THE TORN VEIL.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR.

Mabel Dove Danquah in 1905(Accra, Ghana) and died in 1984. She was a
Gold Coast-born journalist, political activist and creative writer, one of the
earliest women in West Africa to work in these fields, a trail-blazing
feminist. She used various assumed names in her writing for newspapers
from the 1930s: "Marjorie Mensah" in The Times of West Africa; "Dama
Dumas" in the African Morning Post; "Ebun Alakija" in the Nigerian Daily
Times; and "Akosua Dzatsui" in the Accra Evening News. She entered
politics in the 1950s before Ghana's independence, and became the first
woman to be elected a member of any African legislative assembly. She
created the awareness and the need for self-governance through her works.
She was a prolific author over a period of four decades — her published
collections of short stories include The Happenings of the Night (1931), The
Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for Mr.
Shaw (1934), Anticipation (1947), The Torn
Veil (1947), Payment (1947), Invisible Scar (1966) and Evidence of
Passion (1969) — until her literary career was curtailed by her blindness in
1972. Her work is anthologized in collections including Langston
Hughes′ An African Treasury: Articles, Essays, Stories, Poems (1960),
and Margaret Busby's Daughters of Africa (1992). A collection of her
work, Selected Writings of a Pioneer West African Feminist (edited by
Stephanie Newell and Audrey Gadzekpo), was published in 2004.

SUMMARY OF THE TORN VEIL.

In The Torn Veil, the story opens as Kwame is trying to address his wife
about his plans to leave her and marry an 'educated' women instead.
Kwame, like many other Ghanaian men in the colonial education system,
has an evidently false righteousness sparked by the furnished title of a
'scholar' or 'Christian gentleman His scrupulous perspective was asserted
as he refers to himself as his wife's 'Master' when Akousa denied being
paid off and threatened him. The use of this term immediately clarifies
Akousa's role in marriage being immensely insignificant and marginalized
down to a servant, heightening the initial sense of her inferiority due to the
nature of the opening discussion where her husband decides that leaving
his wife to 'improve' his public persona is justified by his 'respectable role
in society'.
The conflict of Akousa's character is what creates so much turbulence
through the story, as she plays a very submissive role in the marriage and is
described as shy and child-like, yet she is actually an outstanding woman
who took initiative to combat the prejudice towards her. Not only has she
suffered through a lifetime of discrimination, waiting hands and knees, and
being treated as inferior, she also stood up for herself when the oppression
was at its worst and decided to value her dignity over the social stigmas of a
disobedient wife who left her 'master'.
The contrast created by the transition between the tracks Canon in D Major,
which represents a traditional European wedding, and Intergalafrica by
Applebottom and Petar Rabit (with beating heart Malawi) create a
transition that awakens the ancestral and ritual powers of the spiritual world
as the night creeps in to its latest hours. This contrast exposes the fallacious
nature of the colonial lifestyle and accentuates the rawness of traditional
African culture and ritual, revealing how your true heritage will prevail.
The music introduces Akousa, seated on a settee in the living room,
wearing all her bridal finery. When Kwame enters the room, he is puzzled
to find who he assumes to be Martha, his new bride, is not asleep. Kwame
asks the woman why she has not yet gone to sleep, at which he is startled
to find that the woman on the settee is Akousa. The alien-like mood is
created as Danquah writes 'was he drunk or dreaming?' two states of mind
that engulf all logic and distort reality, perverting our senses, and leaving
us with incomplete recollections of events, expanding on the confused,
numbed, and yet frantic nature of Akousa's visit. Kwame calls out for her,
yet she remains quite, standing up and moving towards him. Akousa's
silence in response to Kwame's please for forgiveness elaborate the
reversed role of control, a silence that once diminished her now roars as
she overpowers him, taking control of his body as 'warm blood throbbed
through his veins', Kwame was keeled over in an overwhelming and
unachievable desire, adrenaline surging through his veins, a lust to suppress
the arousal risen from his dependency on her. Although educated and
wealthy, at this moment in time Kwame was insolvent, for all he resided to
was unattainable.
Aware of her superiority, playing on her god-like tutelage, she urges
Kwame towards her, 'eluding him with a mocking smile on her lips',
establishing the essence of "sweet revenge". The element of control is
introduced in my animation as I merge the figures together, fading them
into one entity and then separating them again, as if a spell is cast over
Kwame and Akousa has ownership of his soul. As Kwame reaches for her,
he grabs hold of her veil, tearing a small fragment as he falls to his demise,
this represents the untouchable force of Akousa's oppression, as well as the
irony of the remaining materialistic souvenir Kwame possess to substitute
a bewildering woman like Akousa. The story ends as we discover the nature
of the visit the previous night as Yaw, Kwame’s brother browses the
telegrams of the previous day and an unexpected letter is found from
Akousa's father that reads: 'To Kwame Asante, Your wife died 10 a.m.
today, come at once.'

