The Road to Mecca

Examine the relationship between Marius and Helen. Is he in love with her as Elsa claims? How does Helen appear to feel toward him, despite her eschewing the Christian church and shutting herself in?

The play frequently brings up the notion of racial inequality in apartheid-era South Africa. How does this idea tie into Helen and Elsa’s story, beyond serving as a backdrop to the society they’re living in?

Look at Helen’s final speech that starts on Page 74. What does Helen mean when she says, “I must teach myself now how to blow them out…and what that means” (75)? What is Helen’s mental state at the end of the play versus in Act I, and what does this hint at in terms of how she’ll live after Elsa has left?

Though Helen decides to abandon her former church-going lifestyle and spend her life within her “Mecca,” as Elsa notes, she’s “still an Afrikaner” (9). Connect Helen with the society she lives in: Based on what the audience learns through the play, how does she diverge from the conventions of the Afrikaners, and how does she follow them?

The Road to Mecca takes place in 1974 South Africa, during apartheid. What do you learn about this political period and apartheid through the play? What message does Fugard communicate about apartheid through the play?

Compare Elsa and Marius’s arguments over whether Helen is “free.” What are their arguments, and what does each side reveal about Helen as a character and the society she lives in?

Compare and contrast Elsa and Helen as characters. How are they similar, and how are they different as people? What is it about them that’s brought about such a sense of kinship?

Helen says that her “Mecca,” or home, is “the best of me” and “what I really am” (24). Based on the characteristics of the house and the statues outside (as well as the fact that Helen created them), what do you learn about who Helen is as a person?