36 pages • 1 hour read
Athol FugardThe Road to Mecca
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1985A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Individual, Racial, and Artistic Freedom Versus Oppression
The Road to Mecca explores the notion of freedom in several different ways throughout the play—most notably, through the character of Helen and her decision to eschew “normal” life in her conservative, church-driven town, instead remaining dedicated to her home and creating her “Mecca.” Whether or not Helen’s life choices have made her “free” or oppressed is a source of contention: Elsa says that Helen’s choices make her “the first truly free spirit I have ever known” (61), while Marius believes that she is “exactly the opposite” of free by being “trapped […] in the nightmare this house has become” (64). Regardless of whether Helen’s Mecca has given her a sense of individual freedom, Helen had the artistic freedom to create it as she wished, and this artistic freedom has allowed her to express herself and create a world of her own.
In contrast to Helen’s freedom through her non-conformity and artistry, the play also explores the racial oppression of 1974 South Africa, in which black Africans were subject to apartheid and racial discrimination. Elsa is a champion of racial equality who frequently brings up whether the Africans in New Bethesda are “free” and equal participants in the town or are being oppressed by the white population, and she talks of picking up an African woman on the side of the road who had been kicked out of her home and was walking with her child in hopes of a new life. These instances provide a sharp contrast to Helen’s story, showing how while Helen may also be an ostracized outsider in her community, her whiteness gives her the privilege to enjoy freedoms that the town’s oppressed black population cannot. Elsa says of the woman on the road: “There’s no Mecca waiting for her at the end of that road. […] Just the rest of her life, and there won’t be any glitter on that” (72).
Trust Versus Love
A major consideration throughout the play is the concept of trust and how it differs from love. Elsa first brings up this theme, telling Helen about how her experience of having an affair with a married man taught her the importance of trust. Elsa says, “Do you know what the really big word is, Helen? […] Like most people, I suppose I used to think it was ‘love.’ […] But there’s an even bigger one. Trust. And more dangerous” (20). This discussion of Elsa’s romantic trust—and how her experience has made her less trustworthy—segues into the notion of trust in Helen and Elsa’s relationship, as the two share how much they trust each other. Helen says, “I’ve always tried to understand what made you, and being with you, so different from anything else in my life. […] I trust you” (21). Though the play starts off on this trusting note, the struggle between trust and love in Helen and Elsa’s relationship comes to define their relations throughout the play. The two characters always have love for each other, but their sense of trust is tested when Helen reveals that she’s been concealing facts, such as the curtains catching on fire, from Elsa. By the end of the play, the women are on good terms with each other—but, though they clearly say they love each other, whether they trust each other is still up in the air. When Helen asks whether Elsa trusts her, Elsa responds by referencing her “joke” about the man telling his son to jump and then not catching him, suggesting that she, too, likely believes that she can’t trust Helen.
The struggle between trust and love is also shown through Marius’s relationship with Helen. While he clearly loves her and cares for her as a person—Elsa even believes he is in love with Helen—the tension of the second act revolves around the fact that he does not trust her to know what’s best for herself. Marius doesn’t trust Helen to take care of herself, nor does he have faith that Helen’s eschewing of the church and retreating into her “Mecca” is the way she should be living, even though that’s what she wants for her life.
The Self Versus the Community
The struggle between the inner self and the community is another major theme explored in The Road to Mecca. Fugard most clearly explores the theme through Helen and her life choices, as she has eschewed the conventions of her rural, conservative, church-going community and instead remains cloistered in her “Mecca,” becoming an object of judgment and ridicule by others in the town. For Helen, though, it is this retreat into her “Mecca” that allows her to find and broadcast her inner self, even if it comes at the expense of her relationships with others. Helen tells Elsa, “This is the best of me. This is what I really am. […] Nothing, not even my name or my face, is me as much as those Wise Men and their camels traveling to the East, or the light and glitter in this room” (24). She later says that this solitude was necessary for her finding her sense of self, telling Elsa that she had to travel the road to her Mecca “alone” (74).
Despite this, Helen remains conflicted about her need for community, expressing her loneliness and sadness over being judged even as she delights in the world she’s created for herself. The central question of whether Helen can care for herself as she ages also shows the balance required between self and community, as she seems to need help from others even as she doesn’t seem to particularly want it.
The play’s conflict between self and the community is particularly expressed through religion and faith, as Helen’s Eastern “Mecca” stands in direct contrast to the Christian ideals that define New Bethesda. For Marius, a pastor who represents the community’s religious focus, the fact that Helen’s “Mecca” is her “abandon[ing]” her “faith” (65) lies at the root of his issues with her lifestyle. He tells Helen that he became concerned about her when she skipped church to create a sculpture, and he warns her that her commitment to her “Mecca” at the expense of her former churchgoing life is why she’s become a social pariah. When she recounts building an owl sculpture instead of going to church, he asks her, “You turned your back on your church, on your faith and then on us for that? Do you realize that that is why you are now in trouble and so helplessly alone?” (63).
In contrast to Helen, Elsa is much more defined by the community around her, though she, too, is conflicted about her place in the self/community balance. While she seems to defy social norms through her progressive values, those values of racial equality and fighting injustice that define Elsa’s purpose are rooted in societal forces larger than herself, and she expresses her loneliness and need for companionship after her breakup and recent abortion. Elsa seems to realize this inner conflict between wanting to be independent and knowing how much her life depends on others, telling Helen how much she judges them both and the woman on the road for “our stupid helplessness” (73).
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By Athol Fugard
