33 pages • 1 hour read
Alfred JarryUbu Roi
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1896A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaAct IIChapter Summaries & Analyses
Act II Summary
Act II begins in King Wenceslaus’s palace, where the king tells his son, Buggerlaus, that he cannot come to the parade because he was “impertinent” to Papa Turd (21). Queen Rosamunde warns the king that he should have his “whole family protecting [him]” (21), as she’s predicted in a dream she had that Papa Turd will kill and overthrow him. Wenceslaus decries her prediction as “nonsense” and says that he will show his confidence in Papa Turd by going to the parade “with neither sword nor buckler” (21). The Queen predicts she will never see the king again. The king then goes off with his other two sons, Ladislaus and Boneslaus, while the Queen takes Buggerlaus to the chapel to pray for their family.
Scene 2 takes place at the parade, where Papa Turd and his conspirators carry out their plan to kill the king. As planned, Papa Turd stomps on the king’s foot and the other men come and strike the king; Papa Turd then delivers the “finishing stroke” and declares he “has the crown” (23). Bordure and his men begin to pursue the king’s sons.
In Scenes 3 and 4, the queen and Buggerlaus are in the palace. They become aware of the commotion outside and narrate as Papa Turd and Bordure’s men kill Boleslaus and Ladislaus, the latter of whom has been “cut […] in half like a sausage” (23). Papa Turd’s men break into the palace and turn their attention to the queen and Buggerlaus; Buggerlaus fights the soldiers and “massacres” them before both he and the queen escape through a secret staircase (24).
Buggerlaus and the queen escape to a cavern in the mountains in Scene 5, where the queen tells Buggerlaus that the family’s ordeal has made her sick and she will soon die. The two despair over the fate that the “villain” Papa Turd has brought their family; “Oh Buggerlaus,” the queen says, “when I remember how happy we were before we ever saw that Papa Turd! But now, alas, everything is changed” (25). The queen dies, and Buggerlaus vows revenge on Papa Turd, saying, “How sad it is to find oneself alone at the age of fourteen, with a terrible vengeance to pursue!” (26). At that moment, the ghosts of Buggerlaus’s family appear to him, including their ancestors. One ancestor, Junkerr Matthias von Koenigsberg, the first king of the family’s house, gives Buggerlaus a “big sword” and says the family “entrust[s] their vengeance” in him (26). The ghost adds, “Let this sword that I give you see no rest until it has banged hell out of the usurper”; Buggerlaus is left alone “in an attitude of ecstasy” (26).
Back in the King’s palace, in Scene 6, Mama Turd and Bordure are attempting to convince Papa Turd to give the people of Poland food and gold to celebrate his coronation, for if he doesn’t, Papa Turd will “be overthrown within two hours” (26).Papa Turd is loath to give the people any money, saying “I’m here to get rich. I won’t let go of a penny” (26). Once Mama Turd and Bordure tell him that the people won’t be able to pay their taxes without the distributions, however, Papa Turd “consent[s] to everything,” and plans to give the people three million in currency and roast 150 cows and sheep (27). Papa Turd distributes these riches to the people in Scene Seven, before inviting them into the palace to feast. The people are eager supporters of Papa Turd; as they head into the palace, they exclaim, “Long live PT! He’s the best king of all!” (28).
Act II Analysis
This act supplies the play’s most pivotal plot points, as Papa Turd kills the king and ascends the throne, while Buggerlaus vows his revenge. Act II’s focus on Wenceslaus and his family seemingly provides a contrast to Mama and Papa Turd’s cruelty and naked ambition: Wenceslaus appears to be a king with more manners and faith in others than Papa Turd, putting his trust in Papa Turd and punishing Buggerlaus for being rude to him. Yet the scene also reveals parallels between Wenceslaus and Papa Turd, when the latter eventually becomes king, despite the far more ordered nature of Wenceslaus’s rule. There are some lines that echo Papa and Mama Turd’s own arguments—Wenceslaus calls Buggerlaus a “young swine” (21)—and Wenceslaus’s refusal to heed the queen’s premonition about Papa Turd foreshadows Papa Turd’s failure to listen to Mama Turd’s warning about Buggerlaus, linking the two rulers through their foolhardy belief that their power will not go unchecked.
Once Papa Turd and his men attack, this comparatively respectable scene soon descends into the chaotic, excessive violence that will come to mark much of Ubu Roi: stage directions and lines of dialogue in the text specify that at various points during the struggle “a clown explodes” (22), Bordure “cuts [Ladislaus] in half like a sausage” (23), and Buggerlaus “bashes in [a] soldier’s skull” and “massacres” soldiers by “mak[ing] a windmill with his sword” (24).
Buggerlaus’s decision to seek vengeance for his family’s deaths sets up the play’s central conflict, presenting a challenge to Papa Turd’s desire for power and the fight that will dominate much of the later acts. Ubu Roi’s vengeance plot reflects the play’s reliance on Shakespearean themes and tropes: Buggerlaus echoes the character of Fortinbras, in Hamlet, who similarly seeks revenge, and the appearance of Buggerlaus’s family’s ghosts to inspire his revenge regurgitates a trope frequently seen in Shakespeare’s plays.
The first scenes of Papa Turd’s rule as king betray his greed and desire for wealth, as he initially refuses to give his constituents gold until he realizes it’s needed for their taxes, which will make Papa Turd richer. It also shows how short-sighted his own thinking on being king is: while Mama Turd considers the consequences of Papa Turd withholding money and predicts that doing so will lead to his downfall, Papa Turd only considers what will give him the most immediate material reward. At this point in his reign, however, Papa Turd still gives the impression that he is receptive to others, listening to Mama Turd and Bordure’s suggestions (even if it’s only because it will benefit himself) and ingratiating himself with the people by giving them food and gold. The people are initially supportive of Papa Turd because of their own desires for wealth; when Papa Turd distributes barrels of gold and food to them, they praise him as “the best king of all,” saying, “Nothing like this ever happened under Wenceslaus” (28).
