LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Eugene O' Neill's The Hairy Ape -
An American Expressionistic Play

Jayaraman Uma, M.A., M. Phil., PGDTE

A Definition of expressionism

A definition of expressionism is called for here at the outset. The following quote reflects the approach taken in this paper: Expressionism is "an art movement early in the 20th century; the artist's subjective expression of inner experiences was emphasized; an inner feeling was expressed through a distorted rendition of reality." wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn.

Eugene O' Neill's Life and Its Impact on His Plays

Eugene O' Neill's attitude towards science is thought-provoking. He felt science had cut Man away from his religious faith. The machine era has brought wealth to America. Americans' need for material comforts have been well provided for. But, at the same time, industrialization has destroyed his work satisfaction. His sense of security and belonging has been shaken. Lacking some sustaining faith, he feels lonely. This fundamental problem is aggravated in the case of an American immigrant. His sense of alienation becomes pronounced. O'Neill himself, having descended from an Irish immigrant family, felt this acutely.

This loss of Faith even when we have assumed Science to be our new God is something that playwrights around the world need to portray in their plays according to several critics. For example, Krutch writes: "It seems to me that anyone trying to do big work now-a-days must have this subject behind all the little subjects of his plays or novels, or he is scribbling around the surface of things." (J. W. Krutch, The American Drama Since 1918, page 92.)

An Expressionistic Play

This play deals with the theme of social alienation and search for identity or belonging. Yank, the hero of The Hairy Ape is a representative of modern workers, who felt socially alienated and have been continuously in search of their own identity. As a result of industrialization man has lost his sense of harmony with nature. Hence he is condemning the whole of machine civilization because it has affected his psychological wellbeing. It has robbed him of his pride in his work.

Modern Man

"Man's work is a necessary part of his personality; it is an extension of his ego; it makes him feel he is a necessary part of the life of the world in which he lives. Modern industry tends to destroy this psychological counterpart of work…. and it leaves the worker a nervous, irritable and a dissatisfied misfit. Yank was such a worker, and at the same time conscious of the thing he had lost. He didn't want a job simply because it would be a means to earning a living; he wanted a job in which he could live." (S. K. Winther, Eugene O'Neill: A Critical Study. page 27)

The immediate occasion that led to the writing of Yank's story was the unexpected suicide of O'Neill's stokehole chum Driscoll.

It is, however, a well known fact that The Hairy Ape is based not only on Driscoll, but on the playwright as well. Biographers like Louis Sheaffer attest to this fact. Eugene O'Neill was a man forever haunted by feelings of not belonging. Unlike his father, he was acutely conscious of his "Irish identity" and the resultant problems in an "alien country". Moreover his mother's drug addiction and his actor father's rootless way of life did not brighten things for him. In A Long Day's Journey Into Night - a highly autobiographical play - he tells his essential story in a few words.

It was a great mistake my being born a man, I would have been much more successful as a seagull or a fish. As it is I will always be a stranger who never feels at home, who does not really want and is not really wanted, who can never belong, who must always be a little in love with death! (Louis Sheaffer, O'Neill: Son and Playwright, page 25)

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