Dutchman: A classic drama

In scene two the Bohemian, Lula reveals a hint of her underlying agenda in the second half of the play.

“Clay. You live in a tenement? “Lula. Wouldn’t live anywhere else. Reminds me specifically of my novel form of insanity.”

“Dutchman” is an angry play from the language right through to its violent ending and Baraka intends it this way. The two characters are archetypes, the square Negro in a shirt and tie, Clay and Lula, the Bohemian white woman. I do not know how much literal interpretation can be gathered from the plays content but it is clear that a complexity existed in 1964 and is still relevant today concerning racial relations. Finally, in Clay’s soliloquy in the last part of the play a Black Nationalist credo is visible. Baraka’s poetry and plays make him a figure in African American literature that students of Literature and Poetry can learn much.

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