The Hairy Ape study material

The Hairy Ape

·      The title of the play “Hairy Ape”: It’s Aptness

·      Essentials of a good title.

           The title of a literary work should be apt and suggestive. As an example we can say that, the signboard of a shop, us an idea of its subject-matter. It should tell us an idea to what the play is about. It should make us eager to go through it. The title ‘The Hairy Ape’ has all those qualities. It refers to Yank, the central figure of the play, and his quest for identity or belongingness.

·       Yank: His Gorilla-like physical strength.

            An ape is the very embodiment of physical strength. It has little brain but, a lot of sinews and muscles. It has incapable of thought. It knows only the use of physical force. It is exactly these qualities which Yank has. He is hairy cheated with long arm of tremendous power. He is broader and more powerful than other stokers. He has great capacity for work. He can work for long hours and inhale smoke and coal unaffected. Like the hairy ape, he has immense physical strength and great capacity of destruction.

·       His Ape-like grossness

             In the very beginning, we find that he is quite in harmony with his work, confident of himself and proud of his superior strength. As he says, he ‘belongs’. While other stokers do not ‘belong’. But his confident sense of ‘belongingness’ is soon shattered. Mildred Douglas, a student of sociology, came down into the stock hall, at a time; Yank is flourishing his shovel above his head, shouting, crushing, and pounding his chest with other hand. The impact of his, “Abysmal brutality, naked and shameless” Is too much for her. As faint, she calls him,”The filthy beast” and she looks at him as if he were an hairy ape, escaped from the zoo. Yank feels insulted and can’t forget her spectacle with fear and insult.

·       His brooding over the words “Hairy Ape”

           Throughout the play, he broods the words ‘hairy ape’ used for him. Desire for revenge burns hot on his heart. His confident sense of belongingness is gone. He realizes that the ship belongs to her, and he is simply a slave working to maintain her in luxury. He is no longer in harmony with his work; now he does not share or clean himself like other stokers and comes to look like the hairy ape.

·       His Ape-like Conduct

          Now he also behaves like a hairy ape. His desire for revenge carries him to the fifth avenue. Seeing ‘monkey fur’ in one shop window, long remarks that they can pay two thousand dollars for a hairy ape’s skin, but they will not pay a much smaller amount for a living ape, so Yank thinks that long means to insult him. He is a murderous mood. He doesn’t listen to long’s advice. He fights with the people there. He behaves senselessly and thoughtlessly like a hairy ape. The result is that he arrested and sent to jail.

·       Yank’s Obsession

         The thought that he is a hairy ape becomes an obsession with Yank. In the prison he actually imagines that he is a hairy ape imprisoned in a cage. It is in prison that he comes to know of the I.W.W. and suppose that he can have his vengeance by joining the organization. Maddened by the thought that she is the owner of the steel which has been used to cage him in, he bends the bars of his cell and comes out, the very next moment the hose is used upon him and he is caged in once again.

            Yank, the hairy ape is rejected by civilized society. He has been rapidly disintegrating. He cannot go back so he continuous to go down. Regression alone is possible for him. Rejected by society, he goes to the zoo, thinking that there at least he must belong. He is a hairy ape and so naturally he belongs to the brotherhood of the apes. Reaching the monkey-house, he stands face to face with a gorilla in its cage and talks to it as to a friend. They are both members of the same club and so they will stick together up to the end. Thinking that with the help of the gorilla he would be able to wreck his vengeance on society, he flies off the bars of the cage and sets the gorilla free. He calls him a ‘brother’ shakes hands with it, and wants to lead it to the fifth avenue. But the gorilla wraps his arms round him and crushes him to death. It throwing its body into the cage and walks off menacingly.

·       Significance of the title.

            He dramatist has given the play the sub-title, “A Comedy of Ancient and Modern Life.” The ancient life is represented by the gorilla, the biological ancestor of man, and Yank represents modern life. He is the modern hairy ape. There is regression instead of progress. Yank psychologically retraces the stage of man’s evolution till he sees himself as a hairy ape, the ‘brother’ of the gorilla in the cage.  

                    Thus, there is union together of the ancient and modern hairy apes, and union is comedy. No doubt, the modern hairy ape dies but perhaps, at last he now belongs. Moreover the ancient hairy ape has been let loose. Yank dies, but he dies with the hope of a better social order in the near future.

·       Conclusion

            In short, the title of the play is apt. It suggests the theme of the play the morbid obsession of Yank with insult that been heaped upon him and the consequent disintegration of his personality.

