The Emperor Jones Summary

The Emperor Jones is a dramatic stage play written by Eugene O'Neill around 1920 in New York City, first performed the same year. Set on an unnamed island in the West Indies, the play falls within the literary periods of Expressionism and Realism. It follows the rise and fall of Brutus Jones, an African American man who seizes power on the island, eventually becoming its self-proclaimed emperor. The play's climax occurs when Jones uses a silver bullet to kill the crocodile god, symbolizing his struggle against his own fears and the oppressive forces around him. While Jones faces external challenges, including racism and systemic oppression, his greatest antagonist is arguably himself, as his descent into madness reveals his internal conflicts.

It is late afternoon in the emperor's throne room, which is painted white. An old black native woman cautiously peeks around a doorway. When she sees that the coast is clear, she begins to quietly cross the room. However, an old white sailor named Smithers stops her in the middle of the floor. He threatens her with a whip, but the woman explains that all the natives have run away to the hills. Then, she quickly runs away. Smithers whistles as she leaves.

A few moments later, Brutus Jones, the emperor, enters the throne room looking annoyed and sleepy. He is wearing a fancy uniform decorated with many ornaments. Jones yells angrily and threatens to punish whoever woke him up. Smithers admits that he was the one who woke Jones up and tells him that he has important news. Jones sits on his throne and demands that Smithers tell him the news immediately. Instead of answering directly, Smithers sarcastically asks Jones where all the court members and servants are. Jones yawns and dismisses the question, saying that they are drinking rum in town. He adds that Smithers should already know this since he spends so much time drinking with the natives. Smithers defends himself, saying that drinking is part of his job. Jones sneers at him.

Smithers reminds Jones that he helped him when he first arrived on the island. Jones puts his hand on his revolver and warns Smithers to be respectful. Smithers quickly apologizes. Jones insists that he has changed completely and is a different person now. Smithers argues that nobody else would have given Jones a job after hearing that he had been in jail in the United States. But Jones just looks at Smithers and calmly tells him that he knows Smithers has been in jail as well.

Jones explains that he is not acting as emperor for fame or power. He puts on a show to impress the natives, but his real goal is to take their money. Smithers tells Jones that the natives have no money left, but Jones laughs and says that cannot be true since he is still their emperor. Smithers asks if Jones ever thinks about obeying the law. Jones replies that an emperor does not have to follow the law, and that "big stealing," like what he does, is what made him emperor. Smithers comments that Jones has tricked the natives, and he says that Jones has been very lucky. Jones is offended, but Smithers explains that Jones was lucky when he first came to the island. Jones got into a fight with a native, and when the native’s gun misfired, Jones shot him and then claimed that only a silver bullet could kill him. The natives believed him. Jones laughs, calling them fools. Smithers asks if the rumor is true—that Jones actually had a silver bullet made. Jones confirms it and says that he told the natives he would use it to kill himself if he were ever caught. He pulls out the bullet and says it is his good luck charm.

Jones says that if trouble starts, he will resign, take his money, and escape. Smithers suggests that Jones will not go back to the United States, but Jones insists that he could if he wanted to because he was never actually in jail there. Smithers is doubtful and asks about the rumors that Jones killed white men in America. Jones dismisses the idea that he is afraid of being lynched. He then threatens Smithers, saying that he will kill him if he does not behave. Smithers tries to laugh it off, but Jones tells more of his story: he might have gone to jail for killing a black man who cheated him in a dice game, and he might have killed a prison guard. He says that these stories may or may not be true, but if Smithers spreads them, he will kill him. Smithers, now terrified, insists that he has always been Jones’s friend and finally tells Jones his news.

Jones rings the bell to call his servants, but nobody comes. He becomes furious. After a moment, he calms himself and says it is time to resign. Smithers warns him about Lem, the native chief, who hates Jones. Smithers also warns him about the dangers of the forest, but Jones is not worried. He believes the natives are too foolish to catch him, and if they do, he will kill himself with his silver bullet. The sound of a tom-tom drum begins to play in the background. Smithers explains that the natives are starting their rituals and preparing to cast spells. Jones says he is not afraid and reminds Smithers that he is a member of the Baptist Church. Smithers laughs. Jones bids him farewell and leaves.

As night falls, Jones reaches the edge of the forest. The heat is unbearable, and he wipes the sweat off his face. He listens to the tom-tom and wonders if the natives are already on their way to capture him. To calm himself, Jones decides to eat, so he looks for a white stone that marks where he hid food. But when he finds the stone, there is no food under it. He searches for another stone and realizes there are many white stones, none with food. He is in the wrong place. Desperate, he lights a match to see better, but when the tom-tom beats faster, he throws it away, realizing that the light might reveal his location. Suddenly, strange creatures with glittering eyes crawl out of the forest. Jones, terrified, shouts and shoots at them. The creatures vanish into the forest. Telling himself they were just pigs, Jones pushes forward.

