An unpublished “Filottete” by Derek Walcott

Abstract

The article analyzes Derek Walcott’s unpublished drama The Isle is Full of Noises, staged in 1982, focusing on the scenes that reveal a closer connection to Sophocles’ Philoctetes and show that Walcott read the tragedy directly. The protagonist of Walcott’s drama is the elderly Sir Lionel Robinson, who was the first Prime Minister of the Federation of the West Indies. The parallel with Philoctetes stems from the fact that Robinson has voluntarily isolated himself from the rest of the population of the main city and has set up residence in a cave by the sea at Pigeon Island, in protest against the corrupt politics of the current government. He only has a speargun with him, that both is his only means of defense and his livelihood; and he is suffering from a smelly and very painful wound to his leg which, however, seems to have a moral rather than material origin, as it is called «the sign of the suffering of the people, the sign of the corruption of the power», and it will heal only when the island will be back in the hands of honest leaders.