The Hairy Ape, Eugene O'Neill

 About Writer :-

Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright awarded the 1936 Nobel Prize in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg. The tragedy Long Day's Journey into Night is often included on lists of the finest U.S. plays in the 20th century, alongside Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.

O'Neill's plays were among the first to include speeches in American English vernacular and involve characters on the fringes of society. They struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations, but ultimately slide into disillusion and despair. Of his very few comedies, only one is well-known (Ah, Wilderness!). Nearly all of his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism.

Notable awards:Nobel Prize in Literature (1936),Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1920, 1922, 1928, 1957),Tony Award for Best Play (1957).

About the Play :-

The Hairy Ape is a 1922 expressionist play by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. It is about a beastly, unthinking labourer known as Yank, the protagonist of the play, as he searches for a sense of belonging in a world controlled by the rich. At first, Yank feels secure as he stokes the engines of an ocean liner, and is highly confident in his physical power over the ship's engines and his men. 

However, when the rich daughter of an industrialist in the steel business refers to him as a "filthy beast", Yank undergoes a crisis of identity and so starts his mental and physical deterioration. He leaves the ship and wanders into Manhattan, only to find he does not belong anywhere—neither with the socialites on Fifth Avenue, nor with the labour organisers on the waterfront. In a fight for social belonging, Yank's mental state disintegrates into animalistic, and in the end, he is defeated by an ape in which Yank's character has been reflected. The Hairy Ape is a portrayal of the impact industrialization and social class has on the dynamic character Yank. 

Characters of the Play :-

There are so many characters in this play,Who are like.,

1. Yank

The play's antagonist. Yank works as a Fireman on a Transatlantic Ocean Liner. The play follows his quest to find a sense of belonging in modern, industrial society. Yank, whose real name is Bob Smith, was born in New York City and was brought up in a lower class family. Yank is a burly, sometimes menacing figure who has difficulty with thought. He is known to take the physical position of Rodin's "The Thinker" when processing information or dealing with a problem.

2. Mildred Douglas

The frail, impetuous twenty-year-old daughter of the owner of Nazareth Steel. Mildred has enjoyed the advantage of all of life's monetary privileges and has no real knowledge of work or hardship. In an attempt to understand the poorer classes she does service project and studied sociology in college. Mildred's reaction to Yank causes his class awareness.

3. Mildred's Aunt

A stuffy, fat, middle-aged aristocratic woman who is intensely critical of Mildred's involvement in social work. Mildred's Aunt has no taste for "deformity" and thinks Mildred makes the poor only feel poorer with her presence.

4. Paddy

An old and wise Irishman who works with Yank as a fireman aboard the Ocean Liner. Paddy, known for drunkenness, thinks the firemen are forced to do slave labor. Paddy reminisces about his days working on a Clipper ship where men were free.

5. Long

A fireman aboard the Ocean Liner who preaches Marxism. Long takes Yank to New York City to prove to Yank that all members of the upper class are the same.

6. The Secretary

Works at the I.W.W. office in New York City. He comes to believe that Yank works for the government and throws him out on the street.

7. Gentleman

A member of the upper class. He calls the police because Yank causes him to miss a bus.

8. Second Engineer

Escorts Mildred Douglas into the stokehole of the Ocean Liner. The Second Engineer warns Mildred that her white dress be ruined, but she ignores him.

9. The Guard

Works at the prison where Yank is held after causing the Gentleman to miss his bus. The Guard shoots water at Yank when he bends the bars of his cell back.

Themes of the Play :-

1. Human Regression by Industrialization

The resounding theme of The Hairy Ape is the effect of industrialization and technological progress on the worker. Industrialization has reduced the human worker into a machine. The men are programmed to do one task, are turned on and off by whistles, and are not required to think independently. Today, the job of the coal stoker is actually done by a machine. Workers are thus forced into jobs that require nothing but grunt work and physical labor, which has, in turn, caused a general deterioration of the worker into a Neanderthal or Ape- like state. This is made clear by O'Neill's stage direction, which indicates that the Firemen actually look like Neanderthals and one of the oldest workers, Paddy, as "extremely monkey-like." The longer the Firemen work, the further back they fall on the human evolutionary path—thus Paddy, one of the oldest, is especially "monkey-like." As a whole, the play is a close investigation of this regressive pattern through the character Yank—the play marks his regression from a Neanderthal on the ship to an actual ape at the zoo.

2. The Frustration of Class

Mildred and Yank are representative of the highest and lowest societal classes—as Long would term it, the bourgeois and the proletariat. However, while Mildred and Yank's lifestyles are extremely different, they share similar complaints about class. Mildred describes herself as the "waste product" of her father's steel company. She has reaped the financial benefits of the company, but has felt none of the vigour or passion that created it. Mildred yearns to find passion—to touch "life" beyond her cushioned, bourgeois world. Yank, on the other hand, has felt too much of the "life" Mildred describes. Yank desires to topple the class structure by re-inscribing the importance and necessity of the working class. Yank defines importance as "who belongs."

Class limits and determines both Mildred and Yank's financial resources, educational opportunities, outlook on life, and culture. The Hairy Ape reveals how deeply and rigidly class is inscribed into American Culture and the cultural and financial boundaries it erects.

Conclusion :-

So, this play is based on the protagonist's ruined life. Yank ,who suffers a lot just because of his behaviour and his lower class background and at the end of the Play he dies by an Ape.