- This act is set some ten years after the Prologue.
- It opens with Domin, Fabry, and Hallemeier coming into Helena's sitting room with some flowers. They talk a bit about how Helena doesn't know something that they're worried about, and how they're going to keep her from knowing.
- She was ignorant in the Prologue, and they mean to keep her ignorant, because they think knowledge will harm her.
- They keep the robots ignorant of certain kinds of knowledge, too, remember. (We wonder if all of this keeping people ignorant will work out well.)
- They leave, and Helena comes onstage with Nana, her maid or servant.
- Nana says that one of the robots had a fit. Nana hates the robots and says it's natural to hate them, because they weren't created by God and don't give birth.
- Helena still feels sorry for the robots, though (poor, sad, soulless robots…).
- Domin comes in and says it's been ten years to the day since Helena arrived at the robot factory.
- Busman and the other supervisors remembered the anniversary.
- All of them gave Helena presents; she pulls them from Domin's pockets, and also discovers he has a pistol. (We're staring to get a bad feeling, Shmoopers.)
- Domin says that he got her a giant boat, to which Helena looks out the window and sees is a gunboat, but Domin denies it's a gunboat because he still treats Helena as a child—because he's kind of a jerk.
- Domin says they haven't gotten any mail for a week.
- They reminisce about Helena's arrival, and Helena reminds Domin she wanted to institute a revolt among the robots. The thought of robot revolution freaks Domin out.
- (It sort of sounds like the robot apocalypse is coming, in case you couldn't tell, Shmoopers. Skynet and Arnold Schwarzenegger are going to destroy all the puny humans.)
- Helena burbles on, providing some important backstory. Workers apparently rose against the robots, and the robots were given weapons and killed the people attacking them, and so of course governments began using robots as soldiers.
- Domin says that was all in the plan, which seems fairly awful.
- Helena gets scared and says they should all leave.
- Nana finds a newspaper that talks about robots murdering millions of people at the orders of human masters (not good). The news also says that people have stopped being born, which Nana says is the curse of God for building robots.
- Alquist, the builder, comes in, and he and Helena talk.
- Alquist says he's been uneasy, and that they may all go on a trip together. He also says he's praying to God to destroy all the robots and save the humans.
- Alquist tells Helena that people have stopped having babies because humanity no longer needs to do anything to survive. The end of suffering and striving means that everyone is infertile and sterile. So, labor and hardship are ennobling, supposedly. (Maybe, but we'd still retire if we won the lotto.)
- Alquist says that humanity will die out because, nowadays, men aren't men and women aren't women—but robots are robots. It's all a bit breathless. Robots put an end to childbirth, but not melodrama, seems to be the message.
- Alquist leaves. Helena asks Nana to bring in Radius, the robot who had a fit.
- Radius comes in and says he wants to be the master over people, because people are weak and stupid.
- Helena is horrified—though she married Domin, who seems to be coming from more or less the same place as Radius about ruling over everybody. Better the power-mad jerk you know, we guess, than the power-mad robo-jerk you don't.
- Dr. Gall comes in and tests Radius out. He says it's not the usual case of Robotic Palsy, but some sort of revolt.
- Other robots have been doing the same thing. Humanity is in big trouble, in other words.
- Helena now talks to Dr. Gall; they wonder whether Radius has a soul and talk about a robot named Helena that Dr. Gall created.
- He doesn't like her because, though she is beautiful, she has no soul and cannot love. (Clearly, they need to bring in Captain Kirk. He was always teaching aliens and robots the meaning of love.)
- Helena asks Dr. Gall why humans aren't being born, and he says the same thing everyone else says; humans are useless now, so no one needs to be born, etc., etc.
- Clearly, Čapek wants to make sure the reader gets the idea that humans are superfluous. Humans are superfluous, he says. Don't forget it, superfluous Shmoopers.
- They talk about what might happen if Domin were forced to stop making robots. People would be angry because they'd have to work again, but maybe it would be for the best?
- Helena sends Gall away, and asks Nana to build a fire.
- Helena throws some papers in. Nana says it's good to burn money and inventions and basically everything. She seems to just be into burning stuff. She feels wealth and progress and worldly success are all against the will of God, so burn it all up (cheerful sort, this Nana).
- After it's burned, Helena seems disturbed and horrified, and Nana does as well, though she doesn't know what Helena burned.
- It's too late now, though.
- They've burned the one copy of the formula for making robots, as you may well have guessed. Because of course, if you had the most important scientific process in the world, you wouldn't make any copies. We guess that robots are dangerous and deadly, but the fate of humanity will ultimately be sealed by an enormous, cavernous, morbid plot hole.
- All the supervisors gather around; they seem relieved that a boat has come and it's all over (whatever "it" is).
- Oh, "it" is the robot revolt. But they feel sure it's all over because a mail boat has come on schedule, which must mean everything is working and the social order is in order.
- They called for the gunboat months before because they thought there would be trouble, but now they figure they won't need it. Overly optimistic, much?
- They tell Helena that, if they did face a revolution, they'd sell the robots the secret of their production in exchange for their freedom.
- This freaks Helena out, since she just destroyed the secret of production, so if the robots come after them all, they're totally screwed.
- (Though, again, they had the formula for upwards of ten years and never recopied it? True, they don't have photocopiers because Čapek hadn't thought of them, but… come on.)
- Helena says they should all leave at once, since she knows they don't have any protection.
- But they don't listen to her; instead they want to step up production.
- They want to open new factories, and make all different kinds of robots who hate each other, so that the robots won't band together any more.
- They will divide and conquer the underclass by encouraging racism and nationalism. We've mentioned that Domin is kind of awful, right?
- Helena thinks the plan is awful too, but they never pay any attention to her anyway because they are sexist.
- Fabry comes in with a pamphlet; it turns out that the mail ship is filled with pamphlets advertising a robot revolution.
- Really, it's hard not to root for the robots at this point. Humans want to amp up racism, and are too dumb to copy important papers. It's better to let the robots take over at this point.
- And the robots do seem to be taking over. The pamphlets say that humans are parasites and farther down the evolutionary scale, and that robots should kill them all.
- Don't look now, but robots have taken over the gunboat and surrounded the factory. And there's a signal to attack!
- There's also a cliffhanger ending for the next act. Like we said, robots may replace humans, but melodrama is forever.