowing of a cock (rooster) evokes a rural atmosphere akin to where Enid grew up in Jamaica

  • In Scene 2, following a discussion about Gullyman, Brod plays a heavy dub record, nodding his head “like a man tasting something he doesn’t expect to like and discovering that it’s actually quite nice”:

    • Here Pinnock implies that the discrimination experienced in England drives individuals to reconnect with their homeland in an effort to find a sense of belonging

    • Additionally, the solace of Enid’s flat creates a microcosm of Jamaica for Brod, helping him summon the “Jamaican courage” needed to face the pastor's visit

• Props and characters’ actions symbolise their traits, mental states, and relationships:

  • Enid is frequently shown to be cleaning, emphasising her strong work ethic

  • She is shown drinking in Scene 4, which suggests her sadness

  • Brod is often portrayed as drunk, as in Scene 7, indicating his reliance on alcohol to cope with the harsh realities of immigrant life

  • Viv is often shown reading, as in Scene 2, reflecting her intelligence and curiosity

  • In Scene 2, Enid slaps Del, marking the breakdown of their relationship

  • At the play’s end, Del takes her mother’s hand and gently touches her palm, symbolising a reconciliation in their relationship

Setting

There are only two settings in Leave Taking, Enid’s living room in North London and Mai’s Deptford bedsit. However, setting is still an important aspect of the play that affects the audience and helps to create meaning. 

• Pinnock presents various activities, such as Viv’s revision and the pastor’s visit, occurring in Enid’s living room, which suggests several things:

  • It implies that Viv’s achievements are particularly commendable, given that she has had to study in such a cramped environment

  • This cramped living space creates the impression that despite Enid’s efforts, her living conditions are still challenging suggesting that her journey to England may not have been worthwhile:

    • It also highlights the contrast between the idealised image of England held by Enid’s family in Jamaica, who believe she is wealthy, and the reality of her life in Britain

• The contrast in the presentation of Mai’s bedsit at the beginning and end of the play reveals several aspects of Mai’s character and profession:

  • At the start of the play, Mai’s bedsit is described as “messy”; this perhaps indicates that Mai is weary and that her profession is in decline:

    • This decline would lead to the loss of an important part of the characters’ culture and a place where they feel comfortable expressing themselves

    • By the end of the play, the bedsit has been cleaned up by Del, suggesting a reinvigoration of the practice of Obeah

• The settings in the play represent areas where the characters feel at ease; the fact that there are only two such places is indicative of the immigrant experience — there is limited comfort to be found in a hostile country:

  • The intimacy of two confined spaces also indicates the personal themes of the play 

Motifs and symbolism

Motifs are symbols, usually recurring, that represent deeper meanings or concepts in a text. By exploring and commenting on these motifs and their symbolism in Leave Taking, you can add depth to your analysis and improve your exam performance.

• Characters in Leave Taking symbolise different immigrant generations:

  • Brod, Mai and Enid symbolise the Windrush generation

  • Del and Viv represent the descendants of the Windrush generation, who are part of two cultures

• The rooster crowing in Scene 2 is reminiscent of Enid’s rural upbringing in Jamaica

  • This implies that Mai’s house and Obeah practice makes Enid feel at home

• Food is a motif in the play, and is significant for the emotional sustenance that it represents:

  • In Scene 4, after Enid’s mother dies, she speaks about food that her mother cooked: “Old time woman could cook. Roast breadfruit. Callaloo”

  • Mai is also depicted drinking stout, a popular drink in Jamaica, in Scene 1:

    • These examples symbolise the characters’ warm associations with — and nostalgia for — Jamaica and its familiar traditions

  • In Scene 7, Brod is agitated that Enid did not let him in for his “rice and peas”:

    • This suggests that Brod seeks the connection to his homeland that the food evokes

• Weariness is also a motif in the play, symbolising decay — the decay of a way of life and the deteriorating mental state of many in the Windrush generation:

  • This is evident in Brod’s alcoholism and “old” clothes in Scene 2, implying that life in England has negatively affected his mental state

  • Mai is depicted as tired, symbolising the decline of her profession:

    • Her house is “very messy”, and when we first meet her, she is “slumped” in a chair 

    • We learn in scene 8 that Mai’s heart is failing, and she knows that she is dying

    • She finds hope, though, in the idea that the Obeah tradition will live on through Del

    • Del also cleans Mai’s house in Scene 8, creating a sense of renewal

• Music is a motif in the play:

  • Brod listens to dub which represents his connection to Jamaica 

  • Del attends house parties and listens to “sound systems”, which were commonly used at parties in the 1980s

Source

Pinnock, W. (2018). Leave Taking. NHB Modern Plays.