What is Human?

Karel Capek’s play R.U.R. explores what it means to be human. The play suggests that in order to be truly considered human it is necessary to face suffering. The original robots were designed to be “mechanically more perfect” than humans and were created based on the notion that human emotions were “superfluous” (9). These traits, along with their vast intellectual capacity and lack of a soul, made robots excellent workers for industrial progress purposes and eliminated the need for humans to suffer through labor. When human suffering became obsolete as a result of robots being responsible for all labor, the human race therefore lost some of their humanity. At the same time, the Robots were becoming increasingly more human with the addition of a soul to their mechanical makeup. The central conflict in the play arises when robots were granted the possession of a soul and this important humanizing trait was no longer exclusive to humanity. The Robots became more human when they were given a soul because with the possession of a soul came the will to live and the capacity to love. However, suffering and love often go hand in hand. One suffers when something they love is lost and is also willing to suffer in order to protect what they love. The robots of the play exhibit the capacity to love in the third act when Alquist is dissecting robots and Robot Primus and Robot Helena try to sacrifice themselves for one another and protest that they do not wish to live if they cannot be together. The robot couple was willing to suffer for one another and was therefore more human than the recently deceased human race which had lost this capability.