Fate of a Cockroach by Tewfik Al-Hakim

Plot:

Fate of a Cockroach is a play in three acts. The first act which is entitled “The Cockroach as

King” discusses the kingdom of cockroaches, their battle for survival and face-off with an army

of ants. The king cockroach assumes he is respected in the kingdom and is baffled his wife the

Queen cannot accord him respect as his subjects do but fights with him all the time. Their

discussions always veer towards dominance with the king demanding respect and submission

while the Queen cockroach asks why she is expected to be subservience to the King when she

does everything the king does; she fends for herself and works as hard as any other person in the

kingdom. The king launches into a speech about how he becomes king unchallenged by other

cockroaches because of the length of his whiskers. His Queen chastises him about surrounding

himself with ministers and advisers who are weak.

Another issue that bothers the queen of which she wants a solution to is the fact that once

cockroaches land on their backs, they find it difficult to turn around. This places them on a

helpless space and makes it easy for army of ants to kill and take them away to their holes. As

the queen and king carry on with their discussion, the King’s minister rushes in to inform them

that his son has been killed by ants. Describing how he died, the Minister notes that he trips and

falls on his back. An army of ants surrounds him, kills him and takes him away with one ant

dragging him by his whiskers while others push him by the rear. The death of the minister’s son

leads the king and queen to seek an end to the constant attack of cockroaches by ants. The queen

comes with the idea of forming an army or a colony just like ants. The king objects to this idea

noting the disorganization of cockroaches and their infringement of rules and regulations. The

savant who is also one of the king’s advisers also advises that the king and queen make
arrangements for an army of cockroaches to match the ants while the priest suggests that

sacrifices be made to bring to an end the death of cockroaches in the hands of ants. The king and

savant depart to inspect a lake that the savant intimates the king of. The act comes to a close as

the savant comes screaming that the king slips and falls into the lake which happens to be dry.

The queen scampers about while asking the king’s advisers to save her husband after realizing he

is still alive while the priest calls for prayers to save the king.

The second act which is “The Cockroach’s Struggle” takes us to a scene which is the home of

Adil and Samia. Adil wakes up before Samia but Samia wants to use the bathroom before her

husband. They fight about their lives and how domineering Samia is. Samia gets to the bathroom

before Adil and discovers a cockroach in the bath. She screams for her husband who enters the

bathroom and after witnessing the cockroach’s struggle to climb out of the bath becomes fixated

by it. The scene with the first appearance of the cockroach in the bath reveals that in fact, the

king cockroach, the queen cockroach and the king’s advisers are actually inside the wall of the

bathroom of Adil and Samia and the dry lake the king cockroach and savant visit, is the couple’s

bath.

Samia becomes frustrated with her husband’s obsession with the cockroach and its struggle to

climb out of bath. Samia has to call on a doctor. The third and final act is titled “The fate of the

cockroach”. The doctor’s first diagnosis is that Adil sees Samia as dominant and him as weak.

Samia always orders Adil around and he obliges her but this instance when he finds the

opportunity to not let go, to prove that Samia cannot control him, he holds on to it. The doctor

says that the only way for Adil to let go is for Samia to relax and agree with whatever her

husband says. This will give him an idea that they are together. The doctor and Samia’s

confrontation of Adil reveals that his diagnosis is wrong and Adil’s problem is not psychological.
Adil is plagued with the struggle of the cockroach which is a reminder of the futility of life. Adil

and Samia’s ‘cook, Umm Attiya, while trying to run a bath for her mistress, fills the bath with

water which ensures the death of the cockroach by drowning. She removes the cockroach from

the bath and flings it to the corner of the bathroom. Realizing what has happened, Adil bemoans

the death of the cockroach, but the doctor tells him that him Adil from the beginning wants the

cockroach left to its fate and that is exactly what happened. An army of ants appears and carries

the cockroach to their home just like they did to the son of the minister. The cook reappears to

the bathroom and wipes away traces of the army of ants and cockroach from the bathroom wall.

As the doctor prepares to leave the couple’s house, he reminds Adil of the need to rest while Adil

still talks about the cockroach and the lesson learnt from it, which is the struggle for existence.

After the doctor exits the scene, Samia returns to her nagging self, telling her husband to utilize

the opportunity of staying at home to take care of their laundry. She tells him that she will not be

happy returning home and everything she has asked him to do is not taken care of. The play

comes to an end with Adil telling Samia to “wipe him out of existence”. This last scene shows

Adil’s frustration with the way Samia treats him.

