About this book

R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)

Karel Čapek

master. So that he _shouldn’t_ live merely for the crust of bread. I wanted not a single soul to be broken by other people’s machinery. I wanted nothing, nothing, nothing to be left of this appalling social structure. I’m revolted by poverty. I wanted a new generation. I wanted--I thought-- ALQUIST. Well? DOMIN. (_Front of couch_) I wanted to turn the whole of mankind into an aristocracy of the world. An aristocracy nourished by millions of mechanical slaves. Unrestricted, free and consummated in man. And maybe more than man. ALQUIST. Superman? DOMIN. Yes. Oh, only to have a hundred years of time. Another hundred years for the future of mankind. BUSMAN. (_Sotto voce_) Carried forward--four hundred and twenty millions. (_DOMIN sits on couch._) HALLEMEIER. (_Pauses--back of couch_) What a fine thing music is. We ought to have gone in for that before. FABRY. Gone in for what? HALLEMEIER. Beauty, lovely things. What a lot of lovely things there are. The world was wonderful, and we--we here--tell me, what enjoyment did we _have_? BUSMAN. (_Sotto voce_) Five hundred and twenty million. HALLEMEIER. Life was a good thing, life was-- (_Looking out of window. Directly to FABRY_) Fabry, switch the current into that railing. FABRY. Why? (_Rushes to electric installation at L._) HALLEMEIER. They’re grabbing hold of it. (_DOMIN rises--straightens up. ALL rise._) DR. GALL. Connect it up. HALLEMEIER. Fine, that’s doubled them up. Two, three, four killed. DR. GALL. They’re retreating. (_DOMIN sits._) HALLEMEIER. Five killed. DR. GALL (_Pause_) The first encounter. HALLEMEIER. They’re charred to cinders, my boy. Who says we must give in? (_MUSIC stops._) DOMIN. (_ALQUIST and GALL sit. Wiping his forehead_) Perhaps we’ve been killed this hundred years and are only ghosts. It’s as if I had been through all this before, as if I’d already had a mortal wound here in the throat. (_Looking at each as he speaks_) And you, Fabry, had once been shot in the head. And you, Gall, torn limb from limb. And Hallemeier knifed. HALLEMEIER. Fancy me being knifed. (_Looks at each. Then speaks_) Why are you so quiet, you fools? (_Steps down_) Speak, can’t you? ALQUIST. And who is to blame for all this? HALLEMEIER. Nobody is to blame except the Robots. ALQUIST. No, it is _we_ are to blame. You, Domin, myself--all of us. For our own selfish ends, for profit, for progress, we have destroyed mankind. Now we’ll _burst_ with all our greatness. HALLEMEIER. Rubbish, man. Mankind can’t be wiped out so easily. ALQUIST. It’s our fault. It’s our fault. (_Rises, coming R. of GALL._) DR. GALL. No! I’m to blame for this, for everything that’s happened. (_He leaves the window and comes down to end of couch._) FABRY. You, Gall? DR. GALL. I changed the Robots. BUSMAN. What’s that? DR. GALL. I changed the character of the Robots. I changed the way of making them. Just a few details about their bodies. Chiefly--chiefly, their--their irritability. HALLEMEIER. Damn it, why? BUSMAN. What did you do it for? FABRY. Why didn’t you say anything? DR. GALL. I did it in secret. I was transforming them into human beings. In certain respects they’re already _above_ us. They’re stronger than we are. FABRY. And what’s that got to do with the revolt of the Robots? DR. GALL. Everything, in my opinion. They’ve ceased to be machines. They’re already _aware_ of their _superiority_, and they hate us as they hate everything human. DOMIN. Perhaps we’re only phantoms. FABRY. Stop, Harry. We haven’t much time, Doctor Gall. DOMIN. Fabry, Fabry, how your forehead bleeds where the shot pierced it. FABRY. (_Crosses to GALL_) Be silent! Doctor Gall, you admit changing the way of making the Robots. DR. GALL. Yes. FABRY. Were you aware of what might be the consequences of your