In her essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” Laura Mulvey argues that movie audiences derive pleasure from this art form by identifying with the characters on screen (Mulvey, 3 ). Like cinema, theater isolates the audience, making the comparison strictly between them and the world of storytelling in the darkroom. It becomes very natural for the audience to become emotionally involved and for the boundaries between theater and real life to blur. The effectiveness of political theater relies on its ability to harness the audience's sympathy and emotional connection to the cause presented. Presenting the issue as an intellectual argument is not enough. Rather, theater and cinema are most powerful when they provoke disturbing emotional disturbance in the audience. Because the audience has projected their own self-understanding onto the main protagonists, when these characters are attacked, the audience is also distressed. Likewise, they will feel a shared responsibility to combat the problem exposed. In support of this notion, Ngugi wa Thiong'o's play I Will Marry When I Want realizes the agenda of political theater through a process of identifying characters with the audience and then transforming those characters to reveal the premises of oppression that surround them. This structure forces the public to take action in response to the issues exposed. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay To include the audience in the political struggle, the initial characterization presented must be accessible. The audience should be able to easily connect with the way the characters express themselves; a relationship that Wa Thiong'o particularly struggles to achieve in I'll Get Married Whenever I Want. The main protagonists, Kiguunda and Wangeci, are poor farmers with a small plot of land. They are a loving family, despite their occasional arguments, and struggle financially to make ends meet. Their humble position in society and their conflicts are very similar to those of most people and therefore become a significant common starting point. Characters like Kiguunda and Wangeci, as well as Gicaamba and Njooki, are insignificant and far from perfect, but the strength of their nationalism and loyalty are still evident in their courageous defiance against the Kiois. This balance of flaws and virtues makes for an even more human and vulnerable characterization that forces the audience to sympathize with them. The way these characters express their feelings and ideas is also significant. In the re-enactment of Gicaamba and Njooki's wedding, when Ngugi uses language the style is simple and unpretentious. In a society where theater was dominated by the works of George Bernard Shaw and Shakespeare, Wa Thiong'o takes a unique approach to the aesthetic exemplification of language. His use of stylistic devices is very accessible and easily understood by the audience. The image is usually one of nature and a primitive lifestyle, manifested in metaphors and similes referring to “honey gourds,” “hills and slopes,” and “mile grains” (Wa Thiong'o, 65- 66). Through his heavy use of song and dance, the playwright finds a different but equally recognizable avenue through which he can express ideas and emotions. In the re-enactment of Gicaamba and Njooki's wedding and in many other scenes, soloists, dancers and choirs enter to join the actors in a musical number. Like natural images, singing and dancing are a feature of artistic performance that is easily understood by the public, because it is a significant part oftheir rituals and community activities and an integral means of communication. (Wa Thiong'o, 45) After investing one's sympathy and a part of one's identity in the protagonists, the psychological coming of age and the contaminating realization of those characters would then cause a profound disturbance in the audience. Emphasizing this process in the plot, the emotion imparted in the last scene is also significant in presenting this transformation. After crying over the fact that Gathoni is now pregnant and working in a bar, Kiguunda destroys the photos and inscription sign, while Wangeci yells at him to "Kill me now (...) then he can have meat for dinner" (Wa Thiong'o, 110 ). This is a shocking portrayal of the family's current state, very different from the beginning of the story, when they were portrayed as calm and supportive. The concept of virginity and marriage is also a primitivist symbol and motif in the work. A woman's virginity is her most precious treasure; it is likewise a metaphorical symbol of Kenya's freedom from oppression. Youth and purity of virginity are also a motif for the primitivist notion of cultural integrity and traditional Kenyan values. The motif consists of the phrase "I'll get married when I want", sung by a drunk and then by Kiguunda, combined with the words "while all the fathers are still alive... while all the nuns are still alive" (3). The image of the fathers and nuns signifies purity, and the wording "yet" suggests the regressive nature of that virtue. The symbol insinuates that sovereignty and the prerogative to marry freely are only achievable while Kenya is still in its pure, primitivist and empowered position. Later, Thiong'o alludes to the fragility of innocence and virginity in the lyric "Maiden, lend me your precious treasures... and when you lose your head you will never find it again" (12). At the beginning of the play, Gathoni forcefully exclaims: "I will marry whenever I want!" (16) and flees to Mombasa with Muhuuni in the throes of love. However, in the end, Gathoni is pregnant and abandoned by Muhuuni. Muhuuni tricked her into getting pregnant by saying that he would not marry a girl who was not pregnant because that might mean she is sterile. Gathoni thus loses not only her virginity, but also the prerogative of marrying whenever she wants because the situation would at best force her into a shotgun wedding. The audience's identity is tied to the transformations of these characters, so they suffer these disappointments along with Gathoni. Coupled with the frightening images of Gathoni's emotional conflict and oppression, the audience is forced to sympathize with her and question a society that would allow such a deplorable abomination. Despite inciting the emotional shock mentioned above, the show does not provide the solution to these problems within itself, thus forcing the audience to find that solution through their own lives. The theater presents the realization and brings the audience directly back to reality where they left off before entering the theater. In I Will Marry Whenever I Want, the conflict in Kiguunda's family and Gathoni's possible marriage to John Muhuuni is a metaphor for colonial rule in Kenya. The conflicts are condensed into accessible symbols of the country's political problems, even after its independence. An example is when the Kiois enter the room and one of them drops the deed. Finally Gicaamba picks it up and hangs it on the wall (42). The title deed is proof of Kiguunda's ownership of the land. Likewise, he is a symbol of freedom because "these are mine" (4) and on this earth he has the autonomy and prerogative to live freely without being oppressed. This same freedom is threatened by the arrival of the Kiois and the attempt to colonize the., 1984.