Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones: An Overview of White Imprints and Desire
Keywords:
Eugene O’Neill, American drama, race, capitalism, kleptocracy, blackfaceAbstract
Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones (1920) is the first ever projection of a black protagonist on Broadway who carries the imprints of white ideals. While the playwright presents the title character Brutus Jones as a kleptocrat, he seems to corroborate the fact that the streetwise black Jones’ growing up in New York has a lot to do with his rule as a despot on the island. This paper explores O’Neill’s projection of the American mercantile psyche as seen on the island’s experience of colonial capitalism and the enactment of original sin in America by a journey through Brutus’ personal and racial memory lanes. This article also investigates to what extent Jones is a by-product of the American capitalist system which considers greed as good and money as the bottom line of success.
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