R. U. R. and The Insect Play Book

R. U. R. introduced the German word robot (derived, according to the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, from the "Czech robota, [meaning] forced labour, drudgery") to the English language in its modern sense as a manufactured slave. Originally it referred to the form of serfdom abolished by the Austrian Empire in 1848. The playwright's brother Josef suggested the use of the word.

The inventor Rossum discovered a way to chemically create living matter. He had a theological point about God and humanity that he wanted to make, but his son had a more practical use for the robots: cheap labor. So after the old man passed away full scale production of the new emotionless and obedient serfs began on a remote island. When the play opens Helena, an agent of the Humanity League has come to argue with the General Manager of the Company Harry Domain to grant the robots, as synthetic humans, some human rights. Domain laughs at the idea and brings in his whole management team'five other men'to explain to this naïve, idealistic young woman, how the emotionless, fearless, and simple minded machines, who exist only to work, have no interest in "rights." And because of this all humanity will be relived of the burden of work, a utopia of leisure is about to dawn.

But do the managers send Helena off the island on the next boat? Oh no! She's the only human young woman on the island, everybody else, except these six men, are robots. Having had enough of batching it, they all fall in love with her, and Domain proposes marriage. As act two open the audience realizes that Helena has accepted the proposal, it's now several years in the future and all the humans are planning to escape the island. Helena had convinced Dr. Gall, the factory's chief physiologist to tinker with the robots, to give them emotion and make them more human. As a result the nightmare of every slave owner from antiquity to pre-Civil War America has occurred: the robots are in revolt. "The judgment hour has come."


In The Insect Play a semi-sober tramp in a park observes, and comments upon, three groups of insects, butterflies, "creepers and crawlers," and ants. The butterflies flit about flirting, and absorbed in romantic love, some playfully, some pining with unconsummated desire and some callously. The creepers and crawlers are all about looking out for #1, amassing capital, preying on others, and rejoicing when they can profit from another's misfortune. The tramp concludes that all this self-centeredness, whether for love or profit, is why humans rule the world and not insects.

"Insec's won't work together. Man
Will. 'E can form a general plan.
There's something great in 'im what fights
And perishes for the nation's rights.
…
I've 'it it! That's what makes men great'
Given' their lives up for the State!"
Then in come the ants, and they're all work, collective consciousness for all. Except, of course for the other ant hill with whom they're about to go to war. The war followed by a general massacre ensues, and the tramp is left pondering the futility of life.