As Jones runs deeper into the forest, he encounters ghosts from his past. First, he sees Jeff, the man he killed in America. When Jeff does not respond to Jones’s questions, Jones shoots at him, but Jeff disappears. Later, Jones stumbles upon a silent chain gang of black prisoners working on a road, supervised by a white guard. The guard forces Jones to join them, even though he has no shovel. When the guard whips him, Jones tries to fight back but realizes he has no weapon. Frustrated, he pulls out his gun and shoots the guard. The vision disappears, and Jones flees again.

Later, Jones finds himself at a slave auction. White men from the past bid on him. Realizing he is being sold as a slave, Jones shoots the auctioneer and his buyer. The vision vanishes. As he continues running, Jones’s clothes are reduced to rags, and he sees a group of black men sitting as if they are in a slave ship. They begin to wail, and Jones joins them. Then, he stumbles into another clearing, where a witch doctor dances and summons a giant crocodile. Jones understands that he is the sacrifice. In panic, he shoots the crocodile with his silver bullet. The crocodile disappears, but Jones collapses and cries.

At dawn, Lem, his soldiers, and Smithers reach the forest. Lem confidently says they will find Jones. After hearing a noise, the soldiers go in and shoot. When they return, they carry Jones’s dead body. Lem reveals that he and his men melted their money to make silver bullets, believing it was the only way to kill Jones. Smithers laughs, mocking both the natives and Jones as they carry the body away.

1. Character Analysis

Emperor Jones

The play revolves almost entirely around the figure of Emperor Jones, a former Pullman porter and convict from the United States who flees to a Caribbean island and establishes himself as ruler by exploiting the natives’ superstitions. His character is complex, embodying both strength and fragility.

• Ambition and Self-Invention:
  Jones represents the self-made man gone astray. He reinvents himself from an ordinary porter into a powerful emperor. His rise to power demonstrates resourcefulness, charisma, and opportunism, yet his methods are exploitative. He manipulates the islanders’ fear of a silver bullet prophecy and consolidates power through cruelty and violence.
• Charisma and Authority:
  Jones possesses the natural ability to command. His speech is filled with confidence, rhythmic patterns, and authority. Early in the play, when conversing with Smithers, he exudes dominance and certainty about his control over the natives. His confidence, however, masks deep-seated insecurities.
• Psychological Complexity:
  O’Neill structures the play to gradually peel away the layers of Jones’s psyche. As he journeys through the forest, chased by his own fears and memories, he regresses from the confident emperor to a terrified fugitive. Each hallucination reveals hidden guilt and suppressed history, such as memories of murder, slavery, and ancestral trauma.
• Tragic Flaw (Hubris):
  Jones embodies the classic tragic hero, undone by his own arrogance. His belief that the natives cannot defeat him unless they use a silver bullet creates both his invincibility and his downfall. His self-devised myth of power becomes a trap—ironically, the natives fulfill the prophecy and kill him with the silver bullet.
• Victim of History:
  On another level, Jones is not simply a tyrant; he is also a victim of larger historical forces. His visions of slaves, auctioneers, and chain gangs link his personal downfall to the collective suffering of Black history. His violent end suggests that his personal ambition cannot escape the cycle of racial oppression and historical trauma.

Smithers

Henry Smithers, the Cockney trader, serves as a foil to Jones and a kind of chorus figure for the audience.

• Pragmatic Opportunist:
  Unlike Jones’s grand ambitions, Smithers is a small-time trader who thrives on exploiting both sides. He profits from selling goods and weapons to Jones while also sympathizing with the natives when convenient.
• Cowardice and Survival:
  Smithers lacks Jones’s courage or charisma. He survives by retreating, avoiding risk, and aligning himself with the winning side. His cowardice emphasizes Jones’s boldness, but also makes him the character most likely to endure.
• Narrative Function:
  Smithers frames the story for the audience, giving exposition about Jones’s rise to power and foreshadowing his downfall. He never undergoes a psychological journey, but his presence highlights the ongoing opportunism of colonial middlemen.

The Native Islanders

The natives remain largely voiceless and faceless throughout most of the play, appearing as a collective force rather than as individuals.

