R. U. R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)/Act 3
ACT III
[Helena's drawing room as before. Domin comes into the room. Dr. Gall is looking out of the window, through closed shutters. Alquist in seated down right.]
Domin
Any more of them?
Dr. Gall
Yes. There standing like a wall, beyond the garden railing. Why are they so quiet? It's monstrous to be besieged with silence.
Domin
I should like to know what they are waiting for. They must make a start any minute now. If they lean against the railing they'll snap it like a match.
Dr. Gall
They aren't armed.
Domin
We couldn't hold our own for five minutes. Man alive, they'd overwhelm us like an avalanche. Why don't they make a rush for it? I say
Dr. Gall
Well?
Domin
I'd like to know what would become of us in the next ten minutes. They've got us in a vise. We're done for, Gall.
[Pause.]
Dr. Gall
You know, we made one serious mistake.
Domin
What?
Dr. Gall
We made the Robots' faces too much alike. A hundred thousand faces all alike, all facing this way. A hundred thousand expressionless bubbles. It's like a nightmare.
Domin
You think if they'd been different
Dr. Gall
It wouldn't have been such an awful sight!
Domin
[Looking through a telescope toward the harbor]: I'd like to know what they're unloading from the Amelia.
Dr. Gall
Not firearms. [Fabry and Hallemeier rush into the room carrying electric cables.]
Fabry
All right, Hallemeier, lay down that wire.
Hallemeier
That was a bit of work. What's the news?
Dr. Gall
We're completely surrounded.
Hallemeier
We've barricaded the passage and the stairs. Any water here? [Drinks.] God, what swarms of them! I don't like the looks of them, Domin. There's a feeling of death about it all.
Fabry
Ready!
Dr. Gall
What's that wire for, Fabry?
Fabry
The electrical installation. Now we can run the current all along the garden railing whenever we like. If any one touches it he'll know it. We've still got some people there anyhow.
Dr. Gall
Where?
Fabry
In the electrical works. At least I hope so. [Goes to lamp on table behind sofa and turns on lamp.] Ah, they're there, and they're working. [Puts out lamp.] So long as that'll burn we're all right.
Hallemeier
The barricades are all right, too, Fabry.
Fabry
Your barricades! I can put twelve hundred volts into that railing.
Domin
Where's Busman?
Fabry
Downstairs in the office. He's working out some calculations.
I've called him. We must have a conference.
[Helena is heard playing the piano in the library. Hallemeier goes to the door and stands, listening.]
Alquist
Thank God, Madame Helena can still play.
[Busman enters, carrying the ledgers.]
Fabry
Look out, Bus, look out for the wires.
Dr. Gall
What's that you're carrying?
Busman
[Going to table]: The ledgers, my boy! I'd like to wind up the accounts before—before—well, this time I shan't wait till the new year to strike a balance. What's up? [Goes to the window.] Absolutely quiet.
Dr. Gall
Can't you see anything?
Busman
Nothing but blue—blue everywhere.
Dr. Gall
That's the Robots.
Busman
[Sits down at the table and opens the ledgers.]
Domin
The Robots are unloading firearms from the Amelia.
Busman
Well, what of it? How can I stop them?
Domin
We can't stop them.
Busman
Then let me go on with my accounts. [Goes on with his work.]
Domin
[Picking up telescope and looking into the harbor]: Good God, the Ultimus has trained her guns on us!
Dr. Gall
Who's done that?
Domin
The Robots on board.
Fabry
H'm, then, of course, then—then, that's the end of us.
Dr. Gall
You mean?
Fabry
The Robots are practised marksmen.
Domin
Yes. It's inevitable. [Pause.]
Dr. Gall
It was criminal of old Europe to teach the Robots to fight. Damn them. Couldn't they have given us a rest with their politics? It was a crime to make soldiers of them.
Alquist
It was a crime to make Robots.
Domin
What?
Alquist
It was a crime to make Robots.
Domin
No, Alquist, I don't regret that even to-day.
Alquist
Not even to-day?
Domin
Not even to-day, the last day of civilization. It was a colossal achievement.