CHARACTERS OF THE STORY.

1. Kwame Asante: Kwame is one of the two major characters in the story.
He is the husband to Akosua. He can be said to be a wealthy man, a literate
with an honorary degree, a notable man in the community and someone who
had many great ambition and someone who took what said about him into
consideration and thought. He is said to be a dynamic characters as his
thoughts and notion of Akosua changes as the story ends.
2. Akosua: Akosua is the second major character in the story. She is the wife
to Kwame. She can be said to be beautiful, young and someone who was
good to “feast the eyes upon”. She was a mother to three children whose
names are not mentioned in the story and a good wife. She’s not really of a
literate like Kwame. She can read and write “Twi” and “Ga”. In the story,
she’s regarded as a “cloth woman” which can be interpreted as a house wife.
She’s submissive, tender and shy. She suffered through a lifetime of
discrimination, waiting hands and knees, and being treated as inferior, she
also stands up for herself when the oppression is at its worst and decides to
value her dignity over the social stigmas of a disobedient wife who left her
'master'.

3. Martha Aryeetey: Martha is one of the minor characters who comes in the
middle of the story as the “frock-lady”; Kwame’s second choice who is wed
in the latter part of the story. She’s a school teacher, a pleasant looking girl,
plump and cheerful and extremely proud to have secured Kwame Asante as
her husband. She faints upon hearing the demise of her newly wedded
husband.

4. Quao: Quao is Kwame’s nephew in Accra who meets him at the railway
station and breaks the news of his wife’s and children’s departure.

5. Yaw: Yaw was Kwame’s younger brother and the best man to Kwame on
his wedding day.

6. Dr. Adjaye: He was the doctor called to the house when they discovered
that Kwame was no more.

7. Kofi Asare: He can be said to be the father-in-law of Kwame or a relative

of Akosua who sends an important telegram from Akwapim carrying a
message that Akosua died at 10 today (that is on the wedding day of Kwame
and Martha).
DICTION OF THE TORN VEIL.
Diction refers to the linguistic choices a writer makes to effectively convey
an idea, a point of view or tell a story.
The diction of the story Torn Veil depicts the behaviors of the
characters in the story by the use of word choice like unscrupulous in the
first sentence of the story describing who the character Kwame Asante is
The diction of the story comes with simple languages and simple choices of
words which makes it easy for readers to get the point of view of the writer.

THE POINT OF NARRATION.

The Torn Veil’s points of narration is that of a third person point of narration.
This is because Mabel the author of the story is able to open the thoughts and
intentions of several characters in the story; the thoughts and intentions of
the characters are fully exposed to the characters and a reader is able to see
event from all sides in other words one has an omniscient view as events
unfold. Also one can notice a lot of “she”, “he” and “they”.

THE SPEAKER OF THE STORY.

The speaker in the Torn Veil is a third person party who narrates the story
from an omniscient perspective. It can be concluded that the author of the
story Mabel Dove Danquah is speaker in the story.

THE PLOT OF THE TORN VEIL.

• Exposition: The story opens up with a conversation between Kwame
and Akosua as Kwame indirectly tries to convince Akosua to take some
money of about 50 pounds of which he said could be increased to 100
pounds for Akosua to start a small business of her own for she has been
a good wife. Kwame’s main motive behind this was to try and
compensate Akosua for future damages as he wanted to marry a “frock-
lady” of which Akosua discerned in her thoughts but ignored that
thought.
• Rising Action: Kwame finally spills the beans and informs Akosua that
he intends on marrying another, Akosua replies saying, “Did you
consult your friends before you married me ten years ago?” in a calm
and cold voice. Tensions begins to rise as Kwame and Akosua get into
an argument where Akosua threatens to leave the house with her
children and Kwame warns her not dare disgracing him by leaving
before he is ready for her to go. Akosua rushes into her bedroom, cries
her heart out and decides to leave the house with her children when
Kwame leaves for Kumasi the next day.

