Beatrice
Anthills of the Savannah
Beatrice and herself
•Beatrice is one of Achebe's most fully developed female characters.
•She works for Sam and is an old friend of Ikem's, so, through her
connections to Chris, Ikem, and Sam, she plays a significant role in the
action of the novel.
•She was born the fifth daughter to her parents (one sister has died). Her
father had been hoping for a son, so she was named Nwanyibuife, which
means "A Woman Is Also Something" – This is represented throughout the
book through the theme of the strength of women.
•As an adult, Beatrice is well educated, having earned a degree with
honors in English from the University of London, and she holds an
important civil service position as an administrator in a state office. She
also enjoys writing short fiction, which Ikem reads and admires for its
"muscularity" and "masculine" qualities.
Beatrice and herself
•Beatrice is characterized by sophistication, intelligence, and
independence, but she is also attuned to the common people on an intuitive
level. Never having planned on a career in the government, she is very
disturbed by accusations that she is ambitious. In reality, she desires what
she has desired since childhood—to be left alone in her peaceful solitude
and not attract any attention.
•Achebe places her firmly in the mythic tradition of the people, making her
a sort of manifestation of Idemili, a goddess sent to Man to oversee
morality. Although Beatrice is unaware of the myths regarding this
goddess, she grows into a woman possessed with wisdom, self knowledge,
and compassion as she connects with the culture of her land.
•At the end of the novel, she participates in the naming ceremony for Ikem
and Elewa's baby girl by naming the infant Amaechina, a boy's name
meaning "May the Path Never Close." This is bold not only because she
has given a boy's name to a girl, but also because the responsibility of
naming traditionally belongs to a man.
Beatrice and herself
•Beatrice does not seem to know herself very well, although she has known
her longer than the other characters in the book.
•She has a strong sense of traditionalism, but it seems to be submerged
beneath her very modern upbringing.
•This can be seen in her hatred of the Desdemona complex.
•She is strong but also gentle.
•She is directed by an outside force, possibly Achebe (or in some senses
definitely Achebe) which she refers to at one point as her “middle ear”.
•She is too friendly to sustain a sense of urgency in her conversation, and
she regrets giving Chris the opportunity to dismiss her warning.
• She is a bridge
Beatrice and Chris
• There is a very close relationship between Beatrice and Chris which
contrasts to the relationship Ikem has with Elewa.
• The relationship between them is built on mutual respect, again, unlike
Ikem who does not respect Elewa in the intellectual sense. Chris sees
Beatrice as an equal.
• It is alluded to the fact that Chris is somewhat older than Beatrice.
• Beatrice is important in the sense that she gives the reader a third person
perspective of Chris and through their relationship we can understand him
better.
•Both predict future events, Chris through reason, Beatrice through
instinct.
Beatrice and the other Women
• Agatha
• Agatha is Beatrice’s servant.
• She is a devout Christian and often stands up for her beliefs.
• Beatrice is frustrated with her because she follows the western
religion.
• Agatha does not hide her disapproval of Beatrice’s choice to allow
Chris into her bed.
• American Journalist – Lou Cranford
• Respects her as an intellectual and as a woman who has become
educated like herself.
• Resents her advances on Sam – Desdemona complex.
• Draws out Beatrice’s heritage as they compete for Sam.
“Nwanybuife” .
•Beatrice’s other name means “A woman who is also something”.
•She does not like the ‘woman’ part of this, because she does not think
there should be any difference between women and men.
•But she proves that she is something by being the only woman in the
country to earn an English degree, and by taking on the role of a man at
the naming ceremony.
•As seen in page 100, however, she only takes on the role of ‘something’
when it is required of her, and when the situation is over, she is still able to
return to the role of a woman, hence she is “A woman who is also
something”.
•From her position as a woman, she is able to see events from a unique
perspective to that of Chris, Sam, or Ikem.
Beatrice and Ikem
•Beatrice was friends with Ikem before she knew Chris.
•Both seem to be subject to ‘divine inspiration’, but Beatrice is more of a
“diviner” and Ikem an “artist”.
•Only Beatrice can see the flaw in Ikem’s work when he does not count
women as equals.
•Beatrice says Ikem is like her brother, and it can be seen that Ikem will go
to great lengths to help her, such as catching a train at 3 0’clock in the
morning to comfort her when she feels bad. (This might also be an example
of Ikem’s over-enthusiastic-ness, causing an inconvenience to himself just
for a gesture which in the long run will not help Beatrice).
Page 100:
“Beatrice Nwanybuife did not know these traditions and legends of her people
because they played but little part in her upbringing. She was born as we have
seen into a world apart; was baptized and sent to schools which made much
about the English and the Jews and the Hindu and practically everybody else
but hardly put in a word for her forebears and the divinities with whom they
had evolved. So she came to barely knowing who she was. Barely, we say
though, because she did carry a vague sense more acute at certain critical
moments than others of being two different people. Her father had deplored the
soldier-girl who fell out of trees. Chris saw the quiet demure damsel whose still
waters nonetheless could conceal deep overpowering eddies of passion that
always almost sucked him into fatal depths. Perhaps Ikem alone came close to
sensing the village priestess who will prophesy when her divinity rides her
abandoning if need be her soup-pot on the fire, but returning again when the
god departs to the domesticity of kitchen or the bargaining market-stool
behind her little display of peppers and dry fish and green vegetables. He knew
it better than Beatrice herself.But knowing or not knowing does not save us
from being known and even recruited and put to work. For, as a newly-minted
proverb among her people has it, baptism (translated in their language as
Water of God) is no antidote against possession by Agwu the capricious god of
diviners and artists.”
THE
END
© Michael, Bhen, and Cameron. 2009 ©
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