Character Sketch of David Roberts
Introduction:
David Roberts is the leader of the workers of Trenartha Tin Plate Works. We first meet him when he leads a deputation of workers to a meeting of the Board of Directors. He is a lean man of middle height, with a slight stoop.
He has a brown-grey beard, high cheekbones,' hollow cheeks and small fiery eyes. His face shows that he is a man of strong determination and fiery temperament. He is simple and sincere. He has no bad habits. He does not indulge in drinking or gambling.
His Dedication To His Life:
Roberts has dedicated his life to the cause of the working classes. He regards it as his, sacred duty to fight against capitalism: "The white-faced monster with the bloody lips, that has sucked the life out of ourselves, our wives and children since the world began." He works relentlessly for the cause of oppressed humanity.
For this cause, he sacrifices his comforts, his peace of mind, his money and finally his wife. He had $ 800 when the strike began. He could have used this money to provide medical treatment and nourishing food to his ailing wife.
Instead of that, he gave all that money for the support of the needy strikers. He did not have children, although his wife wanted to have them, because he believed that poor workers should not have children because they cannot bring them up properly. For poor families to have children means multiplying beggars.
A Symbol of the Downtrodden Mass:
Roberts is a symbol of the downtrodden masses of humanity who have at last dared to raise their heads. He is the great leader of have-nots against the 'haves'. He hates Anthony but this is not a personal vendetta. He hates Anthony because he stands for tyranny against the working class.
A very Intelligent Person:
He is a very intelligent person. He discovered a new process for which the owners paid him only seven hundred pounds but from which they earned a hundred thousand pounds. This must have made him very bitter against the employers, but that was not the main reason for his opposition to the capitalists.
He quotes this in his speech only as an example of the shameless exploitation of the workers by the capitalists. He is not fighting because of a personal grievance but to end all forms of exploitation.
A perfect Leader Having some weakness:
Roberts is the undisputed leader of the workers of Trenartha Tin Plate Works. This company is making very good profits but the workers are poorly paid. He appeals to them to go on strike. The union did not support them.
Still, he inspired the workers to continue the strike for more than four months. Due to his dynamic leadership, they remained on strike in spite of the fact that they had no coal and no food during the cold winter.
In the deputation, we see his leadership qualities. His look awes his companions into silence. They are almost mesmerized by him. He has all the qualities of great leaders: broad vision, strength of spirit, dedication to his cause, capacity to move masses of men with his tongue, capacity to endure hardships, capacity to take decisions and shoulder responsibility and iron will and firm determination.
But he lacks one important quality which every leader should have. He does not know when to fight and when to stop. He is an extremist and lacks self-control and balance. He cannot feel the pulse of his followers. When his wife tells him that his followers are not made of iron, he replies, "Wouldn't I starve and rot rather than give in? What one man can do another can."
But it is a wrong study of human nature. He does not realize that the workers are on the breaking point and cannot endure any more hardships. He wants them to fight to the finish. If he is pressed hard he may break but he would not bend.
The others do not have this tenacity and determination. The result is that the workers listen to persons like Harness, Thomas, Rous and Madge, who want them to accept a compromise, and Roberts is overthrown.
His Ideology of Socialism:
Roberts stands for the ideology of socialism. When Anthony tells him that there can be only one master, he replies, "Then, by God, it'll be us". The workers create wealth by the sweat of their brows and so they should get a large share of it.
But the capitalists rob them of this wealth and give them only a subsistence wage. The capitalists do nothing but pocket the profits. The strike is the workers' weapon to make the monster of capitalism surrender and to force it to disgorge some of the blood it has sucked. If they can make this monster surrender they will ensure a happy life for the succeeding generations of workers.
His Rudeness:
He is unnecessarily rude to the Directors when he goes to meet them as the leader of the workers. Later Enid goes to his house because she has great sympathy for his wife and for the other families of workers. But he insults her there. He shouts at her not to touch his wife and when she says that she wants to talk to him he says that he has no time.
He tells her that if her father were going to die and he could say" him by raising his hand he would not even lift his little finger. After h' wife's death Edgar says very sympathetically, "We're all sorry for you Roberts." But Roberts replies very rudely, "Keep your sorrow, young man."
His Tragic Flaw: His Extremism:
Roberts' great qualities should have been used for constructive purposes. But he is an extremist and a fanatic. He does not know the great truth that wisdom consists in knowing when to stop.
He does not realise that there is a limit to the workers' endurance of hardships. He is so involved in the cause that he neglects his ailing wife and she dies. Her death serves as a warning to the labourers that a similar fate awaits their wives if the strike continues.
So instead of sympathizing with him and rallying behind him, they overthrow him and accept a compromise. This double tragedy completely shatters him. He becomes a wreck of his former self.
He has great qualities but his extremism is his fatal flaw. Because of that, his life becomes really tragic. The utter waste and desolation of his life is expressed by him in two tragic monosyllables; "Home? Home!?"
A Powerful Speaker or Orator:
Roberts is a very powerful speaker. When he comes to the workers' meeting the odds are against him. The workers cannot endure their sufferings any longer and want the strike to be ended somehow. The other speakers all speak in favour of a compromise. They all turn hostile to him.
When he comes to the platform they do not want to hear him. But he speaks so well that at the end of his speech, a large majority of them rally behind him. He widens the perspective of the strike. He tells them that their fight is not to get a few more pounds in wages but to attack the monster of capitalism.
Their strike is a part of the great fight of the working class to end all forms of exploitation and to ensure that the succeeding generations of workers will live in a better world. He tells them that by their sacrifices they have almost defeated the tyrant and if they turn back now they will remain forever worse than dogs. The workers are all touched and a majority want to give him a free hand.
