Genre
Drama
Setting and Context
An unnamed island in the West Indies
Narrator and Point of View
No narrator. Much of the play shows the psychic perspective of Brutus Jones, but not the whole play.
Tone and Mood
Expressionistic, Haunting, Scary, Dramatic, Epic
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist: Brutus Jones. Antagonist: Lem
Major Conflict
The major conflict is that Brutus Jones, the autocrat of a small island community, must escape the revolution taking place on his island by navigating a dark forest in the middle of the night, contending with hallucinations and doubts along the way.
Climax
The climax occurs when Jones gets killed.
Foreshadowing
The scarlet throne that we see at the beginning foreshadows the bloody consequences of Jones' rule.
Understatement
Jones often understates the stakes of his plight, choosing to muster false confidence in the face of danger.
Allusions
Allusions to colonialism, native customs, spiritual practices.
Imagery
The image of the forest is an evocative one that is often poetically expressed by Eugene O'Neill.
Paradox
Jones tells the natives that he can only be killed by a silver bullet as a way of making sure no one kills him, but the revolutionaries create a number of silver bullets themselves.
Parallelism
The first and the last scenes are the only scenes with multiple characters in it. The play is essentially bookended by realist scenes.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Personification
Jones' formless fears are personified, and his various traumatic memories are personified through staged hallucinations.
