Dec 17, 2009
The Emperor Jones | The Emperor Jones
At a glance:
- Author: Eugene O’Neill
- First Published: 1921
- Type of Work: Drama
- Type of Plot: Expressionism
- Time of Work: Early twentieth century
- Setting: West Indies
- Principal Characters: Brutus Jones, Smithers, Lem
- Genres: Drama, Melodrama, Expressionist literature, Symbolist literature
- Subjects: 1960’s, Mothers, Parents and children, Caribbean, Magic or magicians, Blacks, Race, Twentieth century, Religion, Emotions, Fear, Islands, Death or dying, Jungles or rain forests, Adventure, Rites or ceremonies, Intellect, Cannibalism, Tyrants or tyranny
- Locales: West Indies, Islands
The Story:
Henry Smithers, a Cockney adventurer, learned from a woman that
the followers of Brutus Jones, the self-styled emperor of a West
Indian island, were about to desert their ruler. With
Smithers’ help, Jones, a former Pullman porter and escaped
convict, had duped the natives into believing that he was a
magician. The superstitious natives made him emperor of the island.
Smithers disclosed to the emperor the disaffection of his subjects,
who had been taxed and cheated by the pair beyond human endurance.
Jones had judged that he had six more months of power before the...
[The entire page is 2288 words long]
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