King Hedley II

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1985

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Summary

Background

Act Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Act I, Scene 1

Act I, Scenes 2-3

Act II, Scenes 1-2

Act II, Scenes 3-5

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Prologue-Act I, Scene 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue Summary

Content Warning: This section of the guide describes and discusses the source text’s treatment of racism.

It is 1985. Stool Pigeon, a 65-year-old man and the neighborhood “truth sayer,” enters his backyard at night with a pair of ham bones for his cats. He tells the cats to mind the dogs and says he will try to bring them some fish heads tomorrow. Speaking to himself, he notes that the people in his neighborhood are “lost.” He notes the way that everyone wanders around without a real sense of purpose. Aunt Ester, he posits, still knows the way. She is 366 years old by now, but no one consults her anymore and her wisdom has been largely lost.

Act I, Scene 1 Summary

King Hedley II enters his yard, removes a small packet of seeds from his pocket, and begins to plant them. His mother, Ruby, comes outside. She tells her son that he needs a telephone and asks when he plans to get it turned on. He tells her that he cannot have the phone turned on until he has saved up the $225 that it costs to do so, and she offers to turn it on for him. He refuses, saying that it will look bad to have his phone in his mother’s name. Ruby asks him if he plans to work that day, and he tells her that the man he was supposed to work for lost his bid to another contractor.

Ruby tells King that her on-again-off-again boyfriend Elmore is going to come see her, and she warns King not to gamble with him. King assures his mother that he has no intention of gambling with Elmore again: Elmore cleaned him out the last time they gambled together and also sold him a watch that quit working as soon as Elmore had left town. Ruby tells King that Elmore wants to ask him about his time in prison, and then she asks him what he is doing. When he responds that he is planting flowers for Tonya, Ruby tells him that the flowers will not grow in that patch of the yard because the soil is no good. Annoyed, King asks Ruby when she is leaving. He tells her that it has been two months since her aunt Louise died and asks when she’s leaving. He accuses her of convincing the sick old woman to leave her the house. Ruby corrects him, saying that she sent Louise money over the years to pay for the house, so it is rightfully hers. She is selling it to the city, but has not yet heard how much they plan to pay her. King asserts that Louise was more his mother than Ruby ever was, because she raised him all the years that Ruby was gone, and he is anxious to see Ruby move to assisted living. Ruby snaps back that she is still his mother, but King does not see her that way. Ruby then admonishes him for selling stolen refrigerators, and he tells her that they are not necessarily stolen—he doesn’t know where his supplier gets them.

Mister enters. He is sharply dressed, as always, and polite. He asks why King is dressed up and King bristles at the question, firing back that he is not dressed up at all. He asks Mister if he’s sold any of the refrigerators, and Mister tells him that he’s only managed to sell one. He thinks that they need more brochures, but King tells him that no one really cares which model they are buying. In the background, Ruby clucks her disapproval.

King thinks that he might be able to sell some refrigerators in East Liberty. He plans to go there to have photographs taken with his wife, Tonya, for their anniversary. King, Mister, and Ruby continue to chat, and Ruby asks Mister if he’s been in jail. Mister replies that he was accused of stealing, but that the case was thrown out. King tells Mister and Ruby that the night before he dreamed he had a halo and a big pile of money. Ruby warns against mixing dreams up with real life.

Mister tells King that Pernell’s cousin is looking for him. King killed Pernell. Pernell’s cousin was run out of town 10 years prior for shooting two men, but he is back now, and he is looking for King. King tells Mister how low his opinion is of both Pernell and his cousin, but Mister warns King that Pernell is out for blood. Tonya enters. She is wearing a yellow blouse, and Mister tells her how nice she looks. She wishes that she could have worn her red one, but Natasha borrowed it without asking. She is looking forward to the photographs: She thinks that Sears does a particularly good job with its portraits.

