Emperor Jones Characters And Themes
CHARACTERS.
SMITHERS, Henry. The Cockney trader, "a tall, stoop-shouldered man of about forty," bald, with a long neck and a large Adam's apple. His dress is that commonly associated with colonial oppressors. His pasty-yellow face and rum-reddened nose are set off by his dirty white drill riding suit, puttees, spurs, and pith helmet. He wears a cartridge belt and an automatic revolver around his waist. He carries a riding whip. His eyes are pale blue, red-rimmed and ferretty. He is unscrupulous, mean, "cowardly and dangerous." He took in Brutus Jones when the latter landed on the island, hiring him despite his gaol record, or perhaps because of it since Jones accuses Smithers of having once been in prison, an accusation he vehemently denies. Basically he is an expository device in the play, serving to introduce information and at the end delivers the epitaph on Jones, for whom he has some curious respect. Smithers sees Jones as a more advanced person than the natives of the island, represented by Lem.
JONES, Brutus. He is the main character. "A tall, powerfully built negro of middle age. His features are typically negroid, yet there is . . . an underlying strength of will, a hardy, self-reliant confidence in himself that inspires respect." He has an air of intelligence, yet at the same time he is "shrewd, suspicious, evasive." He wears a somewhat garish uniform of a pale blue coat, "sprayed with buttons" and covered with gold braid, and red trousers, with a light blue stripe at the side; he sports patent leather boots with spurs, and carries a pearl-handled revolver in his belt. Nonetheless, he still projects an air of dignity rather than the merely ridiculous.
Brutus Jones had arrived on this unnamed island two years ago as a stowaway, fleeing from the consequences of having killed a prison guard with a shovel during road work while serving time for killing a fellow Pullman porter, Jeff, in a gambling dispute. Helped along by Henry Smithers, Jones moves "from
SMITHERS, Henry. The Cockney trader, "a tall, stoop-shouldered man of about forty," bald, with a long neck and a large Adam's apple. His dress is that commonly associated with colonial oppressors. His pasty-yellow face and rum-reddened nose are set off by his dirty white drill riding suit, puttees, spurs, and pith helmet. He wears a cartridge belt and an automatic revolver around his waist. He carries a riding whip. His eyes are pale blue, red-rimmed and ferretty. He is unscrupulous, mean, "cowardly and dangerous." He took in Brutus Jones when the latter landed on the island, hiring him despite his gaol record, or perhaps because of it since Jones accuses Smithers of having once been in prison, an accusation he vehemently denies. Basically he is an expository device in the play, serving to introduce information and at the end delivers the epitaph on Jones, for whom he has some curious respect. Smithers sees Jones as a more advanced person than the natives of the island, represented by Lem.
JONES, Brutus. He is the main character. "A tall, powerfully built negro of middle age. His features are typically negroid, yet there is . . . an underlying strength of will, a hardy, self-reliant confidence in himself that inspires respect." He has an air of intelligence, yet at the same time he is "shrewd, suspicious, evasive." He wears a somewhat garish uniform of a pale blue coat, "sprayed with buttons" and covered with gold braid, and red trousers, with a light blue stripe at the side; he sports patent leather boots with spurs, and carries a pearl-handled revolver in his belt. Nonetheless, he still projects an air of dignity rather than the merely ridiculous.
Brutus Jones had arrived on this unnamed island two years ago as a stowaway, fleeing from the consequences of having killed a prison guard with a shovel during road work while serving time for killing a fellow Pullman porter, Jeff, in a gambling dispute. Helped along by Henry Smithers, Jones moves "from