The events of The Train Driver stem from a moment in which a formerly helpless woman assumes agency over her life, and a formerly autonomous man becomes helpless to stop her. Red Doek has lived a life without power or hope, so she asserts her agency by ending that life. Her suicide brings in Roelf as an unwilling participant, and his loss of agency in this moment destabilizes him for the entirety of the play. By forcing a previously privileged man to grapple with an abrupt loss of agency, The Train Driver highlights the helplessness of the underprivileged and the way that helplessness diminishes society as a whole.
The audience is introduced to Roelf as he “helplessly” searches the unmarked graves for Red Doek. He remains in this sort of stasis, trapped in the same unfruitful action, until Simon intervenes. Simon guides Roelf throughout the play: he offers food, lodging, and advice. Talking to Simon helps Roelf realize that he no longer wants to curse at Red Doek, but he doesn’t know what he does want until Simon suggests talking to Red Doek’s spirit. Roelf’s perpetual helplessness was triggered by the moment on the train tracks; the newspaper article about Red Doek’s death describes Roelf “look[ing] on helplessly.” Roelf accepts that he was helpless to stop the collision, but that doesn’t mean that he lacks responsibility for it. This tension between his perceived helplessness and culpability is at the crux of Roelf’s internal conflict, and it speaks to the inherent trauma of being rendered helpless. Even when Roelf finally takes action toward his goal of emotional resolution, he is killed. Roelf’s death, in turn, leads to Simon’s loss of agency, as the police confiscate Simon’s spade and Mr. Mdoda terminates Simon’s employment. Simon is at the mercy of the systems that disenfranchise him, so he has no means to protest as his livelihood is taken from him. He ends the play with a “helpless gesture” toward the audience, emphasizing his dire position and forcing the audience to acknowledge their own complicity in a racist society that perpetuates this helplessness.
Helplessness vs. Agency ThemeTracker
Helplessness vs. Agency Quotes in The Train Driver
ROELF: Fucking hell! What a miserable bloody ending to your life’s story. I wouldn’t even bury my dog like this, man! (Goes to one grave and picks up an old motorcar hubcap) And this rubbish on the graves? What the hell is this idea?...You put these here?
SIMON: Ewe. There is no flowers in Shukuma.
ROELF: I see! So that is what it’s supposed to be…respect for the dead! Then why not just a simple cross, man?...Remember Jesus? You people are supposed to believe in God and Jesus, isn’t that so?
ROELF: (with vicious deliberation) Ja. Give me her name…or show me her grave…and I will do it. S’trues God. In both official languages because I am fully bilingual…I’ll do it so that her ghost can hear me. I’ll tell her how she has fucked up my life…the selfish black bitch…that I am sitting here with my arse in the dirt because thanks to her I am losing everything…my home, my family, my job…my bloody mind! Ja! Another fucking day like this one and I won’t know who I am anymore or what the fuck I am doing!
ROELF: You don’t understand anything. I’ve crashed! I was on the rails, I was going forward, everything up to schedule…until it all crashed. Thanks to that woman with the red doek I don’t know if I’ve got a home anymore. I don’t know if I’ve got a family anymore, or a job or…ja…a life. You said it: this is the place for the ones without names…and I think I’m one of them now. Roelf Visagie? Who the hell is he? You got your spade so dig another grave, man.
ROELF: …And did you also hear “looked on helplessly”? You at least know what that means, don’t you? That means that the seriously traumatized train driver, who is me, could do fuck-all about it. That’s what they all jump on…But...I already know all that. So then if it wasn’t me, then who was it? God? That’s right. Because there was only God and me seeing how it happened. We were the only other ones who saw the look in her eyes, saw the baby’s head peeping over her shoulder! So if it wasn’t me, then was it Him?…God was only a witness, because it was Roelf Visagie who was tramping down so hard on the brake so that the wheels was screeching on the tracks.
ROELF: All I could think of to say was, “What the fucking hell are you all staring at?” And Lorraine said, “These are your children, Roelf Visagie––go swear at your woman from the bush.”…When I heard those words it was like something just opened up inside me, because I suddenly realized you see that that is what I wanted to do! Ja! I wanted to take a deep breath and then load up my lungs with every dirty thing I had ever heard and then say them into the face of that woman, who still stands there waiting for me in my dreams. I wanted those to be the last words she hears when my train hits her…But the trouble was I didn’t know her name! I mean you know how it is. When you talk to somebody in your mind you think their name, don’t you?
ROELF: This place is a bloody disgrace to humanity!... Have you got no respect for the dead? Because if that is the case then you are worse than those dogs in the bush. And you know why? Because these are human beings lying here and you are also supposed to be one as well…(An excited little laugh as an idea occurs to him)…Ja!...you can even make a cross with [the stones]!... (On his hands and knees, placing stones on the graves) See how easy it is….
(…Roelf moves to another grave where he makes another cross. His behavior is becoming increasingly absurd.)
SIMON (…He speaks firmly but gently): You must stop now looking for her.
ROELF: For who?
SIMON: For Red Doek.
ROELF: Red Doek?...
(For a few seconds the name means nothing to him…)
ROELF: That’s right…Red Doek…I’m looking for her…(He is speaking very quietly)…and her baby…You realize, don’t you, Simon, that it was a woman…a mother…with her baby on her back that stepped out on to the rails…there in front of me…and waited…for me…for the end…staring and waiting…
ROELF: I was thinking about those pondoks in the bush…and I was thinking…she lived in one of those pondoks…Ja! That was what Red Doek called home. A young woman, a mother, with her baby! You get it? That is fucking hopeless, man. Think about it. Wouldn’t you also want to go stand on a railway line and wait for the next train if that is all life has to offer you and your baby? And then to make it worse…that is still not the end…Because the big happy ending is that Nobody Wants Her!...Nobody came to claim her! Nobody wants her! And when we start looking…even we can’t find her.
ROELF: I don’t know what it is like to live without hope, to give up. Because you did, didn’t you? That is why you did what you did because you didn’t believe anymore that good things was going to happen to you and your baby. I’m thinking about it all the time now, trying to imagine what it was like for you.