The Metaphysical Questions In Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape 1921

he 1920s, the decade in which The Hairy Ape first appeared, represented an exciting and tumultuous period in American history. It was the age in which the working class didn't see a large change in their quality of life, while there was a growing affluent class who could afford to indulge themselves in such leisure activities as a sea cruise to Europe, as Mildred and her aunt do in this play. Unlike other O'Neill's plays that deal with domestic themes, survival at sea, or the early age of exploration. The Hairy Ape is decidedly political in the sense that it raises a question about the working class1 Experiences of isolation, alienation, and self fragmentation were expressed by Eugene O'Neill in many of his plays, where he depicted human suffering in these terms. O'Neill applied the constructs of self psychology, particularly those relating to self objects and the self objects milieu. These experiences in O'Neill's plays can be described as shifts in self-cohesiveness. O'Neill's The Hairy Ape depicts a man with a fragile sense of self who suffers a disruption of the self object milieu which has sustained him. As a consequence of this change in his social embeddedness, the character "Yank" experiences a sense of fragmentation and ultimately feels that he does not belong to the human race. The play depicts in a powerful way the necessity of a self Object milieu in sustaining one's sense of self.2 In The Hairy Ape (1922), O'Neill displays the social concern for the oppressed industrial working class. Despite demonstrating in this play his clear belief that the capitalist system persecutes the working man, O'Neill is critical of a socialist movement that can't fulfil individual needs or solve unique problems. The industrial environment is presented as toxic and dehumanizing; the world of the rich, superficial and dehumanized. 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. 3 This paper deals with Eugene O'Neill's The Hairy Ape. It consists of two sections: the first section deals with O'Neill's play as a social criticism to the capitalist system while the second section deals with Yank's sense of alienation and despair. Finally, the conclusion reflects the results of the paper.