• Symbol of Resistance:
  Their uprising against Jones represents the rejection of tyranny and exploitation. While Jones mocks them as primitive and superstitious, their rebellion proves effective, culminating in his death by the very silver bullet he boasted about.
• Collective Power:
  The natives’ silence throughout most of the play makes their eventual triumph more powerful. They are not depicted as characters with individual psychologies, but as the looming, inevitable judgment against Jones’s crimes.

Symbolic Presences (Hallucinations)

O’Neill introduces a series of hallucinatory figures in the forest: convicts, auctioneers, slaves, gods, and finally an African witch doctor. These visions are not literal characters but embodiments of Jones’s guilty conscience and ancestral memory.

• The Little Formless Fears:
  These primitive apparitions symbolize raw, irrational fear overwhelming Jones’s rational control.
• The Convict and the Prison Guard:
  Reminders of Jones’s criminal past, showing how he cannot escape his history of violence and imprisonment.
• The Slave Auctioneer and Slaves:
  Represent Jones’s connection to the history of racial oppression, tying his downfall to the collective suffering of his people.
• The Crocodile God and Witch Doctor:
  These final visions symbolize the return to primal origins and the ultimate confrontation with death. They strip Jones of his modern, imperial identity and reduce him to a victim of ancient, mythical forces.

2. Themes

(a) Power and Tyranny

At its heart, the play critiques the corrupting nature of power. Jones’s rule is built on violence, lies, and exploitation. He imposes heavy taxes, manipulates superstition, and instills fear in the natives. His tyranny parallels colonial empires, suggesting that oppression begets resistance and ultimately self-destruction.

(b) Colonialism and Exploitation

Although Jones is Black, he becomes a colonizer himself, repeating the patterns of European imperialism. He sets himself up as emperor, exploits the natives, and enforces control through violence and manipulation. O’Neill thus critiques not only European colonialism but also the way victims of oppression can reproduce the same structures when given power.

Smithers also embodies colonial exploitation, representing the opportunistic traders who profit from imperial ventures without taking responsibility. Together, Jones and Smithers illustrate the destructive effects of colonial economics and politics.

(c) Fear and the Unconscious

The forest journey dramatizes the psychological theme of fear overwhelming reason. O’Neill draws on expressionism to stage Jones’s hallucinations, turning his inner terror into external, theatrical visions. Each gunshot Jones fires at his hallucinations symbolizes his futile attempts to destroy his fears. The forest becomes a metaphor for the unconscious, a space where suppressed guilt and ancestral trauma return to haunt him.

(d) Race and Identity

Race plays a crucial role in The Emperor Jones. O’Neill portrays a Black man as a central tragic figure, which was rare in American theater at the time. However, the play also reflects stereotypes of the period, such as the association of Black characters with superstition and primitivism.

Jones’s identity is complex: he is both an ambitious individual asserting his will and a representative of a larger racial history. His visions of slavery and oppression remind the audience that his story is inseparable from the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade and systemic racism.

(e) Superstition, Religion, and Myth

Superstition governs the relationship between Jones and the natives. His manipulation of their belief in the silver bullet ensures his temporary power, but the same superstition brings about his downfall. O’Neill also uses religious and mythic imagery—the witch doctor, the crocodile god—to suggest that Jones’s fate is tied to forces beyond rational control.

This theme also illustrates how myth can be weaponized for political power but eventually turns against those who misuse it.

(f) Capitalism and Greed

Smithers and Jones both embody greed. Jones taxes the natives heavily to enrich himself, while Smithers profits from arms trading. Their greed connects personal ambition with the larger exploitative structures of capitalism and colonial trade. Ultimately, their greed contributes to the destruction of Jones, while Smithers escapes only by shifting allegiance.

(g) The Cycle of History

Jones’s downfall symbolizes the cyclical nature of history. His visions of slavery and ancestral suffering remind the audience that personal ambition cannot erase historical trauma. By the end, the emperor who tried to elevate himself above others becomes just another victim of violence. The play suggests that history repeats itself—tyrants rise and fall, but the cycle of oppression and resistance continues.

3. Conclusion

Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones is a powerful exploration of ambition, tyranny, and psychological terror. Emperor Jones emerges as a deeply complex character: resourceful yet arrogant, powerful yet haunted, both oppressor and victim. His journey through the forest stages the stripping away of imperial authority until he is reduced to a hunted man destroyed by his own fears and the weight of history.

The play’s themes—colonialism, race, fear, superstition, and the cycle of history—remain relevant today. It challenges audiences to consider how power corrupts, how history shapes identity, and how oppression breeds inevitable resistance. Through Jones’s tragic downfall, O’Neill presents not just the collapse of one man, but the larger truth that empires built on exploitation cannot last.