Cover Letter

Doucet Wilfred

English 2

4 December 2015

Drama: “The Emperor Jones” by Eugene O’Neil

Emperor Jones is an unconventional drama; it is has one act that has eight scenes. It is practically a monologue carried on by a single player. The play looks at the story of a Negro convict who broke away from a jail in United States and went to the Island as a stowaway in a ship. The play takes place in a West Indies island, Jones starts to work as a trader in the Island, and by the time the play begins, he has managed to gain much wealth that makes him an emperor (Gierow, 43).

There are several cases of a man who gained wealth through illegal means that fell short of overtaxing the subjects, and graft. The position held by Jones was acquired through legal means, yet he plans to hold onto it for as long as he can. Most of people are of the opinion that Eugene’s O’Neill’s Emperor Jones is not the best work that he had ever written. The amount of drama stands out compared to most of his other dramas. He was unable to capture the fact that African Americans had been marginalized even though it was created at a time when the audience understood that African Americans and their culture were being chastised.

The play is a mark for O’Neill as it was his first announcement of entry into expressionist writing, this is a style which is devoid of capturing reality and is focused on emotional response which are sparked within an individual. The play has been created around Island dialect, slavery, jungle, class and cultural differences (Gierow, 49).

This is a place which was inspired through events that took place in Haiti. It provides the rise and fall of Brutus Jones who is a railway worker enters into the scene as a thief and a killer who escapes conviction and moves to West Indies and become a self-proclaimed ruler over the Island. This seems a stereotypical depiction of a black man, but O’Neill seems to be criticizing the American culture. Jones is a character than can be referred to as villainous character and desperate and his system of leadership style that is marred by corruption is helped by the upper class America society. Henry Smithers who makes him feel that he is superior to other blacks aid the schemes by Brutus.

Brutus becomes a wanted man as the Island society rebels against him; he undergoes a transformation towards savageness. He flees into the jungle to avoid the islanders and he confronts his personal demons. This is the start of the end to the emperor. This play can be summarized as being full of gripping drama, it is a modern form of tragedy that illustrate flaws in a hero and it probes the racial roots of the protagonist. It is a play that is more theatrical that much of its European analogues, it gradually raises the pulse from the normal rhythm and stripe the man off his colorful leadership to expose his naked racial heritage.

O’Neill indicates that he was not only a playwright; he is a social critic who stands against any form of racial discrimination. The main character depicts several immoral and unethical qualities even as the play demonizes colonial acts. There are several works created by authors, which would celebrate the compassion and courage in black Americans, for instance ‘A Raisin in the Sun’. This compassion and bravery is not found in O’Neills work which puts all its focus on altered and turbulent lives which are led by the derelicts in the white and black society.

As a modern audience, we are left to ask questions concerning whether the play did more good or more harm.

Opinion wise it can be stated that Emperor Jones as a play is one of the most interesting play to have come out of America. O’Neill was able to come up with some unique literal aspects which most of people believed would be made better by O’Neill himself. In the current social set up most people would give the play several negative reviews based on the immoral nature that the character Jones portrays (Neill and William, 12). The play is popular even though most of critics do not agree with its content. The manner in which Africans Americans were viewed in the play did not impress the audience at the time.

The African Americans were seen as property and not people, the fact that the main character was an African America indicates that there were more negativity that the author wanted to pass across concerning the African American culture. The play has managed to create a mix of characters that depicts the negative leadership by Jones which is encouraged by the craftiness of a white character.

The question as to whether the play has been able to get into theatre canon lies on how the society was able to take the play in the past and today. Back in the day, there were people who did not like the play and there were those who loved the play. This was dependent on whether one was a supporter of racism or not. There are certain mainstream critics who did like what the play was all about, and they stated that there was need to be courageous and applaud better efforts that had been shown by American playwrights (Neill, 23). The play supported desegregation of African Americans something that most people did not agree with. The fact that Jones was a black he is depicted as a convict who runs away from jail and moves away from America into some territory of lesser people.

This a point that confuses most people when it comes to exactly what the play was all about. There are those who gave the play negative review because it did not show African Americans as lesser people but it portrayed them as equals. Contrary to such general views, there are some people who were of the opinion that the play was just an eye opener on issues that concerned racism.