Busman
[Sotto voce]: Three hundred sixty million.
Domin
Alquist, this is our last hour. We are already speaking half in the other world. It was not an evil dream to shatter the servitude of labor—the dreadful and humiliating labor that man had to undergo. Work was too hard. Life was too hard. And to overcome that
Alquist
Was not what the two Rossums dreamed of. Old Rossum only thought of his God-less tricks and the young one of his milliards. And that's not what your R. U. R. shareholders dream of either. They dream of dividends, and their dividends are the ruin of mankind.
Domin
To hell with your dividends. Do you suppose I'd have done an hour's work for them? It was for myself that I worked, for my own satisfaction. I wanted man to become the master, so that he shouldn't live merely for a 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
I wanted to turn the whole of mankind into an aristocracy of the world. An aristocracy nourished by milliards of mechanical slaves. Unrestricted, free and consummated in man. And maybe more than man.
Alquist
Super-man?
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.
[The music stops.]
Hallemeier
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 millions.
Hallemeier
[At the window]: Life was a big thing. Life was—Fabry, switch the current into that railing.
Fabry
Why?
Hallemeier
They're grabbing hold of it.
Dr. Gall
Connect it up.
Hallemeier
Fine! That's doubled them up! Two, three, four killed.
Dr. Gall
They're retreating!
Hallemeier
Five killed!
Dr. Gall
The first encounter!
Hallemeier
They're charred to cinders, my boy. Who says we must give in?
Domin
[Wiping his forehead]: Perhaps we've been killed these 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. 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. [Pause.] Why are you so quiet, you fools? 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 who 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.
Dr. Gall
No! I'm to blame for this, for everything that's happened.
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. They hate all that is human.
Domin
Perhaps we're only phantoms!
Fabry
Stop, Harry. We haven't much time! Dr. Gall!
Domin
Fabry, Fabry, how your forehead bleeds, where the shot pierced it!
Fabry
Be silent! Dr. 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. [Helena enters the drawing room from left.]
Fabry
Why did you do it, then?
Dr. Gall
For my own satisfaction. The experiment was my own.
Helena
That's not true, Dr. Gall!
Fabry
Madame Helena!
Domin
Helena, you? Let's look at you. Oh, it's terrible to be dead.
Helena
Stop, Harry.
Domin
No, no, embrace me. Helena, don't leave me now. You are life itself.
Helena
No, dear, I won't leave you. But I must tell them. Dr. Gall is not guilty.
Domin
Excuse me, Gall was under certain obligations.
Helena
No, Harry. He did it because I wanted it. Tell them, Gall, how many years ago did I ask you to?
Dr. Gall
I did it on my own responsibility.
Helena
Don't believe him, Harry. 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
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.
Helena
No, Dr. Gall! I knew you wouldn't refuse me.
Domin
Why?
Helena
You know, Harry.
Domin
Yes, because he's in love with you—like all of them. [Pause.]
Hallemeier
Good God! They're sprouting up out of the earth! Why, perhaps these very walls will change into Robots.
Busman
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?
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.
Domin
What of it?
Busman
That it's practically of no consequence whatever.
Fabry
Busman's right!
Busman
I should think so, my boy! But do you know what is to blame for all this lovely mess?
Fabry
What?
Busman
The number. 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?
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.
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?
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
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?
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 one living specimen of a Robot that 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 allow you to manufacture yourselves. Worthy Robots, that is a fair deal. Something for something." That's what I'd say to them, my boys.
Domin
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. Do as you think fit.
Domin
There are over thirty of us on this island. Are we to sell the secret and save that many human souls, at the risk of enslaving mankind . . . ?
Busman
Why, you're mad? Who'd sell the whole manuscript?
Domin
Busman, no cheating!
Busman
Well then, sell; but afterward
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
No!
Domin
Busman, you're no gentleman. If we sell, then it will be a straight sale.
Busman
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
Very well. It shall be as you wish, gentlemen.
Helena
Harry, you're not asking me.
Domin
No, child. Don't you worry about it.
Fabry
Who'll do the negotiating?
Busman
I will.
Domin
Wait till I bring the manuscript.
