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.
Act IIAct Summaries & Analyses
Act II Summary
Helena plays piano offstage while Domin, Gall, and Alquist talk in her sitting room. They discuss the robots that have gathered outside. Fabry and Hallemeier join the other directors. After Fabry attaches wires to the lamp’s electric cord, he says the fence is electrified. Busman takes out financial books to balance the factory’s accounts. Domin sees the robots turn the cannons on his gunboat, the Ultimus, on the directors.
The humans debate if teaching robots to fight or if simply making robots was morally wrong. Domin argues that robots gave humans the freedom to become aristocrats because they no longer have to work. However, this was not the dream of the original Rossums. As Busman calculates figures, Hallemeier declares hedonism is the answer, inspired by Helena playing the piano. Robots touch the fence and Fabry electrifies it, killing five robots. Domin decides the directors are ghosts, and talks about how they all died years ago.
Alquist asks who is responsible for the end of humanity. Hallemeier blames the robots. Alquist blames science, technology, and all of them. Gall says he’s responsible because he made the robots into people. This caused the robots to realize they are superior to and hate humans. Helena comes in, saying she is responsible because she begged Gall to give the robots souls. She was afraid of them, and thought making them more human would keep them from hating humans. Gall denies this, but Helena and Domin agree Gall is protecting her because he loves her, like everyone.
Busman offers to be Helena or Gall’s lawyer. Gall clarifies that he only altered several hundred robots. Busman thinks the problem is that they made too many robots, based on demand, so all the people who wanted robots are to blame. He offers to negotiate with the robots, offering Rossum’s manuscript in exchange for the directors and Helena’s freedom. Domin suggests destroying it. They vote on selling or destroying the manuscript—Fabry, Gall, and Hallemeier vote to sell. Alquist says as God wills, and Busman argues against the others’ votes. Helena asks if she gets a vote. Domin says no and goes to get the manuscript.
Fabry, Gall, and Hallemeier fantasize about escaping on a boat and restarting the human race. Domin returns, frantic about the missing manuscript. Helena admits she stole and burned it. Domin finds only one fragment of it in the fireplace. Gall admits he needs the manuscript to make robots—he hasn’t memorized the contents. Domin asks Helena why she burned it. She says she believes people are no longer being born because of robots and wants to return to the era before robots were invented.
Fabry, Gall, and Hallemeier realize that, without the manuscript, the robots will not be able to reproduce and will die off. Busman talks about the half a billion in the safe and leaves. The humans look out at the robots and see Radius is their leader. Hallemeier suggests that Fabry shoot him, and Fabry aims. Helena asks him to stop. He does, despite Hallemeier’s objections. They watch Busman approach the robots with the money from the safe, accidentally touch the electric fence, and die. The directors mourn him.
Turning on the lamp, the humans discuss its light and the end of humanity. The lamp goes out, signaling that the robots have taken over the power plant. Nana comes in, tells them to repent, and runs out. Gall, Fabry, and Alquist scatter and exchange gunfire with robots. Domin and Helena go off through the same door. Hallemeier stays behind, barricading himself with a toilet. A robot breaks through the barricade and stabs Hallemeier, killing him.
Radius and other robots enter, one dragging Alquist. Alquist mourns Hellemeier and tells the robots to kill him. However, the robots find his building skills useful and robotic; Radius orders Alquist to work for the robots. Radius declares victory over humans. He says that the robots now rule over everything.
Act II Analysis
The conflict between the humans and the robots climaxes. The first director to die, Busman, spends much of the act working on Rossum’s finances. His stage direction reads—“sets to work” on accounts (53). However, money is not what motivates the robots. As Hallemeier says, Busman dies covered in the currency that he hoped would persuade the robots. The robots are after something greater than money: the desire for sovereignty. In fighting to be free from humans, they echo what humans have done for centuries, such as when the American colonies revolted against England. The robots’ human want for independence and power is the undoing of the humans who created them.
Death looms. The play explores hauntology—the presence of death, the dead, and legacies. Domin suggests that “[w]e were probably killed a hundred years ago and only our ghosts are left haunting this place” (55). When trying to place blame for the robot uprising, Domin alludes to hauntology, saying the directors are “[t]he dead trying the dead” (57). Their fates are sealed—all the humans except Alquist die at the end of Act II. Before their physical deaths, the play suggests that they died on a spiritual level by playing God in their production of robots.
This unholy act dooms the human souls before the robots destroy their bodies. Fabry has some measure of hope in the end. He turns on the lamp which has aided in electrocuting robots and says: “Burn, holy candle of humanity!” (68). However, shortly thereafter, a stage direction notes that the “lamp goes out” as the robots take over the power plant (68). This is a symbolic moment: The light—representing the goodness of humanity—is lost.
Unlike the other humans, Alquist lives until the end of the play. This is because of the nature of his labor: He works with his hands. In his victory speech, Radius references Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution: “The world belongs to the fittest” (70). Robots, rather than humans, excel at manual labor. This means they are more fit, in Radius’s mind.
