Introduction:
A Comedy of Ancient and Modern Life Eugene O’Neill’s ‘The Hairy Ape’ is a short play in eight scenes. It has a sub-title too: ‘A Comedy of Ancient and Modern Life’. According to O’Neill “the play was to show man, unable to feel the harmony with nature that as an animal he once knew, has not been able to establish a new harmony through sympathy with his kind…The subject here is the ancient one that always was and always will be the one subject for drama, and that is man and his struggle with his own fate. The struggle used to be with the gods, but is now with himself, his own past, his attempt to belong. This, then, is offered as a modern tragedy co-relative with the ancient presentation of man at odds with a supernaturally controlled destiny; yet it is more truly a comedy, as the sub-title claims, for the forces contended with are not seen as altogether insuperable.”
Source or Idea of the Play:
O’Neill had experience as a sailor and as an inhabitant (resident) of New York’s waterfront. As a sailor on ‘S.S. New York’ he got direct experience of the stokehole and stokers working in it. O’Neill felt much impressed seeing their devotion to duty and ability to work in excessive heat. An Irish stoker named Driscoll became his close friend. His strong body and positive attitude to labour impress O’Neill very much Driscoll was proud of his strength and labour. He had a great pride in his sense of belonging. Other stokers acknowledged his superiority and regarded him as his superior. O’Neill modelled a character after him. Mat Bruke, an Irish stoker in his play ‘Anna Christe’. But after a long O’Neill came to know that Driscoll died by committing suicide. It inspired O’Neill to compose an independent play on the life and death of a stoker having Driscoll’s strong personality. It is the source or idea of the play “The Hairy Ape’.
Characters:
Like Marlow’s ‘Dr. Faustus’, O’Neill’s ‘The Hairy Ape’ is the story of a gigantic personality: Robert Smith popularly called Yank in the play. There are a few other characters to contribute to the development of the action in the play. Among them Long has a pretty long part for he accompanies Yank to Fifth Avenue after filling his mind with the sense of class-conflict. He tries to keep Yank in order too. The next is Paddy who remains lost in the dreams of past golden days. It is a very interesting fact about this play that Mildred, the only young and attractive female figure does not hold the proud place of being the heroine. In the life of the hero, Yank she plays a negative role. Her reaction to Yank’s appearance is so dispelling that Yank’s whole being is shaken. He wishes to identify his belonging. Mildred too has not a long part in the play though her role is important. Her father Mr. Douglas is mentioned repeatedly but his direct entry is avoided in the play.
Dialogue:
The dialogues in the play echo the dramatist’s view. They are natural and realistic inform. Stokers are not expected to speak in correct English. The dramatist keeps this fact in mind. His characters speak direct and emphatic sentences.
Yank: …And I’m what makes iron into steel? Steel, dat stands for de whole ting! And I’m steel-steel-steel! I am de muscles in steel, de punch behind it.
O’Neill does not believe in using words in excess.
Paddy: Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-
Using very simple words he brings to light the speaker’s psychology within a
sentence or two.
Mildred: I have fifty dresses like this. I will throw this one into the sea when I come back.
It is a remarkable feature of O’Neill’s dialogue that he blends opposite emotions so perfectly that it becomes difficult to decide whether to laugh or weep on Yank’s last words.
Yank…Ladies and gents, step forward and take a slant at de one and only-one and original-Hairy Ape from the wilds of—
Structure of the Play:
Eugene O’Neill’s ‘The Hairy Ape’ consists of eight scenes. The first two scenes are introductory in the sense that they introduce the characters and their situation. Scene III introduces the conflict-the clash between Yank and Mildred on the one hand and, between Labour and Capital on the other. Scene IV shows its reaction on Yank and his revolt against the system. Scene V shows its execution resulting in Yank’s arrest. Scene VI is Prison scene. Scene VII shows his rejection by I.W.W. The last scene ends his life.
The opening scene brings to light Yank sense of belonging to the world of steel and power. The scene opens in the firemen’s forecastle of a transatlantic liner an hour after sailing from New York. Scene II, III and IV have their action on the same ship. It is Scene V in which the setting changes when Yank and Long visit Fifth Avenue, New York. Scene VI has again a change in setting for the action is in a prison at Blackwell’s Island near the city. Scene VII has action at the local office of I.W.W. in the city. Scene VIII has action in the city Zoo.