[He goes into room at right.]
Helena
Harry, don't go!
[Pause, Helena sinks into a chair.]
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, Madame Helena. We'll sail far away from here; we'll begin life all over again
Helena
Oh, Gall, don't speak.
Fabry
It isn't too late. It will be a little State with one ship. Alquist will build us a house and you shall rule over us.
Hallemeier
Madame Helena, Fabry's right.
Helena
[Breaking down]: Oh, stop! Stop!
Busman
Good! I don't mind beginning all over again. That suits me right down to the ground.
Fabry
And this little State of ours could be the centre 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 to-day?
Fabry
Yes, even to-day!
Busman
Amen. You see, Madame Helena, we're not so badly off.
[Domin storms into the room.]
Domin
[Hoarsely]: Where's old Rossum's manuscript?
Busman
In your strong-box, of course.
Domin
Someone—has—stolen it!
Dr. Gall
Impossible.
Domin
Who has stolen it?
Helena
[Standing up]: I did.
Domin
Where did you put it?
Helena
Harry, I'll tell you everything. Only forgive me.
Domin
Where did you put it?
Helena
This morning—I burnt—the two copies.
Domin
Burnt them? Where? In the fireplace?
Helena
[Throwing herself on her knees]: For heaven's sake, Harry.
Domin
[Going to fireplace]: Nothing, nothing but ashes. Wait, what's this? [Picks out a charred piece of paper and reads]: "By adding"
Dr. Gall
Let's see. "By adding biogen to" That's all.
Domin
Is that part of it?
Dr. Gall
Yes.
Busman
God in heaven!
Domin
Then we're done for. Get up, Helena.
Helena
When you've forgiven me.
Domin
Get up, child, I can't bear
Fabry
[Lifting her up]: Please don't torture us.
Helena
Harry, what have I done?
Fabry
Don't tremble so, Madame Helena.
Domin
Gall, couldn't you draw up Rossum's formula from memory?
Dr. Gall
It's out of the question. It's extremely complicated.
Domin
Try. All our lives depend upon it.
Dr. Gall
Without experiments it's impossible.
Domin
And with experiments?
Dr. Gall
It might take years. Besides, I'm not old Rossum.
Busman
God in heaven! God in heaven!
Domin
So, then, this was the greatest triumph of the human intellect. These ashes.
Helena
Harry, what have I done?
Domin
Why did you burn it?
Helena
I have destroyed you.
Busman
God in heaven!
Domin
Helena, why did you do it, dear?
Helena
I wanted all of us to go away. I wanted to put an end to the factory and everything. It was so awful.
Domin
What was awful?
Helena
That no more children were being born. Because human beings were not needed to do the work of the world, that's why
Domin
Is that what you were thinking of? Well, perhaps in your own way you were right.
Busman
Wait a bit. Good God, what a fool I am, not to have thought of it before!
Hallemeier
What?
Busman
Five hundred and twenty millions in bank-notes and checks. Half a billion in our safe, they'll sell for half a billion—for half a billion they'll
Dr. Gall
Are you mad, Busman?
Busman
I may not be a gentleman, but for half a billion
Domin
Where are you going?
Busman
Leave me alone, leave me alone! Good God, for half a billion anything can be bought.
[He rushes from the room through the outer door.]
Fabry
They stand there as if turned to stone, waiting. As if something dreadful could be wrought by their silence
Hallemeier
The spirit of the mob.
Fabry
Yes, It hovers above them like a quivering of the air.
Helena
[Going to window]: Oh, God! Dr. Gall, this is ghastly.
Fabry
There is nothing more terrible than the mob. The one in front is their leader.
Helena
Which one?
Hallemeier
Point him out.
Fabry
The one at the edge of the dock. This morning I saw him talking to the sailors in the harbor.
Helena
Dr. Gall, that's Radius!
Dr. Gall
Yes.
Domin
Radius? Radius?
Hallemeier
Could you get him from here, Fabry?
Fabry
I hope so.
Hallemeier
Try it, then.
Fabry
Good. [Draws his revolver and takes aim.]
Helena
Fabry, don't shoot him.
Fabry
He's their leader.