THEMES:

(1). The Concept of Absurdism.

Absurdism is the dominant themes in Fate of a Cockroach. Absurdism emanates from the theatre

of the absurd which portrays life and human existence as a meaningless and endless struggle

because the result of the struggle is death. To demonstrate absurdism in the text, Al-Hakim

employs some techniques to drive home his point. He presents the play in an allegorical form. An
allegory is a technique in writing or a narrative style that uses symbols, events, animals, abstract

objects and subjects to reveal a deeper meaning than the surface meaning presents. In the play,

the play-wright places side by side, the interconnectedness of the lives of the cockroaches and

the lives of humans in such a way that everything suffered by the cockroaches if presented on a

human scale, gives the same result. The cockroaches are concerned about food, health and

security just like the humans. The constant threat to their lives by army of ants is of great concern

to them. They want to secure food in case of famine just like humans but just like everything

cockroaches and humans have learnt, struggle is meaningless as death is the end that everyone

meets irrespective of the struggle. Adil’s numerous attempts to encourage the cockroach to climb

out of the bath shows the numerous times he is yet to give up on life irrespective of the failures

that pave his path. Take for example, this passage:

Adil: (Looking closely) it is trying.

Samia: It’s slipping.

Adil: The walls of the bath are slippery.

Samia: Yes. No sooner does it start climbing than it slips and falls.

Adil: But it goes on trying.

Samaia: And goes on again and again.

Adil: With the same procedure.

Samia: (Continuing to look) yes, yes.

Adil: Look, Samia, with all its strength it’s climbing up the slippery wall.

Samia: And there it is slipping back again. There it is fallen all the way back (32).

Adil sees himself as the cockroach in the bath even though he refuses to admit that to himself.

Eventually, with the help of the doctor, Adil admits that the cockroach should be left to its fate.
The cockroach’s death at the hands of the cook whom did not have any connection to it shows

that its initial struggle is meaningless as it eventually meets its death. This is also applicable to

Adil and Samia who return to their argumentative nature immediately the doctor reveals that Adil

is okay and needs just to rest.

(2). Feminism and quest for Equality.

This theme is demonstrated in the actions of the queen cockroach and Samia. Their actions blur

the parallelism of the worlds of the text. They challenge their partners and reveal the falsehood of

male dominance. For instance, the king claims that the length of his whiskers makes him king

and he towers above everyone else. When it comes down to settling issues, he gives flimsy

excuses but expects his people to defer to him. This scene demonstrates it thusly:

Queen: Don’t remind me of ants! A king like you claiming you have worth and authority and you

don’t know how to solve the ant problem!

King: Be careful therefore, that you do not fall on your back.

Queen: Is that the only solution you have?

King: Do you want from one day to the next, a solution to a problem that is as old as time?

Queen: Then shut up and don’t boast about the length of your whiskers! (4).

Samia also feels that her husband does not put in much effort where chores are concerned. Her

actions shows that she is extreme in the way she wants her orders to be carried out. In the end,

when the fate of the cockroach has been resolved, she makes sure that she reminds him to take

pick up their clothes and launder them. Chores like this, before the feminist wave are the sole
preserve of women. The queen cockroach and Samia’s actions demonstrate a shift in the

acceptance and definition of feminism and femininity.

(3). The Finality of Death.

Before death occurs, be it a symbolic one or real death, there are a lot of questions and struggles

especially if there is an awareness of the death. The Minister’s son’s death made the king and

members of his cabinet to seek solution to the death of cockroaches in the hands of ants. Before

that, the only solution the king can proffer is for cockroaches not to land on their backs. He

becomes aware that if he makes no attempt to protect cockroaches, they will die in their

numbers. Adil also faces the same challenge. He is aware of the fate of the cockroach and makes

no attempt to remove it from the bath. The only thing he can offer it are words of encouragement

that he believes will help it climb out of the bath. Adil believes that without this struggle, life

becomes futile. Struggle becomes continuous until death which is brought about by fate.

(4). Parallelism of double worlds.

Fate of a Cockroach is a satirical work that points out the ills of a society and in this play, Egypt.

Al-Hakim employs this tool to discuss disillusionment and decadence in Egypt as headed by

Gamalk Abdel Nasser Hussein. In trying to bring to fore the issues encountered in Egypt, the

play-wright uses satire to drive home his points. The constant argument between the king and

queen cockroaches are twin actions of Adil and Samia. The queen cockroach constantly reminds

her husband of how his claim about his superiority is not a superior argument as he has offered

the cockroach kingdom anything that will set him aside from ordinary cockroaches.

