PIE Student: José Martínez Hernández e-mail: jomarhe5@alumni.uv.es
English Philology. First cicle, first course.
English
Theatre of XIX & XX Century ( evenings )
Play " Emperor Jones
" ( also in second paper ) ( 1920 ) by Eugene O´Neill.
The Play
" Emperor Jones " is a play in which there is a main character ( Brutus
Jones ) at the centre of the play, alone throughout six out of the eight
scenes, and there are not other so important characters left, since the other
characters appear only in the first and the last scene merely to give support
to the plot, which always gravitate around " the Emperor ".
Obviously, a main role is played by
Jeff, the Negro Convicts, the Prison Guard, the Planters, the Auctioneer,
the Slaves, the Congo Witch-Doctor and the Crocodile God, but they only on
stage are real characters, for they represent the inner dreads and terrors of
" the Emperor ", and thus are called " the Little Formless Fears
".
The
settings represent and island in the
Like in
other plays by O´Neill, the treatment of light is carefully chosen. At the beggining
there is some sunlight, most of the action occurs by night, and the end happens
at dawn, with the death of " the Emperor ".
The
treatment of time is a fine one, since the past is explained in part through
the dialogue, and in part through the " Little
Formless Fears ", allowing the reader to complete his knowledge about the
Emperor´s backgrounds.
The use of
the language is characteristic, too, and intends to reflect with accuracy the
speech features of all the characters, the Emperor, the Cockney Trader, the
Witch doctor, the black people, and so on.
O´Neill´s
stage directions are very complete, every detail being presented with accuracy,
like he was writing a script for a camera instead of the plot for a book. That
builds a nice frame for films coming out of his plays, like the movie " The Hairy Ape " ( 1944 ), directed by Alfred
Santell.
Common
feature of O´Neill, also, are the sounds in the play. In "
The Emperor ", the main one is the " Tom-Tom ", which
beats throughout the play. That rhythm fully fills various purposes. It
represents and makes present on stage the existence of a menace for " the Emperor ", his persecutors. As well it gives
us the idea that somehow there is a spooky black magic threat. It releases, too,
the thought of the danger getting closer and closer. It shows the terribly
increasing heart-beating of " the Emperor ".
Therefore the "Tom-Tom" beating, marks and goes along in pace with
the "in crescendo" rhythm of the play.
The " Emperor " frightened heart beating, plus the
climate of the
There is
always in O´Neills plays an overwhelming sense of despair, and oppression.
Sometimes nearly no one feels at ease with himself or the rest of the world.
Are common the references to traps, jail, having nowhere to go, a directionless
journey, being hunted down, and being overwhelmed by the extreme circumstances.
He often depicts in his plays a whole lot of walking failures, lost
opportunities, characters that do not belong, clumsy relationships, failed
dreams and an ensemble of lost souls that have no hope whatsoever of
controlling their destiny, which usually is a tragic end. It is common for his
characters to have some skeleton in the closet, a hidden and hideous past, and
also bad experiences like being beaten up by a "
lickering " father, and so on. It is common as well for characters
to pretend to be what they are not, and "wear" masks to try to hide
the reality.
Although
they would really like it, the characters - more or less slaves of a rigid
formula -, can not get rid of the past, and are defeated by it.
In this
play like in O´Neill´s many others, one or several characters undergo a huge
change and transformation, from the point where they start to the point where
they end. Like in " Emperor Jones " is very
common that the proximity of death triggers a character " to sit on the
stool of repentance "
and
examine and rethink his past life, often full of sins. The way he reflects
expectations, dreams, nightmares, characters´ mental profiles, etc... added to eventual simbolism, sometimes like in this play
constitute a anguishing, psyco-analytical and freudian trip to the very bottom
of the mind.
The only
thing left untouched seems to be nature, in balance with itself; the source of
well being.
"Brutus
Jones", a living monument to greedy human condition, and who is not in
good terms with earth´s or human nature, begins really well, being an
illiterate but clever person that has a brain and uses it quick, thus
promotioning from a fleeing stowaway to emperor in only two years. His start is
rather cool, then getting step by step increasingly vulnerable. The character
had everything planned, but people think and believe strongly in issues that later
on prove to be very much different than what they thought previously. He had
everything under control, but later on things start to go wrong and turn upside
down. The Emperor calculated every aspect but himself, and that is reason why
he gets lost. He didn´t take into account the fear he felt when he was trying
to escape, as he had never felt it before. The piece that failed in that
carefully planned jigsaw was just the more important one; himself.
In
O´Neill´s plays are usual references to religion; in this one " the Emperor " having been a baptist, although he
despised religion in the past ( not having remorse for the murders committed )
and at some point during the plot. Nevertheless, when his due time approaches,
he prays begging for pardon literally like there is no tomorrow.
It is
remarkable that the same thing can be seen in very different ways under
"different lights". Like the silver bullet amulet, that at the
beggining represents good luck for the Emperor ( his
rabbit´s foot ), and the symbol of his big wealth, but not later on, as the
people chasing him melt their coins into silver bullets to avoid his magic and
to kill him; the twisting side of it being that the same money that he loved so
much, becomes the weapon that finally kills him, ironically.
Irony is
other of the items O´Neill uses very often. The Emperor, with his clothes
teared to pieces and running shoeless through the jungle says to himself " Emperor, you´se getting mighty low ". And he
gets lower and lower sinking into despair, pushed by his own fears ( Slavery, the Witch Doctor, the people he murdered ), the
many ghosts that he has been collecting throughout his lifetime, and that
finally, one after the other, appear on stage to haunt and chase him.
In resume,
another one of those very good plays of this author, who always deliver the
pleasure of reading his elaborate plays.