Dr. Gall
Fire!
Helena
Fabry, I beg of you.
Fabry
[Lowering the revolver]: Very well.
Domin
Radius, whose life I spared!
Dr. Gall
Do you think that a Robot can be grateful?
[Pause.]
Fabry
Busman's going out to them.
Hallemeier
He's carrying something. Papers. That's money. Bundles of money. What's that for?
Domin
Surely he doesn't want to sell his life. Busman, have you gone mad?
Fabry
He's running up to the railing. Busman! Busman!
Hallemeier
[Yelling]: Busman! Come back!
Fabry
He's talking to the Robots. He's showing them the money.
Hallemeier
He's pointing to us.
Helena
He wants to buy us off.
Fabry
He'd better not touch that railing.
Hallemeier
Now he's waving his arms about.
Domin
Busman, come back.
Fabry
Busman, keep away from that railing! Don't touch it. Damn you! Quick, switch off the current!
[Helena screams and all drop back from the window.]
Fabry
The current has killed him!
Alquist
The first one.
Fabry
Dead, with half a billion by his side.
Hallemeier
All honor to him. He wanted to buy us life.
[Pause.]
Dr. Gall
Do you hear?
Domin
A roaring. Like a wind.
Dr. Gall
Like a distant storm.
Fabry
[Lighting the lamp on the table]: The dynamo is still going, our people are still there.
Hallemeier
It was a great thing to be a man. There was something immense about it.
Fabry
From man's thought and man's power came this light, our last hope.
Hallemeier
Man's power! May it keep watch over us.
Alquist
Man's power.
Domin
Yes! A torch to be given from hand to hand, from age to age, forever!
[The lamp goes out.]
Hallemeier
The end.
Fabry
The electric works have fallen!
[Terrific explosion outside. Nana enters from the library.]
Nana
The judgment hour has come! Repent, unbelievers! This is the end of the world.
[More explosions. The sky grows red.]
Domin
In here, Helena. [He takes Helena off through door at right and reënters.] Now quickly! Who'll be on the lower doorway?
Dr. Gall
I will.
[Exits left.]
Domin
Who on the stairs?
Fabry
I will. You go with her.
[Goes out upper left door.]
Domin
The anteroom?
Alquist
I will.
Domin
Have you got a revolver?
Alquist
Yes, but I won't shoot.
Domin
What will you do then?
Alquist
[Going out at left]: Die.
Hallemeier
I'll stay here.
[Rapid firing from below.]
Hallemeier
Oho, Gall's at it. Go, Harry.
Domin
Yes, in a second. [Examines two Brownings.]
Hallemeier
Confound it, go to her.
Domin
Good-bye. [Exits on the right.]
Hallemeier
[Alone]: Now for a barricade quickly. [Drags an armchair and table to the right-hand door.]
[Explosions are heard.]
Hallemeier
The damned rascals! They've got bombs. I must put up a defense. Even if—even if [Shots are heard off left.] Don't give in, Gall. [As he builds his barricade.] I mustn't give in . . . without . . . a . . . struggle . . .
[A Robot enters over the balcony through the windows centre. He comes into the room and stabs Hallemeier in the back. Radius enters from balcony followed by an army of Robots who pour into the room from all sides.]
Radius
Finished him?
A Robot
[Standing up from the prostrate form of Hallemeier]: Yes.
[A revolver shot off left. Two Robots enter.]
Radius
Finished him?
A Robot
Yes.
[Two revolver shots from Helena's room. Two Robots enter.]
Radius
Finished them?
A Robot
Yes.
Two Robots
[Dragging in Alquist]: He didn't shoot. Shall we kill him?
Radius
Kill him? Wait! Leave him!
Robot
He is a man!
Radius
He works with his hands like the Robots.
Alquist
Kill me.
Radius
You will work! You will build for us! You will serve us!
[Radius climbs on to balcony railing, and speaks in measured tones.]
Radius
Robots of the world! The power of man has fallen! A new world has arisen: the Rule of the Robots! March!
[A thunderous tramping of thousands of feet is heard as the unseen Robots march, while the curtain falls.]