Helen in Athol Fugard's Play The Road to Mecca

The fictional Helen is still rattling much alive in Fugard's cheer, providing an intriguing biopsychosocial picture of a woman facing growing old and what aging marrow in modern society. Shortly before the constitute begins, Helen has halt creating what she refers to as her "Mecca," a fantastical sculptural city of mermaids, sharp-witted Men, camels, owls, and other creatures that she sees in her head and feels compelled to make real. As the play begins, her friend Elsa has just arrived unexpectedly, having driven frantically from her home 10 hours away in response to a letter Helen wrote that greatly alarmed Elsa. She discovers that Helen is on the brink of giving in to hale from the local pastor, Marius Byleveld, and others in the town to move into a nurse home. Helen has become a virtual recluse, with Marius and a black misfire from the village, Katrina, being virtually scarcely the people she sees with any regularity.

Fugard's academic degree directions describe Miss Helen as being "in her posthumous sixties" (p. 1), but the evidence within the text of the play services pinpoint her age more precisely: she was ab come out 12 at her confirmation, which she and Marius guess took place around 1920 (pp. 49-50). This would place the category of her birth at 1908, and, since the play takes place in 1974, she is this instant approximately 66. In the view of many of those around her,

Peters, G. R., & Kaiser, M. A. (1985). The procedure of friends and neighbors in providing social support. In W. J. Sauer & R. T. Coward (Eds.), Social support networks and the care of the elderly (pp. 123-158). New York: springer spaniel Publishing.

Her observation that she was in plaint for herself, however, is especially perceptive; the remove in her life that Stefanus's death precipitated forced her to consider what she had consummate(a) and what she still wants to do with whatever measure remains. Rzetelny observes that the normal time required for mourning a loss is six to 18 months (1985, p. 143).

Helen presumably has recovered from the mourning that her husband's death caused, but the consequences of how she dealt with that mourning remain with her, most visibly in the form of her art.

Fugard, A. (1985). The course to Mecca. New York: Theatre Communications Group.

John F. Longres notes as well as that senior(a) adults are often the victims of ageism (1995, p. 209), the prejudicial attitude that holds the elderly subordinate to other adults. Even though Marius is roughly the same(p) age as Helen, his standing in the community, his position as pastor, and even the fact that he is male all help him to act in a superior way to her. He considers the fact that she is an old woman to be a current reason to push her into a change he considers to be for her own good, without giving her credit for being able to determine for herself what changes are necessary.

Helen's loss also opens her up to friendship with Elsa, who becomes the only fully supportive influence in her life. Elsa supports Helen, but she also challenges her and treats her as a complete equal. Elsa plays an especially vital role because Helen has so few others in her life at this point. George R. Peters and Marvin A. Kaiser underscore the necessity of having a strong support system for the go along well-being of the older individual (1985). They also point out that such informal support systems a
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