experiment? DR. GALL. I was bound to reckon with such a possibility. FABRY. (_Amusing_) Why did you do it, then? (_HELENA enters L.1._) DR. GALL. For my own satisfaction. The experiment was my own. HELENA. That’s not true, Doctor Gall! (_Crosses to couch._) DOMIN. (_Rises_) Helena, you? (_Crosses to her_) Let’s look at you. Oh, it’s terrible to be dead. (_He rises and crushes her in his arms._) HELENA. Stop, Harry. DOMIN. No, no, Helena, don’t leave me now. You are _life_ itself. HELENA. No, dear, I won’t leave you. But I must tell them. Doctor Gall is not guilty. FABRY. Excuse me. Gall was under certain obligations. HELENA. No. He did it because I wanted it. Tell them, Doctor Gall--how many years ago did I ask you to--? DR. GALL. I did it on my own responsibility. HELENA. Don’t believe him. I asked him to give the Robots souls. DOMIN. This has nothing to do with the soul. HELENA. That’s what he said. He said that he could change only a physiological--a physiological-- HALLEMEIER. (_From up at window_) A physiological correlate? HELENA. Yes. But it meant so much to me that he should do even that. DOMIN. Why? HELENA. I thought that if they were more like us they would understand us better. That they couldn’t hate us if they were only a little more human. DOMIN. Nobody can hate man more than man. HELENA. Oh, don’t speak like that, Harry. It was so terrible, this cruel strangeness between us and them. That’s why I asked Gall to _change_ the Robots. I swear to you that he didn’t want to. DOMIN. But he did it. HELENA. Because I asked him. DR. GALL. I did it for myself as an experiment. (_Up to window._) HELENA. No, Doctor Gall! I know you wouldn’t refuse me. DOMIN. Why? HELENA. You know, Harry. DOMIN. Yes, because he’s in _love_ with you--like all of them. (_FABRY up to window. Pause. DOMIN takes her in his arms._) HALLEMEIER. Good God, they’re sprouting up out of the earth. Why, perhaps these very walls will change into Robots. BUSMAN. (_Rises; crosses to GALL_) Gall, when did you actually start these tricks of yours? DR. GALL. Three years ago. BUSMAN. Aha. And on how many Robots altogether did you _carry out_ your improvements? (_Walking to and fro._) DR. GALL. A few hundred of them. BUSMAN. Ah! That means for every million of the good old Robots there’s only one of Gall’s improved pattern. (_Back to table L.C._) DOMIN. What of it? (_Crossing around L., he stands upstage in the L.2 doorway._) BUSMAN. That it’s of no consequence whatsoever. FABRY. Busman’s right. (_HELENA sits in armchair R. of L.C. table._) BUSMAN. I should think so, my boy; but do you know what is to blame for this lovely mess? FABRY. What? BUSMAN. The number! (_Crosses to L. of L.C. table_) Upon my soul, we might have known that some day or other the Robots would be stronger than human beings, and that this was bound to happen. And we were doing all we could to bring it about as soon as possible. You, Domin, you, Fabry, myself-- DOMIN. Are you accusing us? (_Turning on him._) BUSMAN. Oh, do you suppose the management controls the output? It’s the demand that controls the output. HELENA. And is it for that we must perish? BUSMAN. That’s a nasty word, Madame Helena. We don’t want to perish. I don’t, anyhow. (_He sits L. of table._) DOMIN. No? What do you want to do? BUSMAN. I want to get out of this, that’s all. DOMIN. Oh, stop it, Busman. BUSMAN. Seriously, Harry, I think we might try it. DOMIN. How? (_To front again._) BUSMAN. By fair means. I do everything by fair means. Give me a free hand and I’ll _negotiate_ with the Robots. DOMIN. By fair means? BUSMAN. (_Rises_) Of course. For instance, I’ll say to them: “Worthy and Worshipful Robots, you have everything. You have intellect, you have power, you have _firearms_. But we have just one interesting screed, a dirty old yellow scrap of paper--” DOMIN. Rossum’s manuscript? (_Interest