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Ever since I read The Emperor Jones, I have been entranced by O'Neill's grip of the medium - how he could take the play beyond the narrow confines of the traditional stage. He does this by stressing the non-realism of the medium. The limitations of the traditional stage thus becomes its strengths. This play is no different.
The thread of the narrative is very thin. Yank, a moronic and ape-like seaman who is a chieftain of sorts below deck among his fellow wage-slaves, has a moment of truth when the philanthropist daughter of the steel magnate who owns the ship he works in, calls him a "Hairy Ape". This is not done in insult, however - the girl, a shallow socialite, is just overwhelmed by the hell-like atmosphere in the engine room where the men are stoking coal: and Yank's huge voice, foul language and aggressive behaviour doesn't help. However, it makes him fixated on the girl in a love-hate relationship and he proceeds on a mission to destroy her world. What follows is a descent into bestiality in the depths of the soul - thought not in the way one imagines it would be.
The play, done in relatively short scenes, shifts in time and space drastically. At all times, the playwright makes it clear that the settings should not be realistic. The play alternates between dark and light, above and below, inside and outside: showing Yank's struggled to grow from the "Ape" he is afraid that he may be (he sits like Rodin's thinker at each milestone of his degradation). The hell-like atmosphere of the ship bowels and the jail is so well-etched that I could actually build the scene in my mind. The chorus of the background players is masterfully planned - first the shouts of the sailors, then the curses of the jailbirds and finally, the chattering of the monkeys. And the end is typical O'Neill, where all pretense to reality is abandoned and we may be pardoned for imagining a fantasy conclusion.
Though not as impressive as The Emperor Jones, this play is nevertheless very powerful and would have a huge impact on the audience if properly staged.
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I give it a solid 3.5/5.
O'Neill achieves quite a feat in turning the loud and bellicose Yank into a sympathetic figure. The guy's a jerk, and makes no excuses about being a jerk-- a majority of his lines come across as a series of vituperative threats towards the world at large-- yet he endears himself to the audience as he struggles to make sense of his diminutive life in the face of his growing perception of the world that surrounds him. Poor Yank wants to belong, but is continuously struck down by the societal forces that O'Neill presents as harsh and dehumanizing. I'm still on the fence about his death-- good symbolism, curious presentation, a simian deus ex machina?-- but Yank's character arc serves as a fascinating look at a somewhat solipsistic laborer being confronted with his own meaninglessness.
The dialog between Mildred Douglas and her Aunt is great; these two awful people are absolutely awful to each other, and their bitching and sniping plays well for a modern generation raised amongst the comedic miscreants of Seinfeld and It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Her character's abrupt exit from the story leaves me wanting, though. Don't get me wrong-- I'm glad the play doesn't fall into the trite melodrama the ratbastard movie version presents-- but after the strong impression she makes in her one full scene, her presence becomes a notable absence as we're introduced to the dull, static characters of the later acts.
These later characters are what give me the most trouble with the play. O'Neill departs from developing traits and personalities for those onstage, rather using them as simple tools to help present his point. The prisoners, the IWW members-- none are given any individuality or personality beyond that needed to move Yank along to his next disappointment. O'Neill gets too caught up in message, and the drama suffers for it, becoming dull and preachy in the final scenes before reaching its odd, ironic conclusion.
Finding a performance of
The Hairy Ape to watch is a bit of a difficulty-- most of what is available online seems to be amateur JuCo productions more concerned with their own presentation than showing O'Neill's true intentions. And that movie-- good god, it sucks, and shits all over the message O'Neill's work conveys. So I can't find a way to watch a stage production of The Hairy Ape, which means I'm left with only a half-perspective on what O'Neill intends. I'm willing to believe that the play gains a good bit from being watched and not read, and hopefully I'll be able to bump up the rating after a good viewing....more
A lowly engine worker falls for a rich debutant. And is then violently reminded of his place in the societal structure.
"I'm an animal!!!!!"A lowly engine worker falls for a rich debutant. And is then violently reminded of his place in the societal structure.
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Also I really wonder how one suggests to stage the final act of the play. What a head-scratcher for generations of stage directors!!
Interesting take on class segregation, but the patois made the play almost unreadable for me, a native French speaker. I could hear the firemen's accent, but it was almost too much.Also I really wonder how one suggests to stage the final act of the play. What a head-scratcher for generations of stage directors!!
