The Emperor Jones summary

Scene I: The Palace and the Revolt Begins

The play is set on a Caribbean island in the West Indies, in the throne room of Emperor Brutus Jones, a self-declared ruler. It’s late afternoon, and the palace is strangely empty. An old black woman sneaks through silently, followed by a white trader named Smithers who demands to know what’s happening.

Smithers learns that the island’s native people, led by a former tribal chief named Lem, have stolen the horses and fled to the hills to plan a rebellion against Jones, whom they view as a tyrant. When Jones enters, Smithers hesitantly tells him the bad news. But Jones remains confident and calm.

He explains his past: he came from the United States, worked as a train porter, killed a man named Jeff in a gambling fight, went to prison, and later escaped. Arriving on the island, he teamed up with Smithers, saw how Smithers exploited the natives, and soon took over as their leader by claiming to have magical powers. He told them that only a silver bullet could kill him.

Now, although the natives have revolted, Jones believes he is safe. He has money in a foreign bank, food hidden in the forest, and an escape route planned. He even has a “lucky charm” — what he believes is the only silver bullet on the island.

As Jones prepares to escape, the sound of tribal drums begins in the distance. Smithers tells him it’s a war ritual to summon courage. Jones pretends not to be afraid and starts his journey into the forest at 3:30 p.m.

 

Scene II: Into the Forest – First Hallucination

By evening, Jones reaches the forest’s edge, exhausted. He hears the steady drumbeats, which match a normal heartbeat. When he tries to find the hidden food, it’s gone.

Suddenly, he begins to hallucinate — shadowy, child-sized creatures called “Little Formless Fears” appear. They represent his rising anxiety and self-doubt. Jones panics and shoots at them. They vanish, and the drumbeats grow faster. Shaken but determined, he continues into the forest.

Scene III: Haunted by the Past – Jeff Returns

It is 9:00 p.m. The moonlight makes the forest look eerie. Jones reaches a small clearing, scratched and worn from the dense foliage. There, he sees a vision of Jeff, the man he once killed. Haunted by guilt, he shoots at the hallucination, which disappears. Once again, he flees deeper into the forest as the drumbeats grow faster and louder.

 

Scene IV: The Prison Vision

An hour before midnight, Jones finds a dirt road. Now barely clothed, he’s drenched in sweat and throws off parts of his uniform. He sees another hallucination — this time of black prisoners working on a chain gang. A cruel white guard orders Jones to join them. In a trance, Jones obeys but resists when the guard beats him. He tries to fight back with an imaginary shovel, but when that fails, he fires another shot. The scene vanishes. He escapes again into the forest, the drumbeats pounding louder.

 

Scene V: Slave Auction

At 1:00 a.m., Jones enters a large circular clearing. In his mind, the space transforms into a 19th-century slave auction. He sees a crowd buying and selling slaves — and he becomes one of them. When he is put up for sale, Jones fires at the hallucinated slave buyer. The vision disappears. He runs again as the drumbeats accelerate.

Scene VI: The Slave Ship

At 3:00 a.m., Jones crawls into a small, low clearing beneath the forest canopy. The moonlight barely reaches the space. Jones is nearly naked, reduced to wearing only a breechcloth, and his last silver bullet remains. He begins another hallucination: this time, he imagines being chained aboard a slave ship with other Africans being transported to America. The vision fades as the drumbeats become louder and faster.

 

Scene VII: The Witch Doctor and the Final Shot

At 5:00 a.m., Jones reaches the base of a huge tree near a river. There, he sees a witch doctor dancing wildly. Entranced, Jones begins to chant and dance with him. The witch doctor signals that Jones must be sacrificed to a river god in the form of a crocodile. With a final act of resistance, Jones fires his last bullet at the vision of the crocodile.

 

Scene VIII: The End of the Journey

At dawn, the final scene returns to where Jones began his escape. Lem and his group of native rebels arrive with Smithers. They follow Jones’s trail and talk about how they spent the night beating drums and casting spells. Smithers mocks their methods, but Lem is confident. Suddenly, the sound of someone moving through the forest is heard. The rebels fire, and Jones is killed — revealing that he had been running in circles all night.

The drumbeats stop. Lem shows that they too had made silver bullets from melted coins  proving Jones's superstition was false. The men drag away Jones’s body. Smithers, left alone, scornfully remarks on the whole affair.