   Various Themes in The Hairy Ape:

§  Alienation: The major Theme of O’ Neil

                 Man is a social Animal. A sense of security of belongingness is necessary for his happiness and tranquility. He must have his mornings somewhere, in some in the love and affection of parents, friends and other relatives when this sense of belongingness this sense harmony is lost for one reason or the other man suffers from a feeling of confidence. There was little stability of back ground in O’Neill’s own life and this account for the fact alienation or loss of identity is the basic theme of most of this major plays. His characters constantly search for identity for belongingness and disintegrate and decay when they fail to chive such identity.

§  Yank’s Initial sense of belongingness

            Alienation and search for identity is also the basic theme of the Hairy Ape. In the opening since of the play we find that Yank is quite confident proud of this superior strength. He exercises great authority over his fellow-stokes who respect his superior physical capacity and obey him and are afraid of him. Yank is quite satisfied for as he himself puts he belongs while they do not belong. He is in perfect harmony with his work and proud of the fact that he can eat smoke and coal and make the ship ran t 24 knots hour.

§  The shattering confrontation with Mildred

                   But Yank’s sense of security, his sense of belongingness is soon shattered as he is confronted with Mildred Douglas who looks at him as if he were an “Hairy Ape” and who calls him a fifthly beast. It is now that Yank becomes aware of the fact she does not “belong” He finds that a new world. Which disregard human rights and aspirations has left him standard. The one thing which made his life endurance was that he fell that he belong that he was a necessary, vital and human part of a social order, but he realizes that he counts for nothing as an individual and this is not Yank’s problem alone, but the problem of our whole social system.

§  Yank in the fifth avenue

              Like Yank they must listen as he listened on bright Sunday morning on fifth avenue while the fact ones came past him talking church service in the following manner:

“Dear Doctor callphas! He is so sincere!

What was the sermon? I dozed of about

The radicals my deas and the false,

Doctrines that are being preached.”

The system has evolved beyond control and each day the gap between Yank and his grows winder more and the Yank of the world realize that they do not belong.

The psychological impact of the machine age

            In ‘The Hairy Ape’ O’Neill reveals himself in sympathy with this search for identify according to win there in this play the dramatist examines in full the psychological implications of the machine age. Yank s more than an individual. He is a symbol of the deep protest that rises like a wave against the whole structures of modern civilization. He is man crying out against a system which has not only exploited man’s body but his spirit as well Yank is a protest against the mordant success of the machine age.

§  Yank Rejection by I.W.W. (industrial workers of the world)

         O’Neil makes this clear as Yank moves from one defeat to another striving vainly to find some answer to his problem. In prison he heard of the I.W.W. and thought to find among them as answer they threw him into the street must as the communists of today would deny him a place. The Modern workers do not belong. He has become a more numbers, not a unified and significant personality Disintegration and elecay of human personality is the natural consequence. 

§  Yank’s Rejection by “the hairy ape.”

Yank is rejected by society he does not belong to the world of man but he cannot exist in isolation. He must have his morning somewhere if not in the world of man, and then at least in the world the brutes search for identity becomes an obsession with him and ultimately to takes him to the zoo. There he stands face to face with gorilla in its cage talks to it as to a brother because he thinks that they both belong to same club of hairy ape. He shakes hand with it and sets it free but alas! The gorilla crushes him to death. It does not think that Yank ‘belongs’. Yank’s quest for identity fittingly ends with his death.

§  Conclusion

In short the hairy ape dramatizes an important aspect of the human predicament in the machine age. Man does not live by bread alone, spiritual health and well being are also necessary. Man each be lonely even in a crowed. The tragedy of Yank is the tragedy of millions in the modern age.

·      “The Hairy Ape” as a modern tragedy or Yank as a tragic hero or Is “The Hairy Ape” a depressing play?

ü Introduction

“The Hairy Ape” was written in 1921. It was not quite a success on its first performance and the censors pronounced it as obscene immoral. O’Neill wrote about “The Hairy Ape”:

“The search for an explanation of why Driscoll, proud of his animal superiority and in complete harm self provided the germ idea for the hairy ape.”

It is certainly one of the most popular plays.

ü A great tragedy with a difference

    Most of O’Neill’s plays are tragedies. ‘The Hairy Ape’ is also a great tragedy but it is not a conventional tragedy in the Aristotelian tradition, But a modern tragedy. Its subject matter and theme is the same but it’s from is different. It is a great tragedy with a difference.     

