Study Guide - A LESSON BEFORE DYING

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PLOT SYNOPSIS

A Lesson Before Dying is set in the fictional city of Bayonne, Louisiana in the 1948. It tells the story of two African American men struggling to attain their manhood in a deeply prejudiced society. Jefferson, a young man with little formal education, is an innocent bystander at a deadly shootout between a white store owner and two black robbers. He is later convicted of murder and sentenced to death. During the trial, Jefferson’s defense lawyer calls him a “hog,” claiming he is less than human and therefore should not be killed.

Jefferson’s distraught godmother Miss Emma asks Grant Wiggins, the local plantation school teacher, to teach Jefferson to die with dignity. Grant was previously Miss Emma’s ward, before he pursued his higher education and returned home to teach the plantation children. Emma knows that she cannot save Jefferson due to the racist nature of the community, but she hopes that he can live to discover respect for himself as a human being. Upon the urging of Miss Emma and local clergy man, Rev. Ambrose, Grant reluctantly takes on the assignment. Over the course of the play, Grant must find the courage within himself to face many diverse situations: a hateful white society; an indigent black community with high expectations; a pained young man slated for execution; and his own reluctant feelings to shoulder the many burdens of the black community.

During his many trips to the jail to visit Jefferson, Grant is scrutinized and ridiculed by the white sheriff, Sam Guidry. Guidry was reluctant to grant permission for the tutorials for fear of the prisoner’s reaction. Therefore, he turns the supervision of the sessions over to his deputy, Paul Bonin—a more tolerant man who quietly sympathizes with Jefferson’s plight. Paul eventually becomes a major supporter of the process.

The initial meetings held in the jailhouse store room go very badly, primarily due to Jefferson’s stubborn refusal to believe he is anything more than a hog and his unwillingness to embrace change. Often Grant threatens to drop the assignment and leave the South for good. His fiancée, Vivian, remains his confidante during the process. She is also a teacher but in the public school sector. Vivian views Grant’s tutorials with Jefferson as a mutually healing experience for both men---in that they are a means of self discovery whereby Grant may connect to his higher purpose as a teacher as well. Thus, she counsels him to stay the course and go forward with the lessons.

Though Grant is educated, he is, unlike the majority of the other characters in the play, not Christian. As such Grant constantly wrestles with Rev. Ambrose, who wants to save Jefferson’s soul before he dies. Both men are looked up to in their community, but both have sharply contrasting views about what is best for people.

Slowly Grant gains Jefferson’s trust and is able to help him comprehend his own innocence and inherent nobility. Jefferson’s hostility turns to appreciation for his supporters during his last days. Undergoing a profound evolution of consciousness, Jefferson faces his duty as a hero—as someone who must bravely commit to action for purposes beyond his own personal good. Ultimately, he gives his supporters the gift of walking to his execution with all the dignity of a martyr. His death then becomes an inspiration to the community and an act that demonstrates to Grant his own transformative power as a teacher.

CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS

GRANT WIGGINS - School teacher for the plantation school. Grant was raised in Bayonne by his God mother, Miss Emma. She helped with the expenses of his higher education so that he would return home after college to teach the plantation children. He is in his mid to late 20s. Currently, he carries a great deal of anger about his lack of better career prospects and dreams of escaping the racial inequality of the South.

VIVIAN BAPTISTE - Grant’s romantic interest and a single mother. A teacher in public school, she is a confident, accomplished, educated young woman. She emotionally supports Grant during his tumultuous soul-searching and encourages him in his challenging quest to educate Jefferson.

MISS EMMA GLENN - Jefferson’s Godmother and Former Godmother to Grant. She knows Jefferson is innocent, but also understands that given the racist nature of the community she cannot save him from his fate. She is an elderly, religious woman whose mission is to see her Godson recover from the blows to his ego dealt by the trial and to see him face his death with dignity.

JEFFERSON - A young man of minimal education and means falsely accused and convicted of the murder and robbery of a white store owner. He was raised by his Godmother Miss Emma. Currently, he sits in the Parrish jail awaiting execution. His self-esteem has aligned with the inhumane nature of his treatment, causing him to behave as though he was less than a man.

REV. MOSES AMBROSE - The preacher of the local plantation parish. An ardent believer in the power of faith in God, he seeks to save Jefferson’s soul during his final days. This perspective creates a counterpoint to Grant’s attempt to elevate Jefferson on a purely secular level. Consequently, an antagonistic relationship develops between Grant and Ambrose.

DEPUTY PAUL BONIN - Guidry’s deputy, he is younger and more tolerant than the Sheriff. He is the silent witness to the meetings between Grant and Jefferson. Quietly sympathizing with Jefferson’s plight, he comes to believe in his innocence. Sensitive to the delicacy of the situation, he ultimately becomes a major support for Jefferson during his final days.

