“Mulatto” is a play written by Langston Hughes in the thirties of the previous century. The play explores the issues of the race such as lynching and miscegenation as well as the tragedy of family relationships between father and son during a difficult and controversial period in the social relations in America. The author received the national reputation of a dramatist due to the performance of “Mulatto” in 1935 by Martin Jones on Broadway. The play appealed to the public of Broadway because it examined the theme of tragic mulatto that symbolized the failure of the myth of egalitarianism. Such theme is familiar to the Southerner but is enigmatic to the northerners. The play is set in 1920 and echoes the relationship between races of the nineteen-century South during the time of slavery. The inability of creating genuine emotional and spiritual attachment between the white master, his concubine, and his bastards may have appeared from the author’s own family situation because his father abandoned young Langston, and his mother neglected him. Actually, the theme of tragic mulatto can be found in numerous works by Hughes, for example in the poems “Mulatto”, “Cross”, short story “Passing”, etc. in fact, in “Mulatto”, Hughes presents a deep and psychological inner world of the tragic mulatto embodied by Robert Lewis who expresses emotional conflict in his own personality.
The play consists of two acts that deal with the transformation of external conflict between Colonel and Robert into the Robert’s inner struggle, which resulted in the suicide. The first act introduces the setting that is the plantation and the big house of Colonel Norwood, the white plantation owner. His concubine is the black woman Cora Lewis who is his personal servant and gave birth to four children from the master. He is interested in providing them with education but refuses to accept their birthright. Robert Lewis is the defiant young mulatto who tries to get the equal rights with the whites. He violated the code of behavior for the blacks and provoked the wrath of his father. Norwood wants to teach Robert how to behave properly and even takes his pistol but he is too shocked and nervous to apply it. In addition, act one emphasizes the differences between William and Robert, two brothers. The eldest brother tries to accommodate to the conditions, in which he exists while Robert is obsessed with the idea of equality and rights according to his birth. Robert calls William a “rabbit-hearted coon” but William objects and says that it is better to be a rabbit-hearted coon than to become a dead coon one day. Two sisters and brother of Robert show different ways of adapting to racial boundaries. Sally is meek and humble. She expresses a strong will to return to her native community and become a teacher after receiving the education. William, the eldest son of Cora and Colonel, prefers to accommodate to the habitual and traditional way of life and adheres to the existing state of affairs. His language is black vernacular that resembles the way the servants speak. As a child, Robert called Norwood “papa” when there were a lot of people nearby, after which the man applied very severe physical punishment for the little boy. William considers Robert’s provoking behavior as foolish attempts to gain the status of the whites. He is sure that a nigger should know his place, especially in the South.
Act two depicts the open confrontation between Norwood and Robert. Surprisingly, Colonel tries to talk to his son rather than impose immediate punishment; however, the young mulatto is adamant. Norwood loses his temper and again takes the pistol out of his drawer but Robert disarms him and chokes to death. When Cora sees the dead body, she asks her son to escape from the front door before the sheriff and other white men get a mob. The final action of the play depicts Robert’s return home following by the crowd of white men that implies lynching because they were armed with ropes, knives, and guns. Robert understands his destiny and chooses suicide than being tortured by lynching.
