Sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois’s novel The Dark Princess, written in 1928, is an example of his five historical works. As one of Du Bois’ beloved pieces, it examines the sheer beauty of people of color worldwide. The context can be seen in the fact that Du Bois used fiction to investigate his time in a way that is unfeasible in history for nonfiction. He depicted the entirely imaginary lives of his characters, using them to investigate the multiplicity and beauty of black culture. This particular novel of Du Bois was not very well received. It was scrutinized for its display of excessive eroticism and what some critics have considered a failed attempt at social realism. However, the work is precious for a profound appreciation of the history of people of color.
An eternally relevant polemical theme of W. E. B. Du Bois, lies at the heart of this novel about sensual love, radical politics, and the pursuit of racial justice. In a fantasy story rich with propaganda notes, Du Bois depicted 1920s America as a racist country ready for militant rebellion and terrorism. Matthew Townes, the central character, is a medical student dismissed from school because his racial identity prevents him from taking a mandatory obstetrics course at an all-white hospital. Once in Berlin after his political idealism has been ruined, Townes falls in love with Princess Kautilya and joins an independent international team led by her, in which people of color unite against white supremacy.
Du Bois describes their quest for liberation in a white-only world that suppresses their passionate love and divides them. The novel ends with the birth of their son, proclaimed as the Maharaja of Bvodpur, the emissary of the dark worlds. It can be inferred that the book was inspired by the First Congress of Universal Races in London in 1911, which Du Bois attended. In describing the character of Kautilya, Du Bois may have drawn some inspiration from several historical figures.
This novel’s character analysis would begin with the main personage, Matthew Townes. He undergoes the most pronounced character arc – the metamorphosis of the character’s worldview. Matthew Townes, a college student in his first year at Manhattan University, is studying to be an obstetrician (Du Bois, 56). Early in the story, Townes is told that not only is he forbidden to pursue his career aspirations, but he is not allowed to graduate. His status as an African American precludes him from taking a mandatory course at a white midwifery hospital in the early 20th century, where he could have been caring for white female patients.
Townes is vanquished and leaves for Germany in a kind of expulsion. There he meets Princess Kautilya of Bvodpur from India, the daughter of the Maharaja. She persuades Townes of the significance of the history of people of color in the world, their existence and the influence of their grace around the globe. The princess brings him out of the dreary American world with its rigorous binary separation into races. She acquaints him with the vibrant world of prominent leaders of color, while acknowledging that some of them have had a detrimental effect on the furtherance of black people in the United States.
In this way, Matthew, from a cloistered character who does not see his own race and overlooks the majesty of his background, becomes more open-minded. He accepts his lover’s admonitions and opens his heart to love far more potent than the one that occurs between two people. He is filled with love for his people and his origins. Matthew is ready to fight for the equal rights of others like him. It is in this character that American identity is expressed. First and foremost, it is the identity of a free man who honors his origins and is willing to fight for his rights. Matthew underwent a spiritual reincarnation with the help of his lover, Kautilya. Her character embodies liberty and self-sufficiency, which was seldom the case for people of color in those days. Because they had suffered so long from racial oppression and the erosion of their cultural and spiritual heritage, they were seldom aware of the value of their national origin.
On the other hand, Kautilya was not only aware of her wholeness and exceptionalism but was willing to teach it to others. In order to enhance another person’s confidence and awareness, one must be a spiritually fulfilled person. Kautilya represents a character meant to enlighten the reader and carry the writer’s core message. The point of this message is to allow people to be different and to celebrate those differences. People of color fought for their physical freedom, but it is not possible without spiritual freedom. Kautilya’s character represents precisely the desire for spiritual freedom and fidelity to her heritage. It is meant to show the reader how important it is to have confidence in one’s purpose and the spiritual underpinning of one’s physical motivation.
The characters in this story are primarily intended to remind the reader of the inalienability and importance of the struggle for human rights. Matthew and Kautilya remind the reader that regardless of nationality or color, the rights are inalienable. This means that one cannot lose them because they relate to the very fact of human existence. The idea of people having inseparable rights is rooted in many ancient cultures and traditions.
Numerous examples of revered rulers and the most important collections of laws from human history show us that the values embodied in human rights are neither a Western invention nor a 20th-century invention. They were a response to universal human needs and the demands and quest for justice. Every human community has had its ideals and systems of righteousness, which have survived as traditions, oral or written. However, not all of these traditions have remained to this day.
Human rights are inherent in all human beings. Under certain circumstances, some of them, though not all, may be suspended or restricted. For example, if someone is convicted of a crime, they may be imprisoned. Alternatively, a country’s government may declare a state of emergency by declaring it publicly and then may revoke certain rights, such as restricting freedom of movement by imposing curfews. However, both freedoms and restrictions must apply to all people without discrimination.
Human rights are impartible, autonomous, and intertwined. This means that various human rights are essentially linked and cannot be considered in isolation. The exercise of one right depends on the activity of many other rights, and no right is more important than the others. For example, the right to work in a hospital should be granted to all people without exception, as should the right to be trained in medicine. Human rights are universal, meaning they apply equally to all people worldwide and without time limitations. Everyone is entitled to enjoy human rights without distinction based on race or ethnicity, color, gender, sexual orientation, or religion.
The loving couple in this story is each other’s antipodes, but at the same time, they convey a common message. This is the idea that spirituality and an awareness of one’s ethnicity are essential to achieving the goal of class equality. Only people who value and take pride in their origins can achieve influence in society. This means that they can change the existing discriminatory system. Within the frame of this work, the characters go through the arc of the hero, from ignorance to awareness and acceptance of this critical thought. The reader takes this path along with them, which means that the goal the writer set for himself is fulfilled. Through a sensual love line, the novel conveys the idea of freedom and reverence for one’s heritage.
In the modern setting, The Dark Princess and Du Bois’ wider legacy continues to raise prolific questions of today. For instance, how South Asian Americans and African American societies negotiate their relations with each other. This theme is explored in the framework of the complicated politics of racial construction and the questions of gender and sexuality through which that interaction takes place. At this point there is a comparative dearth of representations of African-Asian alliance that go outside the narrative tropes of straightforward cross-racial romance and novelization. This is mainly due to a general lack of reflection of this community in contemporary literature. This applies both to the broad context of the struggle for one’s rights and to consideration of the unique cultural heritage of this group of people. However, this theme continues to attract the interest of the sophisticated modern reader. Therefore, the reader may consult The Dark Princess in search of wider, cross-sectional ways of grasping Afro-Asian solidarity, resistance, and affinity.
Work Cited
Du Bois, W. E. B. Dark Princess. University Press of Mississippi, 1995.