34 pages • 1 hour read
Karel ČapekR.U.R.
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1920A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
PrologueAct Summaries & Analyses
Prologue Summary
Domin, a corporate director, works with Sulla, his robot secretary, in Rossum’s Universal Robot factory. Helena, the daughter of President Glory, arrives in his office. Domin tells her about the history of creating robots, including old Rossum’s early attempts to make people by recreating all of their parts. Later, Rossum’s son decided to make labor machines by simplifying their parts, thus getting rid of their “soul” (9).
Domin introduces Helena to Sulla. Helena believes Sulla is human as they talk about the ship on which Helena arrived, the Amelia. After Sulla speaks in multiple languages, Helena calls Domin a liar. Domin offers to prove Sulla is a robot by dissecting her. Helena is horrified and refuses to allow it. Domin explains that all the factory workers are robots, and offers to show Helena the vats and mills where robot parts are made. He explains how they educate the robots, but admits he wants to talk about things other than work.
The other directors—Gall, Hallemeier, Fabry, Alquist, and Busman—enter Domin’s office. Helena believes they are robots. She admits she’s from the League of Humanity and came to improve the robots’ quality of life. Domin clarifies that the directors are not robots: Only factory workers or staff are. The directors are all human. Domin says many people have come to incite the robots, and she is welcome to talk to them.
The directors want to treat the robots well, but they can’t give them souls. Some of the robots have been having fits; Gall is working on introducing pain so they don’t hurt themselves in the machines at the factory. Busman and Helena discuss the cost of clothing, food, and labor. Domin believes robots replacing humans in jobs will leave humans free to enjoy leisure activities and not have to work. Young Rossum, Domin says, “chucked everything not directly related to work, and in doing so he pretty much discarded the human being and created the Robot” (9). Alquist argues that it is good to work.
The directors leave the office to cook lunch for Helena. Helena asks if the robots have sex, and Domin says no. Domin proposes to Helena. He says the other directors also want to marry her, and insists that she marry one of them if not him. When Domin puts his hands on her shoulders, she calls him brutish and insane. The others return and Domin releases her. They start setting the table for lunch.
Prologue Analysis
The Prologue, which takes place ten years before Act I, introduces the play’s themes and symbols. A central theme of R.U.R. is The Purpose and Nature of Human Existence. The play raises the question of whether work is a fundamental part of being human, or if humans derive meaning outside of labor. Čapek explores this in the history that Domin provides about Young Rossum, and Alquist’s argument that working is part of living a moral life: “[T]here was some kind of virtue in work and fatigue,” Alquist says (21). Indeed, Alquist’s personal dedication to working is why the robots spare his life in the end.
In contrast to Young Rossum, Old Rossum did not want to create labor machines, but people. The production of robots, he wrote among his formulae, is “another process, simpler, more moldable and faster, that nature has not hit upon at all” (6). He wants to wield the power of nature, or God. This idea returns in Act I, when Gall says that nature is angry at humans for making robots, punishing them with infertility.
The Prologue also introduces the theme of Love and Beauty. Helena asks the directors what the robots, as labor machines, lack: “No love or defiance, either?” (19). Robots do not demonstrate love until the end of the play. In the prologue, the directors are motivated by their love for Helena. This distinguishes them as human and informs their actions throughout the play.
The dissection of the robot Damon and the threat to dissect the robot Helena occurs in the Prologue: When Helena doubts that Sulla is a robot, Domin offers to have her dissected. Dissection, the act of revealing anatomical facts, separates humans from robots.
The Prologue also introduces the symbols of flowers and boats. Hallemeier asks Helena: “Did you come on the Amelia?” (15), mentioning the name of the boat that appears again near the end of the play. At the close of the Prologue, there is a stage direction: “FABRY is carrying flowers” (24). As the directors prepare lunch for Helena, flowers appear on stage. Flowers connect the Prologue with Act I: An initial stage direction in Act I is for Domin, Fabry, and Hallemeier to enter “carrying whole armfuls of flowers and flower pots” (25).
