Theme of Identity and Isolation the ‘The Hairy Ape’
Eugene O’Neill, the Nobel winner dramatist and the Shakespeare of America, has exposed in ‘The Hairy Ape’ man’s eternal quest for identity. O'Neill moves his hero Yank, through a series of rapidly changing scenes in his quest to belong, to find his place in the universe. Alienation and search for identity is the basic theme in The Hairy Ape.
In the beginning of the drama Yank feels that he is
satisfied with his condition of life as a stoker in a large ship. Yank says that ship is
everything to him and he belongs to ship. He is satisfied with the present, and
is proud of his ability and strength. He asserts that it is his energy on which
the ship and the passengers ultimately depend.
In the second scene, Mildred Doughlas
is introduced in a free manner. She has inherited the wealth acquired through
steel, but not the energy and strength which steel has. She wants to help the
poor and to study the conditions of the poor stokers in the ship. Obtaining
permission from the captain of the ship she stands at the back of Yank and
monitors their work. Suddenly, Yank turns towards her, he glares into her eyes,
and she is terrified by his "Abysmal brutality". Then she utters a
low, chocking cry, faints with fear and heat, and is carried away from there.
Before leaving the place she exclaims, "Oh, the filthy beast”.
Yank feels "Himself insulted in
some unknown fashion in the very heart of his pride". The story here
begins to change yank's life. This is the greatest blow to yank's belief as
well as to his concept of belongingness. His pride and sense of security have
been shattered by at the hands of a woman insult. It makes him to realise that
he "does not belong". After
that crucial incident he no longer feels that he "belongs" Yank in
the search of his identity, discovers firstly that he is alone, lonely and the
world is impossible to live in, and secondly, that steel is no power within
him, but a prison but it also makes the cage in which Yank is imprisoned.
Yank is released from the prison and wants to take
revenge on the girl for his insult. He goes out to the Fifth Avenue, the locality where the
rich people live to kill
Mildred. But he does not find her there and he attacks people there. Then he is
arrested after
assaulting a person of the upper class and put into prison of Blackwell’s Island. There he felt like an ape
caged and tried to break open the prison bars.
After being released from the prison, he went to join
the I.W.W and organization: he was told by his fellow prisoners, was interested
in terrorizing the rich. He is confident that he will be able to wreak vengeance on
Mildred and her class by joining the IWW. But the officer in the IWW takes Yank
to be an agent provocateur, a secret service man. He says that Yank is a Spy
and is ‘a brainless ape’. Yank passions are aroused, but the very moment he is
thrown out of the office into the street. His rejection by the I.W.W. is a
terrible shock to his belief. Yank realizes that he does not belong even to the
I.W.W. He now felt completely
isolated alienated from the human society, and thought himself a complete hairy
ape.
Finally he goes to a Zoo and stands
before the cage of a gorilla in a zoo. He regards the gorilla as his own
brother, as a place he belongs to. Yank opens the door and enters into the
cage. The next moment the gorilla wraps his huge arms round him and crushes him
to death. Yank falls down like a heap. The gorilla takes him up throws him into
the cage, and closes the door. The final scene shows that Yank is rejected not
only by man and nature but also by animals. As Yank dies, he mutters and in
deep agony he cries "Christ, where do I get off? AT? Where do I fit in”?
Thus the end of Yank’s quest for identity and
belongingness implies the endless effort of mankind to find out a sustainable
and permanent position of dignity and honor in human society irrespective of
class, creed, color, cast and community.
When i read this question in my studyguide it was too difficultto understan, but whwn i read here, i easily understand it,thanks the person from the core of my hear on behalfof honurs 4 th year who makes it easily for us
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DeleteExactly! I also find it so difficult in study guide,worst guide ever!
DeleteThanks! !
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DeleteO’Neill is a great dramatist, and has treated a good variety of themes in "The Hairy ape". It combines the themes of illusion and reality, alienation and quest for identity, disintegration of civilization, degeneration of the human psyche, and regression of the humans by industrialization, which stand out prominently in the play
ReplyDeleteI Just love the way you wirte ❤️
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