Samia also possesses the same attribute as the queen cockroach; challenges institutions that make

women attend to chores while they earn the same salary and wages as their partners. This on a
grand scale is in reference to the revolt of women in Egypt fighting for recognition and

challenging numerous unequal rules and laws against women in Egypt.

CHARACTERIZATION

King:

This is the king of the cockroach kingdom. He is seen as weak by his wife, the queen. The king

loves the power and authority that come with his rulership but does not put much effort to protect

his people. His wife gets tired of his continuous desire for dominance especially as she the queen

do not wish to be dominated. The king states that he gets his kingship due to the size of his

whiskers and this makes him stand out amongst his peers. He is laid back about taking decisions

to protect his people. When his wife and cabinet members suggest that cockroaches form an

army just like the ants and train themselves not to fall on their backs making them easy prey to

ants, he refuses to heed to their advice citing the instance that their ancestors have survived

without learning to strengthen their weaknesses and protect themselves and so, they will also

survive.
Queen:

The Queen of the cockroach kingdom. She is quite assertive in her words and actions and do not

allow her husband, the king any form of dominance over her. From the beginning of the play,

when the king tries to wake her, she instructs him not to try that again unless he is sure it is

actually day time. She argues all the time with her husband about their lives, the security of their

kingdom, the attack of the animal kingdom by ants and his dominance over her. She resents the

fact that her husband talks about dominance and kingship when he has not done anything to

prove he deserves the two attributes. She is quite good in making decisions and quick to think on

her feet. This is exemplified in her suggestion for the formation of an army of cockroaches which

her husband refutes because their ancestors survived without an army.

Minister:

Minister is a member of the king’s cabinet. The king describes him as a cockroach concerned

with “proposing disconcerting problems and producing unpleasant views”. The death of his son

propels the king, the queen and other members of the cabinet to sit up and search for solution for

the death of their kind in the hands of ants.

Priest:

The king describes the priest who is also a member of his cabinet as someone that says

incomprehensible things. The priest’s only contribution to the security of their kingdom is that

sacrifices be offered to god to bring an end the death of cockroaches in the hands of ants.

Savant:
He is also a member of the king’s cabinet. The king describes him as someone who is mostly

concerned about the strange information he has about things that have no other existence than in

his head. It is the savant who convinces the king to visit a lake, a newly discovered dry lake

which happens to be the bath of Adil and Samia.

Adil:

Adil is one of the major human characters in the text. Just like in the first act of the play, the

second act starts with Adil fighting with his partner, Samia and arguing about things that many

will consider irrelevant. Adil on discovering that the cockroach that Samia discovers in their

bathroom is struggling to climb out of it, becomes obsessed with it. He refuses to help it climb

out but watches it struggle. In the end, he realizes that the fate of the cockroach has already been

written and life is meaningless as it contains continuous struggle.

Samia:

Samia and the queen cockroach possess almost the same quality; assertive and not subservient.

Samia lords it over Adil and pushes herself to be the first in whatever they are to do in their

house. Her soft side manifests when the doctor tells her that Adil’s sickness is due to her

domineering nature and the fact that Adil considers himself weak and inferior to her. She agrees

to everything he says but it appears she exaggerates her agreement leading Adil to suspect that

she is in connivance with the doctor to get him to ask for help. At the end of the play when the

doctor certifies that everything is okay with Adil, Samia returns to her normal nagging self,

reminding Adil to utilize the free day given to him to tackle the chores in their home.

Doctor:
The doctor is called to the house of Samia and Adil when Adil locks in himself in their bathroom

to watch over the cockroach in the bath. The doctor initially diagnosed that Adil’s problem is

psychological but after his interaction with Adil, he agrees with him that life is fickle with its

endless cycle of struggle which eventually leads to death.

Cook:

Samia refers to her as Umm Attiya. She is the one that decides the fate of the cockroach. She fills

the bath with water and discovering the drowned cockroach, flings it to one corner of the

bathroom. When an army of ants takes the cockroach with them to store in their home, she wipes

away any trace of the ants and cockroach.

SYMBOLISM:

Fate of a Cockroach is a satiric representation of the reign of Nasser Hussein of Egypt.

Symbolism is achieved in the play through the application of satire and allegory.

SETTING

From the point of view of the cockroaches, the setting is a big courtyard while the assumed

courtyard is the bath that belongs to Adil and Samia. Cockroaches are nocturnal insects and view
the night as day while humans represented by Adil and Samia view Day and Night the way

humans assume them to be.