The Emperor Jones tells the story of an autocratic black emperor who mistreats and robs his subjects. He’s confident that even after treating them like slaves and continually deceiving them, he can easily escape when they decide to revolt against the ruthless emperor.
The play begins with him foolishly telling a conniving English trader called Smithers about his plans and flaunting his fearlessness regarding the angry subjects. He’s confident that nothing can get him, until something does…
In Michele Mendelssohn’s analysis of the play, she considers a lot of aspects and major themes of the play, mainly race, language and identity. However, the part which I found the most interesting was the concept of “unheimlich” being applied to the play’s protagonist and the theory of Self by Carl Jung and how it explains Jones’s downfall.
To a non-psychology student, The Emperor Jones is probably just a paranormal play with a little thrill and horror here and there, but for psychology students, the only major genre this play can belong to is the genre of psychological thrillers...or maybe that’s just me because I love psychological thrillers, be it books like “Tell Me Your Dreams” by Sidney Sheldon or movies like “Lucy” and “Limitless”. The mind is a beautiful place which can make reality quite ugly for you at times.
To a non-psychology student, The Emperor Jones is probably just a paranormal play with a little thrill and horror here and there, but for psychology students, the only major genre this play can belong to is the genre of psychological thrillers...or maybe that’s just me because I love psychological thrillers, be it books like “Tell Me Your Dreams” by Sidney Sheldon or movies like “Lucy” and “Limitless”. The mind is a beautiful place which can make reality quite ugly for you at times.
Something similar happens to Brutus Jones whose past catches up with him when he continues to ignore it and seeks to forge a completely new identity for himself. He represses his insecurities and fears and ultimately ends up doing the same things to his subjects what was done to him when he was a slave.
Mendelssohn brings this to light in her paper by explaining the concept of “das Unheimliche” and connecting it with the “collective consciousness” of Jones as an African-American. The sense of being “unhomed” or “unheimlich” and lacking a sense of rootedness creates a feeling of isolation. Not being able to belong anywhere creates identity issues within one’s self. Jones ran away from his previous life as a slave and completely changed himself when he took over as a ruler. He cloaked himself with the identity of a white man and started treating his subjects much like he was treated as a slave. His persistent denial to see himself being of the same origin as the people he ruled over and repressing his insecurities into the deep, dark depths of his unconscious mind ultimately leads to him having visions of his ancestors and later himself till he is forced to acknowledge his past as well as his ancestor’s past. In the end, what he was beneath all the fancy, western clothing and the metaphorical cloak could no longer remain hidden because that was his real identity. He himself uprooted this identity and suppressed everything about his real home only to be left with nothing and nobody.
The sense of “otherness” is also mentioned in Mendelssohn’s analysis. This comes from the Jungian archetype of Self which signifies the unification of the conscious and the unconscious in a person. This didn’t happen with Brutus as he struggled to get rid of his identity as an African-American. His rejection of being a black man and favouring white values and ruling tactics disassociated his consciousness from his unconsciousness. Ultimately, he was neither African nor American, leaving him once again, homeless and without any solid identity.
Thus, the concepts of Self, collective consciousness, unheimlich and identity crisis are very well applied by Mendelssohn in her paper and aptly describe the odd behaviour and hypocritical stance by Brutus Jones in the play. His complicated identity seems to make a lot more sense when viewed through the lens of psychology and thus, makes it fun to analyse and ponder upon.
Mendelssohn brings this to light in her paper by explaining the concept of “das Unheimliche” and connecting it with the “collective consciousness” of Jones as an African-American. The sense of being “unhomed” or “unheimlich” and lacking a sense of rootedness creates a feeling of isolation. Not being able to belong anywhere creates identity issues within one’s self. Jones ran away from his previous life as a slave and completely changed himself when he took over as a ruler. He cloaked himself with the identity of a white man and started treating his subjects much like he was treated as a slave. His persistent denial to see himself being of the same origin as the people he ruled over and repressing his insecurities into the deep, dark depths of his unconscious mind ultimately leads to him having visions of his ancestors and later himself till he is forced to acknowledge his past as well as his ancestor’s past. In the end, what he was beneath all the fancy, western clothing and the metaphorical cloak could no longer remain hidden because that was his real identity. He himself uprooted this identity and suppressed everything about his real home only to be left with nothing and nobody.
The sense of “otherness” is also mentioned in Mendelssohn’s analysis. This comes from the Jungian archetype of Self which signifies the unification of the conscious and the unconscious in a person. This didn’t happen with Brutus as he struggled to get rid of his identity as an African-American. His rejection of being a black man and favouring white values and ruling tactics disassociated his consciousness from his unconsciousness. Ultimately, he was neither African nor American, leaving him once again, homeless and without any solid identity.
Thus, the concepts of Self, collective consciousness, unheimlich and identity crisis are very well applied by Mendelssohn in her paper and aptly describe the odd behaviour and hypocritical stance by Brutus Jones in the play. His complicated identity seems to make a lot more sense when viewed through the lens of psychology and thus, makes it fun to analyse and ponder upon.
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