Courage as a theme has been shown in different ways; Jones a black young man takes courage to find himself in West Indies. This is place is yet to be determined by the marines and it only takes him two years to be an emperor (Turner, 78). Jones has a combination of lack and courage that most people do not have. At some point, he also make use cruelty to gain the wealth that keeps him in power. The natives also show courage when they attempt to kill Jones and he is only protected by supernatural power. The employees at the palace go on strike and when Jones rings the bell no one comes out to work. The islanders are whipping up the courage in the jungle and they are calling out for the gods and demons in the forest to come out and help them even as they fight against Jones and his regime.

Brutus is a character that is different from the rest of the people in the play. He is the only character that mentions the name of religion and he relies upon religion to get courage that pushes him through his tumultuous journey of life (Runco, 23). He progresses through his journey through the woods without fear, and in stark contrast, the people who were revolting against him went to the same woods, played drums, and asked the gods to help them gather courage to concur their main enemy that was Brutus Jones. Brutus is a crazy individual, who hypocritically relies on religion to appease his soul over the wrong that he had committed.

Laud God, don’ let me see no mo’ o’ dem ha’nts

That was his plea to God when he saw Jeff whom he had killed long before, and after seeing the prison guard whom he had as well taken his life he decides to be more and more religious.

There is use of mockery in the play where Brutus who is a heinous character is the only one who mentions the term religion. Brutus Jones is a Baptist and at the same time does not take religion seriously. He is religious only when it favors him and it is to his advantage, when he is comfortable he does not care about what religion is all about. This is an indication that the author was not keen on religion as a means through which proper social values can be gathered. Smither is a character that is used as a leverage against Brutus in terms of character and values. Brutus ill ambitions and even disrespect for religion is shown through conversations that he holds with Smither (Turner, 87).

Doesn’t you know day’s got to do wid a man was member in good standin’ o’ de Baptist Church? Sho’ I was dat when I was porter on de Pullmans, befo’ I gits into my little trouble

It is ironical how Brutus states that if people would try their little evil tricks they will end up in hell yet he is the master of evil. He perpetrates evil through exorbitant amount of taxes and killing people in order to remain in power. He pretends to be religious and tells Smither that this was part of his game from the start.

I pretends! Dat’s part o’ my game from de fust”

The play is an indication of the society as it was and how it has continued be for several years up to the present day. The Island, which is ruled by Brutus, is made up of natives who are very ignorant. The author tried to state that an African American such as Brutus Jones could not lead the white dominated America and the only place that he could conquer was black dominated island that had not been identified by the marines (Neill and William, 56).

The power that comes with the title of emperor is what has been used by Brutus to oppress the natives of the island. Smither though objects against Jones power, has the same intention of exploiting the natives and he believes that he has more authority since he came to the island before Brutus.

It is a case of moral decay for both Brutus and Smither, but it is even worse for Brutus as he uses his wealth and power to exploit people of his own origin. Smither left his people alone and came over to exploit people of a different color and race, but Jones leaves people of different color and race and move back to an island with natives and exploits them together with an unlikely friend in Smither.

Jones understand that stealing in large quantities is better compared to petty theft, what he is forgetting is that moral intentions in stealing are against the intentions of God whom he pretends to be praising so much. While he is conversing with Smithers he indicates that he likes large stealing

You heah, what I tells you Smithers. Deres’ little stealin’ like you does and dere’s big stealin’ like I does. For de little stealin’ dey gits you in jail soon or later

O’Neill’s play according to my opinion cannot fit into the top status of plays that have ever been produced. The play did have several production difficulties and carried several faults in the entire play. He has failed to capture all the opportunities in the last scene, which could have been used to develop important understanding of irony. He does not consider those and summarily round off the play. It is not understandable as to why the author has allowed the great emperor to die at the sound of shots being fired.

With the level of cruelty that he has been able to depict, it could have been easier if he could have crawled to the point of his death. The natives should not have worked hard to have him dead, in fact that they should have been making silver bullets as he came to them and not them looking out to find him. The author builds him as a hero who is being hunted down rather than a villain who deserves to die.

Work Cited

Gierow, Karl Ragnar. Problems of International Literary Understanding Proceedings,. New York: Interscience, 1968. Print.

Neill, Eugene, and William Lewin. The Emperor Jones. Students' ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1921. Print.

Neill, Eugene. The Emperor Jones, Anna Christie, the Hairy Ape,. New York: Modern Library, 1937. Print.

Neill, Eugene, and E. Martin Browne. Anna Christie, The Emperor Jones, Desire under the Elms. London: Penguin, 1960. Print.

Runco, Mark A. Creativity Theories and Themes : Research, Development, and Practice. Amsterdam: Elsevier Academic, 2007. Print.

Turner, Mark. The Literary Mind. New York: Oxford UP, 1996. Print.