Alquist

Character Analysis

Alquist is the chief builder and supervisor of construction at R.U.R. He is important for two reasons: First, Alquist is a builder. Since he's so handy, Radius, the revolutionary robot leader, decides not to kill him when all other humans are destroyed:

"He is a Robot. He works with his hands." (2.386)

Secondly, Alquist is a melodramatic font of flowery, over-the-top soliloquies, expressing agony and metaphysical despair, often with lots of exclamation points. For example:

It's hopeless! These books no longer speak. They're as mute as everything else. They died, died along with people! It's no use even looking! (3.4)

And… so forth. To some extent, you can understand Alquist's plight. If you were the last human being alive, you might well indulge in super-dramatic soliloquies with lots of exclamation points, too. Still, Alquist starts in with this too-much-ness even before everyone else is killed:

"Look, look streams of blood on every doorstep! Streams of blood from every house!" (2.92)

Take a chill pill, dude.

But Alquist also seems a little ridiculous. Is he truly distressed? Or is he trying to make sure you know that the play is exciting and important, like a mad scientist gibbering in a horror film? We mention over in "Tone" that it's sometimes hard to tell whether R.U.R. is serious or not, and Alquist is a prime example of that. He's over-the-top campy. You end up feeling like the robots saved him because he made them giggle, or because they wanted someone around to wink at the audience and let everyone know that, really, it's not the end of the world.