The Hairy Ape
Eugene O’Neill
All of O’Neill’s plays are written from a
personal point of view and reflect on the tragedy of the human condition. His
plays deal especially with the American history and social movements.
Yank is the protagonist of the play who
is portrayed as a British and laborer who searches for a sense of belonging in
a world controlled by the rich like Nazareth Steel. The play is divided into
eight scenes and there are many laborers like Yank in the play with some high
class characters like Mildred Douglas, her Aunt, the secretary at I.W.W, A
Gentle man, Second engineer, etc. Yank’s fellow workers are Paddy, Long and
other firemen. So, from the very beginning O’Neill has started presenting the
class difference with the use of language and other description.
O’Neill’s
prominent concern:
O’Neill’s real intention behind writing
such a mini play is to only figure out the situation of oppressed industrial
working people or class. No doubt, the play is the representation of
classification but it also demonstrates how the working class people are
treated by their masters or rather by their upper class people. Mildred Douglas
is from upper class society and she behaves very rudely with Yank and calls him
‘a filthy beast’ which makes him undergoes a crisis of identity. Before that
Yank feels that he is the master of the ship as he is the leader of his working
group and engine of the ship ‘Transatlantic Ocean Liner’. This play also
presents how the society is divided into two parts specifically the upper class and
the lower class.
Moreover he talked about the things that
everyone has the mentality to be master but those who are slave they also wants
to be master because master wants to control over slave and slave who wants to
be mater due to that no one ruled over them. And Yank is best example of that
kind of person. So, there we find out the master – slave mentality.
The masters are just like the Ring Master and
the slaves like Yank, Paddy, Long and others are just like their pet animals who are played by their ring master. People like or rather masters like
Nazareth Steel exploit their workers who belong to industrialist society. Same
thing we find out in Robinson Crusoe that he also wants to be master
and also wants to rule over Friday. So, there we find out master-slave
mentality.
Throughout the play Yank searches for his
real identity but finds none. O’Neill indirectly asks very significant or
suggestive question like; what is more important being dirty as a slave or
being filthy like an animal? Are slaves really filthy or the masters
themselves? Where does their filthiness come from? If it is mind then neither
Yank nor other firemen but the upper class people are, filthy so far as their
thinking regarding superiority is concerned.
As the lower class people do not have their
own belongingness, it also shows the question which are raised to their existence.
All the workers like Paddy, Long, Yank etc. Consider that Transatlantic Ocean
Liner as their own house but their livelihood is some thing serious problem
caused in their life. Though they are force they are bound by their masters so
it can be said that they are; free without freedom.
As the industrial environment is presented
as toxic and dehumanizing, O’Neill present how the laborers are seem by the
masters also presents humanity is subsiding in this materialistic era.
Yank has also been interpreted as representative of the human condition, alienated
from nature by his isolated consciousness, unable to find belonging in any
social group or environment. This play also reveals how deeply and rightly
rigidity class is inscribed into American culture and the cultural and
financial boundaries it erects.
Thank you…
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