Actually, a mulatto is the offspring of a white and black parent. Generally, they have light skin and eyes but still too dark to be accepted into the world of whites. There are numerous valid and cogent portrayals of this character but there are numerous stereotypes due to the fact that he is inclined to dramatic exaggeration and misrepresentation. From his white blood usually comes intellectual struggles and refusal to be a slave, from his black heritage he is frequently prone to avoiding the activity and being savage. The tragic mulatto is a stereotypical character introduced in American literature in the nineteen century. He is an archetypical mixed raced man who is supposed to be sad and suicidal because he fails to fit in either the white world or the black one. He is the victim of the society that is divided by race boundaries, in which there is no place for half white and half black person. Lydia Maria Child was the first to introduce this tragic character in her short stories “The Quadroons” (1842) and “Slavery’s Pleasant Homes” (1843). She depicted a mulatto woman who could not find her place in the world due to the uncertain identity; she was abandoned by her white lover and died from white people violence. Several decades later, the depiction of a tragic mulatto acquired some personal weaknesses such as depression, suicide attempts, self-hatred or even alcoholism. The character tried to pass for a white but this action increased the feeling of self-loathing. He despised blacks for their meekness and hated whites but tried to get their acceptance. In such prejudiced society, the only way for such a person is to find death. Were, in reality, mulattos born to suffer? Indeed, all racial minorities in the US were oppressed by the dominant group. Mulattos were considered slaves due to their dark skin and ancestors. However, the tragedy is not having “Negro blood” but the limitations imposed according to the race. “In “Mulatto”, Hughes creates a tragic drama based on the rupture of the social order of the old South. The principal character, Robert Lewis, is the mulatto son of Colonel Thomas Norwood and Cora Lewis, his black concubine. Robert resembles his father in physical appearance and temperament. But his defies the code of “Negro etiquette”, a legacy of slavery” (McLaren, p. 61). This was an unwritten code that demanded subservient behavior and unquestionable obedience.
Robert’s disobedience and defiance depend on his identity and physical appearance. He resembles his father in both appearance and character because the young mulatto has gray eyes; he is high and possesses the fiery inner self. The blacks used the vernacular language but Robert spoke the almost pure language. Bert was smart at school and is smart now to understand the absurdity of racial boundaries and restrictions. The blacks, for example, had no access to certain spaces at home, for example, the front door of the Norwood house, which becomes the symbol of inequality and boundaries imposed by the prejudices of race and power. When Robert violates the “front door” prohibition, he shows his resistance and refusal to accept and admit the lower status connected with the skin color. Robert identifies himself with the whites and, as a son of the plantation owner, he is sure to have his part of the legacy. Robert favors materialism and privileges represented by whiteness and denies his and his ancestors’ African heritage. He can be characterized as a defiant and provocative young man. When he returns from the college located in Atlanta, he takes Norwood’s Ford without permission. The car symbolizes power and liberation, and Robert threats to the order of plantation by challenging his father. Cady Wintz is sure that, “Mulatto” is the tragic mode of black folk drama. Here Hughes changes the familiar stereotype of the tragic mulatto, making this figure militant rather than meek and gentle. Hughes saw tragedy as intertwined with historical, social, and political injustice, and his tragic characters are all involved in broad social issues and conflicts” (p. 714). Moreover, the young man breaks the unwritten code of behavior for the blacks by sassing Miss Gray in the post office. He demands his money back that is an act of the unprecedented insolence. “Robert challenges the dominance of Higgins and Norwood. Not only does Robert publicly resist customary limitations but he demands his rights as the son of Norwood. Robert refuses to be treated as a second class citizen in Higgins’s store, and he identifies himself as heir to Norwood’s property through Norwood describes Robert as a “black ape” (McLaren, p. 64). His killing of Norwood is the last attack on plantation order, and this act gives him the power and authority that means he killed a white man.