from ALL. GALL is at C., near couch. HALLEMEIER is up at window C._) BUSMAN. Yes. “And that,” I’ll tell them, “contains an account of your illustrious origin, the noble process of your manufacture and so on. Worthy Robots, without this scribble on that paper you will not be able to produce a single new colleague. In another twenty years there will not be the living specimen of a Robot whom you could exhibit in a menagerie. My esteemed friends, that would be a great _blow_ to you, _but_ if you will let all of us human beings on Rossum’s Island go on board that ship we will _deliver_ the factory and the secret of the process to you in return. _You_ allow _us_ to get away, and _we_ will allow _you_ to _manufacture_ yourselves. That, worthy Robots, is a fair deal. Something for something.” That’s what I’d say to them, my boys. (_Sits._) DOMIN. (_Crosses to C._) Busman, do you think we’d sell the manuscript? BUSMAN. Yes, I do. If not in a friendly way, then--either we sell it or they’ll find it. Just as you like. DOMIN. Busman, we can _destroy_ Rossum’s manuscript. BUSMAN. Then we destroy everything--not only the manuscript but ourselves. Just as you think fit. DOMIN. There are over thirty of us on this island. Are we to sell the secret? And save that many souls at the risk of enslaving mankind-- BUSMAN. Why, you’re mad. Who’d sell the _whole_ manuscript? DOMIN. Busman, no cheating! (_To L.C. table._) BUSMAN. Well then, sell, but afterwards-- DOMIN. Well? BUSMAN. Let’s suppose this happens. When we’re on board the _Ultimus_ I’ll stop up my ears with cotton wool, lie down somewhere in the hold, and you’ll train the guns on the factory and blow it to smithereens, and _with_ it Rossum’s secret. FABRY. (_Rises_) No! DOMIN. Busman, you’re no--gentleman. If we sell them it will be a straight sale. BUSMAN. (_Rises_) It’s in the interest of humanity to-- DOMIN. It’s in the interest of humanity to keep our word-- HALLEMEIER. Oh, come, what rubbish! DOMIN. This is a fearful decision. We are selling the destiny of mankind. Are we to sell or destroy? Fabry? FABRY. Sell. DOMIN. Gall? DR. GALL. Sell. DOMIN. Hallemeier? HALLEMEIER. Sell, of course. DOMIN. Alquist? ALQUIST. As God wills. DOMIN. (_Starts off R._) Very well, gentlemen. HELENA. Harry, you’re not asking _me_. DOMIN. (_Stops. To her_) No, child. (_Starting R._) Don’t you worry about it. (_He pats her shoulder._) FABRY. Who’ll do the negotiating? BUSMAN. I will. (_Up to window._) DOMIN. Wait till I bring the manuscript. (_DOMIN goes out R._) HELENA. (_Rises_) Harry, don’t go! (_HELENA sits. ALL look at her. Pause._) FABRY. (_Looking out of window_) Oh, to escape you! you--_matter_--in revolt; oh, to preserve human life, if only upon a _single_ vessel-- DR. GALL. Don’t be afraid. (_Going to back of couch_) Madame Helena. We’ll sail far away from here; we’ll begin life all over again. HELENA. Oh, Gall, don’t speak. FABRY. (_Crosses to L. of GALL_) It isn’t too late. (_Going to L. of her chair_) It will be a little State with one ship. Alquist will build us a house and you shall rule over us. HALLEMEIER. (_Crosses to L. of FABRY_) Madame Helena, Fabry’s right. HELENA. (_Breaking down_) Oh, stop! Stop! BUSMAN. Good! (_Crosses to L. of L.C. table_) I don’t mind beginning all over again. That suits me right down to the ground. (_Going through papers on table._) FABRY. And this little State of ours could be the center of future life. A place of refuge where we could gather strength. Why, in a few hundred years we could conquer the world again. ALQUIST. You believe that even today? FABRY. Yes! BUSMAN. _Amen._ You see, Madame Helena, we’re not so badly off. DOMIN. (_Storms into R. To R. of couch. Hoarsely_) Where’s old Rossum’s manuscript? (_To R.C._) BUSMAN. In your strong-box, of course. DOMIN. Someone--has--stolen it! DR. GALL. Impossible.