Themes: All Themes
Themes: Race and Racism
Racial oppression and hostility are central themes in Dutchman. However, the play is not just a simple critique of racism. Rather, it serves as a harsh criticism of a specific approach to combating racism that Baraka sees as ineffective: assimilation. Clay represents the type of assimilation often pursued by many in the black middle class, which involves adopting white cultural values through a "white" education. He carries a stack of books and...
Themes: Violence and Cruelty
Clay makes every effort to maintain his calm demeanor in the face of Lula's harsh words and relentless reminders of his marginalized status in society. The central question is: how much abuse will Clay tolerate before he defends his dignity and manhood, which Lula continually undermines? The play's dramatic irony and symbolic tragedy peak in the final act of violence, when Lula stabs Clay as he reaches for his books to leave. The irony lies in...
(Read more)Themes: Passivity
The theme of passivity intertwines with that of violence and cruelty. Clay passively embraces a secondary role in society, a role inherently unable to attain true excellence because it is merely a weak imitation of white culture. Black assimilation means adopting the values and norms of the oppressive system. This passive acceptance breeds followers instead of leaders. A black Baudelaire can never exceed Baudelaire's artistry because in adopting...
(Read more)Themes: Sexism
Lula embodies a mythical, malevolent Eve, using her seductive charm and deadly intentions to lure Clay (Adam, who was formed from clay). Like Eve, she eats and offers apples, overwhelming Clay with so much fruit that he can't consume any more. She represents the archetype of the Gorgon/siren/fury, the ultimate devouring female figure. Symbolically, she emasculates Clay by constantly questioning his "manhood" with sharp remarks; ultimately, she...
(Read more)Themes: Title and Symbolism
A question bound to arise at some point in one’s experience of Dutchman, or in one’s reflections on it, is that of the application of the title to the play. There are, after all, no Dutchmen on the stage. The play is set in a New York City subway. Its characters are a white American woman and a black American man. Why has the author given the play so (apparently) irrelevant a title?
The question has received a number of answers in the extensive...
(Read more)Themes: Lula as a Symbol of America
It is clear that Lula is the active force in Clay’s destruction. Who is Lula? She is, at a mythic level, a seductress, an Eve figure who has already eaten the apple and now offers it to Clay. Her sexual aggressiveness also has implications in the context of social realism, one of the levels at which the play operates. For a young, unattached man of Clay’s generation, a generation for whom the man was the “normal” sexual aggressor, failure to...
(Read more)Themes: Clay's Struggle and Identity
Clay finally makes a stand against Lula and what she represents in his great climactic speech. He sees with frightening lucidity and articulates with dreadful clarity the rage he has concealed, that is concealed at the heart of black culture, but that he knows in every breath and pulse beat. Suddenly, and briefly, Clay takes control of the situation, and of his life and being. He speaks out of a fully realized awareness of himself as a black man.
(Read more)Themes: Endless Repetition and Racism
The repetition, with only minor variations, of the initial situation at...
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the end of the play, combined with the ritualistic quality of Clay’s murder, moves the play beyond the boundaries of realism and demands a symbolic interpretation. The movement beyond realism in fact begins with the invitation of the title to see the play in mythic terms. What is involved here, it is clear, is not merely the story of the chance encounter of one man and one...
(Read more)Themes: Racial and Sexual Stereotypes
As the opening stage directions state, Amiri Baraka’s Dutchmanis “heaped in modern myth.” The play explores the racial and sexual stereotypes that condition Americans’ behavior and argues that these powerful stereotypes are manipulated by the white establishment to maintain an oppressive social order. The play further suggests that black Americans’ efforts to adjust to the double lives that are forced upon them, rather than allowing them to...
(Read more)Themes: Symbolism of the Subway Car and Title
The subway car setting and the play’s title remind the audience of the packed holds of Dutch slave traders, which brought the first black Africans to Jamestown; the historic underground railroad, which helped slaves escape the South; and the legendary Flying Dutchman, the cursed phantom sailing ship that endlessly sails the seas. Moreover, the grimy, rumbling, underground setting connotes incarceration, damnation, and entombment. The biblical...
(Read more)Themes: Archetypal Figures and Stereotypical Roles
Lula and Clay are archetypal figures representing racial and sexual traditions and exemplifying the behaviors that follow from these traditions. Each is acting out a stereotypical role rather than responding to the other’s individual humanity; thus, Clay says that their conversation sounds like a script, and Lula claims to be an actress. She openly tells him that she always lies and tells him that he will gladly lie to keep her alive.
(Read more)Themes: Lula as a Representation of White America
Lula represents white America, characterizing the guilt, fascination, and hatred it feels toward black America. Her persistent assertion that she is old underscores her belonging to a long tradition. Although she plays the role of a white liberal— romancing a black man, expressing preference for black culture over white, and declaring that the only person in her family who ever amounted to anything was her mother, who was a Communist—when Clay is...
(Read more)Themes: Clay as a Stereotype of the Black Intellectual
Clay too is a stereotype—a black intellectual caught up in a conflict between his cerebral attraction to the traditions of white culture and his deeper, racial connection to black ethnic culture. This doubleness paralyzes his ability to undertake rebellious action. The only recourse he sees is to lead a false existence that at least leaves him alive. The artificiality and self-consciousness of Clay’s performance have protected him, but when his...
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