The Darker Face of the Earth

The Darker Face of the Earth, a play by Rita Dove, was first performed in 1996 though Dove had originally written it in 1979, making it one of her earliest works. When the play was published in 1994, Dove was in residence as the United States Poet Laureate, being both the youngest person and first African-American appointed to the role.

The play is a retelling of the Greek myth of Oedipus—specifically Sophocles’s classical tragedy Oedipus Rex—set on a slave plantation in antebellum South Carolina. The myth of Oedipus tells the story of a man who is prophesied to marry his mother and kill his father, and of the adventures and misadventures that lead to this fate being fulfilled.

In The Darker Face of the Earth, Oedipus is replaced by Augustus, a mulatto slave born to Mistress Amalia who had seduced Hector, one of her slaves. Augustus, sold as a baby, returns to the plantation as an adult, where he begins an affair with his mother. In the tradition of Greek plays, there is a chorus of characters who narrate and comment on the actions of the main characters, a role here played by a group of slaves at the plantation.



The play opens during the birth of the baby. Nineteen-year-old Amalia gives birth to a mulatto child, obviously not the son of her white husband, Louis. It is revealed she had an affair with a slave named Hector. In a rage, Louis wants to kill the child, but the doctor convinces the couple to sell the baby to another family instead, telling their own slaves he died in childbirth. Amalia places the baby in her knitting basket to be taken away; Louis places a pair of spurs in the basket, hoping the baby will injure himself and die.

Twenty years later, several slaves are discussing the fact that their mistress became increasingly cruel and merciless after the loss of her child. One of the slaves, Scylla, goes into a trance, revealing a prophecy that will affect four people: a black man, a black woman, a white man, and a white woman. She believes Hector, an old slave who has gone crazy and lives alone in the swamp, may be the black man involved.

Augustus arrives, presented as the newest slave purchased by Amalia. He had a kind master who educated him and took him traveling, so he is well traveled and learned. His master had promised him freedom upon his death, but when he passed away, his brother sold Augustus instead. From that time, Augustus gained a reputation as a rebellious and uncontrollable slave. His education and experience, combined with his rebelliousness and hatred of white masters, make him a natural leader for the slaves, who begin to see him as such. Scylla is the only one who is unsure about him, saying he will stir up trouble.



A group of slaves let Augustus into a plan they have hatched to rebel and kill their white masters. Later, in the fields, Augustus tells his fellow slaves about the Haitian Revolution, where black slaves successfully revolted against their masters, gaining control of the country with the French motto “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite.” Amalia, overhearing this, orders Augustus to come to the house at sunset. When he arrives, they have a conversation in which they see themselves as intellectual equals and develop an attraction. The act ends with the two in a passionate embrace, having begun a sexual affair.

The second act opens with Augustus discussing the revolt with a slave girl, Phebe. Meanwhile, Amalia dreamily fantasizes about her lover while the other slaves gossip about what Augustus could be doing with the mistress. Phebe has feelings for Augustus, but Scylla warns her that he will meet a tragic end and that she is best staying away. At the swamp, Augustus meeting with his co-conspirators when Hector overhears the conversation. Hector, who is mentally unstable and does not want trouble, confronts Augustus. In order to preserve himself and the rebellion, Augustus chokes Hector to death, unaware that he is killing his father.

At Hector’s funeral, Augustus discusses the rebellion with Phebe. Beginning to doubt his loyalty due to his apparent relationship with Amalia, the other slaves need him to kill both the masters to prove his commitment to the cause. That evening, he confronts Louis in the house with a knife, and Louis pulls out a gun. Louis starts talking about the basket that took Augustus away. Augustus recognizes the description of the basket and assumes that Louis is his father since he had been told he was the son of a slave girl and a white master. He reveals the scars on his chest from the spurs Louis had left in the basket and hears the sounds of the revolt beginning. He stabs Louis and kills him, but not before Louis tells him to ask Amalia about his mother.



Augustus rushes to Amalia to ask her about the basket and the spurs, imagining it was her that placed them there. Amalia realizes that Augustus is her son; Phebe enters the room as she is explaining to him that Hector was his father and she his mother. While Augustus is processing this, Amalia kills herself. Finding their masters dead, the slaves burst into the room in celebration, lifting Augustus into the air and drowning his cries with chants of “Freedom.” Scylla sets fire to the curtains, and the play ends.

By placing the Greek tragedy in the pre-war American South, The Darker Face of the Earth draws a parallel between the powerlessness of Oedipus when faced with his inevitable, unchanging fate, and the powerlessness of slaves. While Greek tragedies happen in a world that is rigidly dictated by the will of the Gods, the characters in the play have no free will through the constructs of their society. This includes not only the slaves, but Amalia as well, who is a prisoner of the system despite being in control.