A Realistic Play:
O’Neill’s ‘The Hairy Ape’ has qualities of a realistic play. According to M. H. Abram its basic aim is to represent life and the social world as it seems to the common reader. It creates the impression that its characters might in fact exist and such things might happen. If we apply this concept to ‘The Hairy Ape’ we find that the play lacks in many respects. Regarding O’Neill it may be said that in spite of beginning his career as a writer of realistic plays, he turned to adoption of non-realistic methods in his famous plays like ‘The Emperor Jones’ and ‘The Hairy Ape’. He did not give up entirely the realistic technique but used them to non-realistic purposes. For example, in ‘The Hairy Ape’ a realistic account of stokers is made. They are shouting, drinking and stripped to the waist. But O’Neill makes a clear warning in the opening of the second paragraph of the Scene I (stage-direction).
“The treatment of this scene, or of any other scene in the play, should by no means be naturalistic.”
Now it becomes clear that the realistic setting has an expressionistic purpose. At many places the reality is distorted that is the quality of an expressionistic play.
Yank is introduced as the representative of the poor working class devoted to duty. He creates the impression of being a hairy ape. For the first time Mildred suggests it and the suggestion enrages Yank. But when he dies, he claims that he is the ‘one and original-Hairy Ape’. It is the hidden reality preserved in his subconscious. Thus, realism becomes the basis of expressionism.
O’Neill claims that ‘The Hairy Ape’ cannot be categorized as any sort of ‘ism’. But on a lower plane the play provides a unique blend of fantasy and realism raising the question of social inequality and injustice.
An Expressionistic Play:
In “The Hairy Ape’, O’Neill uses realism as a device of expressionism. J. W. Marriott’s observation attracts attention that a realistic play is like a photograph but expressionistic play is like an X-ray. An expressionistic dramatist does not give much importance to what a character speaks for the statement is likely to be true as well as false. His ultimate aim is to understand the hidden reality. In a way he acts like a detective or psychologist. He puts stress on slips of tongue, dream and interior monologues that expose the inside of the character. So often the dramatist uses symbols, metaphors, fables and allegories too for this purpose. He sometimes personifies good or bad motives by presenting shadows or blurred figures on the stage. Unseen voices are produced to express secret thoughts or hidden desires of the character.
In ‘The Hairy Ape’ O’Neill presents expressionistic characterization, expressionistic dialogue, expressionistic scene-patterns and Interior Monologue.
Yank works devotedly for he has positive outlook to duty and believes that he belongs the ship. The rich are like useless luggage but Mildred’s bitter remark changes his psychology and breaks belonging. He becomes disinterested in his work. Long’s theory of class-conflict impresses him. When he witnesses the display of prosperity at Fifth Avenue, he grows uncontrolled. The person who used to keep other stokers in order is arrested for an act of disorder. He belongs steel, was his sense of pride but when he is arrested in steel, he begins to hate it. He wishes to be fire that melts it. He is determined to destroy all that is made of steel or makes steel. He hopes are shattered when he is thrown out of the office of I.W.W. He does not belong the human world. With this psychology he takes a gorilla for his brother but that too rejects him. Thus, the play exposes Yank’s inner reality that is the purpose of an expressionistic play.
Use of Symbols:
The play’s symbolic nature is exposed in the sub-title that suggests that it is not to story of a few persons but the whole mankind. Everybody is striving to belong and his heart is broken when he is rejected. O’Neill’s childhood was insecure that obstructed his proper education. He married but could not get peace of mind. Everywhere he experienced that he did not belong. Some critics believe that ‘The Hairy Ape’ is an unconscious autobiography of the dramatist. In an interview given in 1932, O’Neill claimed that “Yank is really yourself and myself. He is every human being. But apparently very few people seem to get this.”
In fact, Yank is the symbol of man who has lost his old harmony with nature. He cannot go forward. He tries to go back. It is symbolized in Yank’s shaking of hands with a gorilla. The symbolical meaning can be extended to the sense or suggestion that kill the animal within you or he will conquer you. The idea has a moral vision that is supported by Plato’s theory of many-headed beast given in ‘Republic’ Book IX.