Ruby reads the letter she received from Elmore. He tells her that he is a changed man. He is coming to town to see her, but wonders if she knows any gamblers who would like to lose their money to him. He updates her on his children and tells her that he is looking forward to seeing her again. Ruby doubts that he is truly a changed man—he rolls through town once every four or five years, always bringing trouble with him. She asks Mister about his wife, and Mister responds that she left him. She wanted him to change, and didn’t appreciate him for who he was. King goes into the house and returns with a Glock 9-mm pistol, telling those gathered that he will be ready for Pernell’s cousin if he comes calling. Stool Pigeon runs into the yard, exclaiming loudly that Aunt Ester has died.

Prologue-Act I, Scene 1 Analysis

The Prologue and Act I’s first scene establish the stakes of the drama and connect this installment of the Pittsburgh Cycle to its previous plays through the characters of Stool Pigeon and Aunt Ester. The titular protagonist, King, is characterized through his hopes and dreams for the future and the way that his past incarceration continues to impact him. The play begins to explore King’s relationship with Ruby and additionally examines the cycle of violence in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. Through King and Mister’s refrigerator-selling scheme, it becomes apparent that King wants a legal path toward economic success.

The play opens with Stool Pigeon opining about the state of the neighborhood. He posits that his fellow residents of the Hill District have lost their way, that they are “wandering all over the place” and don’t even understand how they got from “tit to tat” (9). These lines introduce neighborhood decline and establish the importance of this decline and the violence that accompanies it. Stool Pigeon’s assertion that people don’t know how they get from “tit to tat” is particularly noteworthy, because retributive violence will become an especially important issue in the drama. Stool Pigeon’s monologue introduces the central theme of Masculinity and the Cycle of Violence and shows the futility of such violence. Although retribution is important to neighborhood men, retributive violence does little besides trapping them within a cycle that further harms them and others.

King will become the character who embodies this theme the most, although he is introduced through his hopeful striving rather than through his penchant for violence. This humanizes him as a character and adds depth and complexity to his portrayal. In his first scene, King plants seeds in a corner of the yard, hoping to grow flowers for Tonya. The seeds become a symbol of his hopes and dreams for the future: King wants to do right by his wife and to provide her with a life that is not only financially stable but beautiful.

The seeds also serve to illustrate Structural Racism and the American Dream. His mother is sure that the seeds will not grow in such a barren environment, which is a metaphor for the neighborhood’s decline. The broader argument here is that in communities that are so underserved and under-resourced, it is difficult to raise happy, healthy, stable children. Structural racism and endemic lack of opportunity make life a constant struggle, and many remain mired in the same kind of troubles that plague King. The Hill District is not a place where hope can flourish.

This section also introduces Fractured Familial Bonds as an important theme. Ruby left King in Pittsburgh when he was a boy to pursue her own singing career. Although she placed him in the care of her aunt Louise, a woman with whom he shared a deep bond, King feels a lingering resentment toward his mother for abandoning him. These kinds of tensions characterize each of the important relationships within the play, although it is also important to note that each of the characters tries in some way to repair their broken ties to one another. While Stool Pigeon has explained the difficulties of living in Pittsburgh’s Hill District during the 1980s, it is also apparent that the ties binding its residents to one another are profound.

Although King is introduced first through the lens of hope, Wilson does begin to show the trials and tribulations that he faces. It is revealed that he was incarcerated for murdering a man named Pernell and that Pernell’s cousin is looking for King, hoping to exact revenge. King quickly grabs his handgun, a symbol of the cycle of violence, but does not seem to be too worried about Pernell’s cousin. He is, at this point, defiant, and feels that his act of murder was entirely justified. However, he will not remain unaware of the impact of violence on his life. King’s ability to change becomes a powerful commentary on hope and possibility within the world of King Hedley II.

Another set of exchanges in this first portion of the play that speaks to King’s characterization is his scheme of selling stolen refrigerators with his childhood friend Mister. It is revealed that he first sought legal employment and that his ultimate goal is to open a video store with Mister. It becomes obvious here that options for men such as King are severely limited, and that he was driven toward the city’s illicit economy only by need. At this point in the drama, King is defined largely by hope and possibility.