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What I appreciate the most about the play is the clear example it depicts of how hard it is to improve one's lot in life when one starts at such a disadvantage in terms of upbringing and societal expectations from birth. We have seen this since the 1960s more clearly in our society through hidden racism. O'Neill recognizes the same obstacles, but makes them about class mobility, stratification, and stagnation, which were of greater concern to liberals in the early twentieth century.
The play is called expressionist because the protagonist, Yank, is not really an individual, he is a type--an Everyman's Proletariat industrial toiler. The result are long soliloquies even Shakespeare would have feared to contemplate spread all throughout the play. It makes the lead part almost impossible to memorize and therefore play, I would think, for any but the most accomplished actor. It must have become very annoying for any person attending the play to sit through. On the other hand, there are great, artistic visuals described. In the right hands the director of this play cold paint great visuals of human degradation as noble labor and virginal innocence and liberal good intentions as uncomprehending as the other side.
I recommend reading the play for writers to know about how to stretch the bounds of what is possible in terms of employing expressionist modes in one's own writing, and how to effectively break rules to achieve strategic goals in creative expression. Casual readers and those wanting realistic drama and depth of characterization will be disappointed.
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This story is absurd from the point of view of people, because of temperamental issues and ego problem he became vic This story is about a hairy shipmen worker who bully fellow workers and always up for fight and always damage everyone self respect until one day when a women hurt his ego and he go rogue and decide to take revenge and take everything he got and start behaving like ape and meet with a bad end when he jump in front of prime ape and went for fight and got himself killed in the cage .
This story is absurd from the point of view of people, because of temperamental issues and ego problem he became victim of circumstances and that lead to his tragic end . This book shows how bad temperament and unnecessary taking up things on male ego and doing abnormal things that will harm you too, but you are in self destructive mode and met a tragic end
somewhat not easy to understand in one time so read it again to understand the message of the End ...more
Universally themed dramas retain their force and impact years after they first appear as they reflect the core emotions and thinking of each generation that see and read them. These themes reach across time and nationalities because they tackle what seem to be intractable issues. Such is the case with Eugene O'Neill's nearly one hundred year old play The Hairy Ape. In modern terms, readers and audiences can focus in four important aspects of the play reflecting issues we stru
Story as Old as TimeUniversally themed dramas retain their force and impact years after they first appear as they reflect the core emotions and thinking of each generation that see and read them. These themes reach across time and nationalities because they tackle what seem to be intractable issues. Such is the case with Eugene O'Neill's nearly one hundred year old play The Hairy Ape. In modern terms, readers and audiences can focus in four important aspects of the play reflecting issues we struggle with today: the one percent vs. everybody else (top deck vs. stokehold), the meaningfulness of work (the pride of Yank), the expression of masculinity (Yank's strength), and our place in the world (Yank's existential quandary).
The play opens in the stokehole of an ocean liner, where workmen feed the furnace while they banter crudely among themselves. In particular one, Yank, talks about this strength and the fact that he and his companions are what power the ship, the force, if you will, that moves the world. Yank is confident, strong, prideful, and superior to those around him.
Then from above deck Mildred, daughter of the Steel Trust tycoon, who has just told her aunt of her interest in social work, descends into the stokehold. Upon seeing the men and Yank, she calls them and him filthy beasts, Yank a hairy ape, and faints. Afterwards, Yank rages and seems to be battling with the incident as an existential experience.
Three weeks later, after returning to the New York port, Yank still struggles with his encounter with Mildred and his anger. On Fifth Avenue, he accosts churchgoers, punching one of them. He lands in jail for 30 days, there encountering prisoners who tell him about the Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies). Upon release, he seeks them out, but they reject him because of his violent proclamations, especially his wish to blow up the Steel Trust run by Mildred's father.
Next, he visits the zoo, where he encounters a caged ape, explains that they are seen as one and the same. He releases the ape. The ape attacks him and tosses him in the cage. Before dying, Yank utters these words: "He got me, aw right. I'm trou. Even him didn't tink I belonged."
Not only does The Hairy Ape demonstrate there's nothing much new in 21st angst, but stripped of its setting, reimagined in our own lives, it mirrors and explains the frustration felt by many today. It's a story that's been retold many times since and some might say acted out in the politics of our day.
...more It's of p The Hairy Ape is a masterpiece by Eugene O'Neill . In fact he applies Nietzsche 's philosophy to give birth to Greek tragedy. In addition, O'Neill is a well reputed playwright in the way he refers to Greek mythology. For instance Yank 's reliance on brutal force is similar to the Greek 's God Dionysus .Besides the the first scene which depicts the stokers singing and drinking is identical to the atmosphere made by the maenades who are Dionysus' worshippers according to Greek mythology.
