Dutchman Study Guide

Dutchman is a one-act play written in the 1960s and set in the same time. The play takes place on a subway car on a hot summer day and involves two main characters. The first character is a twenty-year-old African American man named Clay. The second character is a thirty-year-old Caucasian woman named Lula. As the story begins, Clay sits alone on the subway, reading a magazine. As the train slows to a stop, Clay sees an attractive woman standing in the station and staring at him through the window of the subway car. The woman smiles at Clay, and he smiles back. As the subway train begins to move again, the woman enters the subway car in which Clay is seated. This woman, Lula, is wearing summer clothes and carrying a net bag filled with books, fruit and other items. Lula pushes her sunglass... (read more)