The witch doctor is an old man from Congo who is sent to Jones as an apparition. He dances a story about fighting evil spirits and at the end he attempts to sacrifice Jones to a crocodile god. Jones uses his final silver bullet to destroy the crocodile god and the witch doctor.
The Witch Doctor Quotes in The Emperor Jones
The The Emperor Jones quotes below are all either spoken by The Witch Doctor or refer to The Witch Doctor. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Dover Publications edition of The Emperor Jones published in 2011.
Scene 7
Quotes
What—what is I doin'? What is—dis place? Seems like—seems like I know dat tree—an' dem stones—an' de river. I remember—seems like I been heah befo'.
Related Characters:
Brutus Jones (speaker), The Witch Doctor
Related Symbols:
The Silver Bullet, The Crocodile God
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Witch Doctor Character Timeline in The Emperor Jones
The timeline below shows where the character The Witch Doctor appears in The Emperor Jones. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Scene 7
...him. Jones crawls away from the altar and cowers on the ground, crying hysterically. The witch doctor appears from behind a tree, bearing a bone rattle and a "charm stick."
(full context)
The witch doctor silently surveys the clearing, positions himself between Jones and the altar, and begins to dance...
(full context)
The witch doctor appears to dance a story of a deity demanding a sacrifice. He mimes being pursued...
(full context)
The witch doctor points with his charm stick to a tree, the river, the altar, and then to...
(full context)
As Jones moans, the witch doctor jumps to the edge of the river and seems to call to something in it....
(full context)
The crocodile crawls further out of the river as the witch doctor's chanting and the tom-tom reaches a fever pitch. Jones cries out and pleads for Jesus...
(full context)