CHARACTER NOTES:MORRIS

BY KIARA, SOPHIE AND OLIVIA

MAIN ACTIONS• Yells at Tsotsi at the train station and spits at his feet

• Tsotsi becomes angry and follows Morris into dark alleyways

• Morris offers Tsotsi his money but Tsotsi is not interested

• He tells Tsotsi that he lost the use of his legs in a mining accident

• We see a change in Tsotsi and he decides to forget his anger and let Morris go

• At the end of the film we see Tsotsi give money to Morris

• something in

• Morris's helplessness touches Tsotsi. Helps him become more human after he reminds Tsotsi of a dog with a broken back from his childhood.

COSTUME• In a wheelchair and wearing dark clothing

• Black beanie

• Dark grey coat

• Brown shoes

PROPS ASSOCIATED WITH THE CHARACTER• Wheelchair - Morris does not have the use of his legs and

is bound to a wheelchair.

• Money – Morris collects coins and money is a tin box that we see in the confrontational scene between Morris and Tsotsi.

CONFLICTS• conflict between Tsotsi and Morris. Morris calls Tsotsi a

dog and spits at his feet. Makes Tsotsi angry and causes him to follow Morris underneath a bridge, intending to kill him. Tsotsi decides to let Morris go unharmed. His significance is he is the first person that Tsotsi feels sympathy for and leaves him alive because he reminded Tsotsi of a dog in his childhood

A KEY EPISODE INVOLVED IN AND FILM TECHNIQUES USED

• Tsotsi follows Morris into the dark alleyways with the intention of killing him. Morris offers Tsotsi his money but Tsotsi is not interested in it. Tsotsi kicks the tin containing the money and the contents spill out in slow motion. Morris is frightened and comes to the realisation that he may not live. Tsotsi asks Morris how he became to be bound to the wheelchair. Morris replies and says that he was in a mining accident. Tsotsi says that Morris reminds him of a dog with a broken back from his childhood. This evokes a change in Tsotsi. He begins to pity Morris and he decides to let Morris go unharmed.

KEY QUOTES • “What kind of man would break a dog’s back?” (after

hearing about the dog with a broken back from Tsotsi’s childhood)

RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER CHARACTERS• Has a confrontation with Tsotsi after Tsotsi stalks him

down alleyways, intending to kill him

FUNCTION / IMPORTANCE IN THE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE OF THE FILM

• The incident between Tsotsi and Morris showed a change in Tsotsi, where his first outbursts of hostility towards Morris change to feelings of sympathy. The vulnerability of Morris evokes sympathetic feeling within Tsotsi and we see the first signs of Tsotsi regaining his humanity. Morris helps to convey the theme of the possibility of redemption.

THEMES WHICH THE CHARACTER REFLECTS• The possibility of redemption

• Tsotsi changes from wanting to kill Morris, to walking away from the situation and letting Morris go unharmed.

• Tsotsi chooses to do good instead of evil.