SHERIFF SAM GUIDRY - The Sheriff of Bayonne whose attitudes reflect the racist climate of the community. A no-nonsense law man, he dislikes the irregularity of the request to allow Grant to meet with Jefferson. Unable to see the value of the sessions, he begrudgingly succumbs to the pressure to permit the meetings but only under special precautions. Eventually he gives the duty of supervising the meetings over to his deputy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND PLAYWRIGHT

Ernest J. Gaines is a distinguished man of letters. His novel, A LESSON BEFORE DYING (1993) received many honors including: a Pulitzer Prize nomination, Best Fiction Award by three organizations: National Book Critics Circle, Southern Writers Conference and the Louisiana Library Association, and the October 1997 choice of the month in "Oprah's Book Club." It is the story of a young black man wrongly condemned to Louisiana's electric chair by a white jury in 1948, and of the teacher who tries to help him meet his death-as a man and not as a "hog," the characterization given him by his defense attorney's summation to the jury. Gaines was named 'Chevelier' in the Order of the Arts and Letters by France's Minister of Culture for his writing and for teaching the first creative writing course in the French University system in 1996. The award is one of the most prestigious in the field of arts. Raised by his maternal aunt until he was fifteen on the River Lake Plantation in Oscar, a hamlet in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, which is the Bayonne of all his fictional work, Gaines was reunited with his mother and step-father in California. At sixteen, he entered a public library for the first time, because in the 1940's it was against the law in Louisiana for people of color to go into public libraries. There, he discovered many writers who spoke of their own people, but no one was telling him the story of his people. "Thus, as a teenager, I decided to write." Other Gaines fiction: CATHERINE CARMIER (1964), the relationship between a black man and a sheltered Creole woman; OF LOVE AND DUST (1967), a black Romeo and Juliet tragedy; BLOODLINE (1968), five short stories; THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MISS JANE PITTMAN (1971), made by CBS into the Emmy Award winning television film starring Cicely Tyson; A LONG DAY IN NOVEMBER (1971), on the rites of passage between young and old; IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE (1978), the double life of a minister/civil rights leader; and A GATHERING OF OLD MEN (1983), twelve men conspire to protect a killer. Gaines holds the title of Writer-in-Residence at the University of Southern Louisiana in Lafayette, Louisiana, and has received a fellowship for his lifetime achievements from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (1993), a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (1971) and a Guggenheim Fellowship (1971). Romulus Linney is the author of three well-received novels, but perhaps he is best known for his many plays staged throughout the United States and abroad, which include The Sorrows of Frederick, Holy Ghosts, Childe Byron, Heathen Valley, "2," and Gint, an adaptation of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt. Six of his one-acts have appeared in Best Short Plays.

Romulus Linney was born in Philadelphia to Maitland Thompson and Romulus Zachariah Linney III. His grandfather was Republican Congressman Romulus Zachariah Linney II. He was raised in North Carolina and Tennessee. He received a BA from Oberlin College and an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. Honorary doctorates have been awarded to him from Oberlin in 1994, Appalachian State University in 1995, and from Wak Forest University in 1998. Included in Best Plays of the Year, 1978-1988, his adaptation of his novel Heathen Valley won the National Critics Award; "2" won the same award during the 1989-90 season, when it was produced for the Humana Festival at the Actors Theatre of Louisville. A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial and Rockefeller Foundations, he has also received a 1984 Award in Literature and the 1999 Award of Merit Medal for Drama from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, of which he is a member, as well as two Obie Awards—one in 1980, the other in 1992 for Sustained Excellence in Playwriting. His short fiction stories appear in many literary journals and in the anthologies Pushcart Prize; New Stories From The South; and Best Of The Year, 2001 and 2002. Mr. Linney is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science, the Ensemble Studio Theatre, and the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He is the Founding Playwright of Signature Theatre. Signature Theatre devoted its 1991-1992 season to producing five of his plays, of which he directed four. He has taught at many universities, including Columbia, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania and, currently, the Actors Studio Drama School at New School University where he teaches playwriting. Mr. Linney lives in Germantown, New York and New York City. interesting trivia: his daughter is Academy Award nominated and Emmy Award winning actress, Laura Linney.

DRAMATURGE'S NOTES

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IMAGES

A poor family working on a plantation.

Louisiana parish map

A small parish church

A radio from 1948

A small plantation school

How many people would work a plantation?

Electric chair

Chained prisoners

Separate entrance

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. In what ways are aspects of Gaines’ early life reflected in the characters, setting and situations of the play?

2. A Lesson Before Dying was originally a novel until Romulus Linney adapted it for the stage. Give at least three examples of how the play is different from the novel.

3. What would be the challenges of translating a novel (communicated solely through written word) into a play which is primarily expressed through action and speech?

4. Who is the hero in the play and what makes him heroic? Who do you consider a modern day hero (or personal hero) and why?

5. Jim Crow laws carried the concept of segregation into every aspect of peoples’ lives. How are the characters of the play affected by these laws?

6. What role did local preachers play in the civil rights movement?

7. In what manner has the Justice system failed in the play?

8. Is capitol punishment a just manner to handle all people convicted of murder? Is it a crime deterrent or cruel and unusual punishment?

9. Rev. Ambrose and Miss Emma are Christians. What are Grant and Jefferson? How do their contrasting beliefs affect the characters in the play? Is there a difference between Religion and Faith?

10. Some critics view Jefferson as a Christ-like figure. How can this comparison be made? What other religious imagery do you see in the play?

11. Explain/discuss the meaning and the importance of the following items: the philco radio, the window, and the notebook

12. The lesson of being a man is one that Jefferson must learn before he is executed, BUT what are the lessons that the other characters learn along the way?

13. Each of Jefferson's visitors help to try and comfort him in different ways. Discuss the differences in their approaches and the impact that each one makes on his life.

14. What are some of the major themes of the book/play? For example... capital punishment, racism, faith, etc. How do these themes help you to picture or capture the tone of the piece? What do you believe are the author and playwright's stance on these topics? What is yours?

CREDITS

Study Guide contributors: David Klein, Jay Tryall, and Barbara Cole Uterhardt
OnStage Atlanta 2008 Production Photo credits: James Lentini as Deputy Paul Bonin, Nathaniel Ryan as Grant Wiggins, and Antjuan Tobias Taylor as Jefferson