Robert is a tragic mulatto because he cannot find his place either in the world of the whites or blacks. However, his hatred for the whites is not inborn. He expressed strong affection for his father until one day Norwood punished Robert for calling him “papa”. This incident left a huge impression on the boy due to the first denial. The second denial took place when the young mulatto returned from school and wanted to shake hands with his father but was rejected in a cruel way. The third explicit denial happened when Colonel wanted to hit Robert with his cane but was restrained by the mulatto’s hostility and aggressive conduct. During their final meeting, Colonel expressed the supreme rejection by denying not only physical kinship with Robert but also any spiritual relations between them. The old man insisted on subordination according to race, and that the young man had to talk like a nigger to a white man without being provocative and insolent. He called Robert Cora’s boy and insisted on the fact that nigger women did not know the fathers of their children. The young man then lost control and his father’s intention to kill him made him furious and led to fatal consequences for Colonel. But his subsequent suicide is not the way to cheat the white mob; he shot himself proudly. The reader can observe that throughout the play the young mulatto felt no shame of being a bastard, vice versa, he seemed to be proud of his being a Norwood’s son. He called himself not “half-black” but “half-white” indicating his connection to the dominant race. “The outstanding contribution, which Hughes has made in his delineation of the tragic mulatto is to point out that at the bottom the problem of the mixed-blood character is basically a personal problem. In short, in the play “Mulatto”, the author reduces his tragic mulatto problem to a father and son conflict, and for him the single all-important and transcending issue is rejection” (Davis, p. 203). Nevertheless, Robert had never expressed the desire to become a white person; he just wanted to have a rightful home and a father. And this was the position of Langston Hughes. Despite racial background and biased attitude towards the blacks, the objective problem is a personal one, to be exact, it is the rejection of the son by his father.
Both parents of Robert do not approve of his behavior and violations of the rules. Indeed, Norwood is a contradictory character who denies the paternity of Cora’s children; however, at the same time, he tries to organize their education to achieve success in the future. Norwood is anxious about Robert’s changes and is sure that this is the result of the studies. He says to Cora, “Just because Bert’s your son and I’ve been damn fool enough to send him off to school for five or six years, he thinks he has a right to privileges, acting as if he owned this place since he has been back here this summer” (Hughes). Norwood is not a blatant racist but he is not ready to grant mulattos high social status. In addition, he blames education for such Robert’s violation of social rules and thinks that physical punishment is the thing that helps to correct the improper behavior.
As for Cora, she evaluates Robert’s behavior in communal terms and sees his manners as potentially menacing to the habitual and existing state of affairs. The woman regards his actions to be breaching the boundary between master and servant. Cora, like her eldest son and Sam, supports the maintenance of the barriers of race. She says, “You know can’t no colored boy here talk like you’s been doin’ to no white folks, let alone to de Colonel and that old devil of a Talbot” (Hughes). The woman is extremely servile but she is aware of race relations in the North and South. When she reminds Robert of being in “Georgy” but the North where his sister is “passing”. At the same time, Cora defends the Colonel when says that he allowed them to live, sleep in his house and get the education. “Cora views Norwood’s intervention as necessary for Bert’s protection; she can accept the Colonel’s manner of discipline. Above all, she and William believe that Norwood’s actions will be more effective than theirs in saving Bert’s life, for Cora and William realize that they cannot bring Bert to the fundamental realization that surviving as a black person in their part of Georgian means living within the confinements imposed by white society” (Bienvenu, p. 344). In spite of the fact of Norwood’s liberalism, the majority of people in the South tried to maintain the “Negro” etiquette, which is encouraged by Cora who persuades Robert to enter the house through the kitchen door. Cora represents the struggle of the blacks regarded the slavery past; the conflict between Robert and his father seems to address the white audience. “Mulatto” is a complex play that focuses not only on the single protagonist but also on three main characters. Such multiple focus is the strength of the play rather than its weakness because it appeals to different types of the audience at the same time and presents different meanings and implications for white and black observers.
Works cited
Bienvenu, Germain J. “Intracaste Prejudice in Langston Hughes's Mulatto”. African American Review 26.2 (1992): 341–353. Web. 2 Jan 2016
Davis, Arthur P.. “The Tragic Mulatto Theme in Six Works of Langston Hughes”. Phylon (1940-1956)16.2 (1955): 195–204. Web. 2 Jan 2016
Hughes, Langston, and Arnold Rampersad. The Collected Works of Langston Hughes. Columbia: University of Missouri, 2001. Print.
McLaren, Joseph. Langston Hughes, Folk Dramatist in the Protest Tradition, 1921-1943. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1997. Print.
Wilmeth, Don B. The Cambridge History of American Theatre. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 1998. Print.
Wintz, Cary D. Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance. New York: Routledge, 2004. Print.