It's of paramount importance to mention that class struggle is one of the recurrent theme of the play . Hence , the stokers are condemned to work in hellish conditions in the lower boiling part of the ship whereas Mildred and her aunt are in a trip on its upper part . Furthermore, the play shows that the inability of Yank to use his mind to find belongingness as he was rejected several times leads to his fall . First, he was insulted by Mildred ,the daughter of the owner of transatlantic liner, who called him "a filthy beast ." Then ,he was rejected by the socialists on the Fifth Avenue and the labor organizers on the Waterfron. At the end ,Yank's inability to think leads to his death inside the Gorilla's cage . This proves that Yank doesn't belong somewhere else , he belongs to death . ...more
It's a short read, and incorporates thick accents when writing. It's about this lower class guy who is working in the iron smelting place and then in comes this lady from the upper class coming for a tour of the place and he scares her off. It seems he either was entranced by her or fell in love but either way, her look of horror when she saw him hurt him, so he went out to the land of the upper class and punched some rich guy in the face. He's then sent to a p I actually liked it better than We.
It's a short read, and incorporates thick accents when writing. It's about this lower class guy who is working in the iron smelting place and then in comes this lady from the upper class coming for a tour of the place and he scares her off. It seems he either was entranced by her or fell in love but either way, her look of horror when she saw him hurt him, so he went out to the land of the upper class and punched some rich guy in the face. He's then sent to a prison, let go, and then he wanders into a zoo. He sees an ape and starts talking to him, saying "aren't we the same? Ugly and caged?" So then he lets the ape loose for some reason and the ape attacks him and throws him into the cell. While the ape is running free, the guy dies. The themes are more profound than that, but I read this two years ago so I can't quite remember. Anyways, I think I'd read it again. ...more
There was not much going on in the plait. I was expecting a lot of action or something but I did not get that. This play mostly tackles the sense of identity and how our main character is struggling with that based on his looks.
What I really liked about this is the language and accent that
I had to read this for class. I thought this play was okay. I did not like it nor did I hate it. But I could say I preferred reading it than the other books I'm reading for class (which I am hating most of it).There was not much going on in the plait. I was expecting a lot of action or something but I did not get that. This play mostly tackles the sense of identity and how our main character is struggling with that based on his looks.
What I really liked about this is the language and accent that the characters use. I thought it was unique because I never read books with that type of dialect.
The final scene in the play broke my heart for the main character, so if you cry easily, then prepare some tissues.
Overall, this play was okay and if you want a quick read, then I suggest picking it up.
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I can't believe I had to read 3 Eugene O'Neills' books since the beginning of the summer term. I didn't mind Long Day's Journey Into the Night but this one was the same as Desire Under the Elms. Even though a little bit better.
I honestly think that the story was decent, Yank was very interesting character and didn't fall in love with the girl, as I expected (because that's what happens in drama) - so that was cool. I just...can't get over the language. It's so hard to understand READ FOR SCHOOL
I can't believe I had to read 3 Eugene O'Neills' books since the beginning of the summer term. I didn't mind Long Day's Journey Into the Night but this one was the same as Desire Under the Elms. Even though a little bit better.
I honestly think that the story was decent, Yank was very interesting character and didn't fall in love with the girl, as I expected (because that's what happens in drama) - so that was cool. I just...can't get over the language. It's so hard to understand and I know it gives the book its authenticity but English is my second language and I just find it very hard to read. I had to listen to youtube radio reading of this so I could understand a bit better. ...more
Basically, if you like literature that builds atmosphere and mood instead of a realistic setting, focuses on the character's inner reality rather than superficial external action and dialogue, and literature that makes you question your sense of belongingness a
This is a very brief expressionist play talking about some significant existentialist themes. I really thought this play was brilliant, though I understand that this may not be everyone's cup of tea (because maybe you don't even like tea).Basically, if you like literature that builds atmosphere and mood instead of a realistic setting, focuses on the character's inner reality rather than superficial external action and dialogue, and literature that makes you question your sense of belongingness and identity, then you'll surely enjoy the play, just as I did.
I'm certainly looking forward to reading more from O'Neill & other works of a similar ilk.
...more His plays involve characters who inhabit the fringes of society, engaging in depraved behavior, where they struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations but ultimately slide into disillusionment and despair. O'Neill wrote only one comedy (Ah, Wilderness!): all his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism.
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Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/582280.The_Hairy_Ape