• Climax: Kwame upon his return to Accra finds out that his wife and
children have left the house even though he rebuked Akosua from such
an act. He feels foolish and angry at the same time and dispatches two
telegrams to his father-in-law asking that Akosua be brought back
immediately. Not the slightest notice was taken of this so he sent two
middle aged women to fetch her but they also returned alone.

• Falling Action: Kwame is consoled by his friends over drinks and

encourage him that there are so many women out there. He then makes
a long bill and sends it to his father-in-law claiming all the money he
spent on Akosua as well as the presents given to her parents which
amounted to 350 pounds.

• Denouement: Kwame is set to marry Martha, the frock-lady he wanted.

The great day arrives and the Holy Trinity Church is packed with guests
and gate-crashers. The bride and groom look well and radiantly happy.
Celebrations come to an end, lots of telegrams arrived from distance
friends and relatives. The telegrams are received by the best man who
opens some and told the bridegroom the names of the senders. All are
not opened on that day. At 10:00pm the newly married couple gets
home. Mrs. Asante goes straight to bed but Kwame goes to the verandah
for fresh air and dozes off. He wakes up and thinks he hears footsteps.
He rushes to the sitting room and sees someone sitting bowed headed
in the settee in all bridal finery. He first thinks its Martha but later
 realizes it’s actually Akosua. He rubs his eyes and wonders if he’s drunk
or dreaming. She looked lovely in her white brocaded silk cloth, the
long bridal veil held by a wreath of orange blossoms was nearly
sweeping the floor. She moves away from him but he rushes after her.
She continues to elude him, a mocking smile on her lips. He stretches
out his arms; “I must have been mad. Akosua, forgive me” he said. She
ran away from him round and round the sitting room table they went; at
last he got hold of the veil and held fast to it. The leg of the table tripped
him and down he fell, knocking his temple on the table’s edge. The
house awakens to his body the next day dead, the neighborhood head
of his demise. Upon going through the rest of the telegrams, they come
across a telegram from Akwapim which was sent on the wedding day
and read;
“TO KWAME ASANTE-ADABRAKAA,
YOUR WIFE AKOSUA DIED AT TEN TODAY’
COME IMMEDIATELY”.

THEMES

• Gender discrimination: This is noticeable in the beginning of the story.

It can be said to have come about as Kwame married Akosua under the
customary law; these customary laws, mostly outmoded and outdated
which demanded that wives should be totally submissive and obedient
without complain. The males were regarded as people whose authority
couldn’t be questioned by their wives and the females seen somewhat
as slaves; Mabel Dove illustrates this concept as she regards Kwame as
“Lord” in the statement; “married under the customary law, she had
served her Lord and master with zeal and zest”.

• Traditional notions against women: Torn Veil was written in 1947, 10

years before the independence of Ghana and most traditional notions,
beliefs norms and culture was accorded with great value and respect.
 Most women were given off for marriage by their parents at an early
age; some reasons being that, these males wedding their daughters
could solve their financial problems, others to did so with the fear of
not getting a suitable match for their daughters if they should wait till
their fully matured, others to for the prestige and bragging rights of
grandchildren and wealthy husbands of their daughters. This deprived
many of education which most traditional communities found irrelevant
for females and that the place and duty of a girl child was either in the
house of her parents running chores or in the house of her husband,
serving him and attending to his every need. These notion and laws
were biased. This is brought fought by Mabel in the expression; “the
customary law of marriage as some other laws of the Gold Coast needs
disinfecting, for though it aids the man to gain his desires when they are
fiercest, it does in no way safeguard the position of the woman when
the man’s passion abates”.

• Religious discrimination-“What is the world coming to when a cloth-

woman begins to get indignant because a Christian gentleman and
scholar wants to marry a frock lady in church.