ü Yank as a tragic hero: Not a man of high rank:

Aristotle lay down that the hero of a tragedy must be an exceptional; individual a man of high rank, a king or a prince. So that his fall from his former greatness would arouse the tragic emotions of pity and fear. All Shakespeare’s heroes fulfill this requirement, but Yank the hero of ‘The Hairy Ape’ is not a man of high rank. He is not a king or a prince or some exalted individual. He is a humble stoker whose business it is to shove fuel into the furnace of the ship’s engine. For long hours he has to work in the cramped and low roofed stokehole. He is beastly, filthy and course. He has no mind. He cannot think; he can use only physical force lie the hairy ape that he is. He belongs he can eat coal and smoke; he is steel he is the power which makes the ship go. He is the ideal stoker an ideal of which the others fall short off.

                 He does not suffer from any fault of his own: but because he is in conflict with his environment with contain social forces that are much stronger than he. In the opening of the play he is quite contended and at ease, quite happy and self confident because he has a sense of belongingness a sense of security, this sense of belongingness is soon shattered. By that “fool-fog of a girl” who comes down to the stokehole to look down upon them as on wild beasts in a zoo she calls Yank a ‘filthy beast’ and looks upon him as if he were an hairy ape. He realizes that he is not steel and steam which make the ship go, but the slave of those who own the ship. He cannot go up; he goes down and ultimately ends in the cage of the gorilla who crushes him to death. 

ü The action: Not external but internal:

        In ‘the Hairy Ape’ also there is enough of action and melodrama but the action which counts is internal. The action develops rapidly through eight short scenes and every scene is a step in the disintegration of Yank’s personality. It there is any villain in the tragedy it is a good or fate or any human being but the mechanical forces of the social environment society is the real villain f the piece. Yank has been called a hairy ape becomes an obsession with him, till he begins actually to see himself as a hairy ape. The delusion carries him step by step to the gorilla cage and so to a gruesome death.

A harrowing Tragedy: It’s defective End

 According to Homen E. Woodbridge “The Hairy ape is a powerful tragedy but towards the end symbolism gets out of control of the dramatist and reality and an optional appeal fade away.”

         Most of us do fail to see ourselves as hairy apes shaking hands with our biological ancestors and so cannot sympathies with Yank as he is crushed by the gorilla. The end strikes one rather as theoretical and melodramatic than truly tragic. 

·       Characterization in “The Hairy Ape”

       ‘The Hairy Ape’ is an expressionistic play and as such the dramatist has cut down the number of characters to the minimum. Yank has the only character that comes to life in the play. Other characters serve merely as background. It is a play of Yank and Yank alone.

v The other stokers: their lack of individuality

     The play opens in the stokehole of a trans-Atlantic liner. A number of stokers are there, but none of them except Yank, has been individualized. Long is a radical dreaming of a golden age of social equality and social justice by the exercise by the exercise of the right to vote and other constitutional means. On the other hand, Paddy dreams of a golden age in the past, when man lived in harmony with mature and life was a pleasure. The other stockers have not been given any name; they are merely a chorus of voices only. They are expressive of the simple animal-like existence of the stokers. Thus, yank sits thinking and they all advise him; “Drink, don’t think”

                It is Yank alone who has been given a distinct personality. He represents their most highly developed self. He is the ideal to which they would like to approximate, but cannot. We can see throughout the play that he is respected and obeyed. When he wants a drink, a number of stokers at once give him their own bottles. He is self-confident, proud of his superior strength and of the fact that he belongs while others do not belong. He feels that he is the energy which makes the ship go at twenty four knots at hour and he is proud of the fact.

v Mildred Douglas and her Aunt: their typical nature.

 In scene-2 we are introduced to Mildred Douglas and her aunt but like the other stokers they too, have not been individualized. They are the representative of artificial, exhausted, and capitalist, the symbols of artificiality, ease and luxury. Mildred introduced for the shock which she administrates to Yank, a shock which shattered his sense of belongingness. The confrontation of Mildred and Yank represents the climax of the play, and confrontation with her has caused a serious traumatic injury to Yank. Yank’s dream of belonging is shattered and Mildred’s function is over, she disappears from the play.

v Their fifth-Avenue Rich: Their Typical nature.

Mildred appears for a moment in the life of Yank like a fleeting ghost. And equally ghostly are the denizens of the fifth avenue the people of the class to which Mildred belongs. They are mere automatons, mere lifeless shadows, moving about as if in a dream. They create an impression of the mechanical nature of modern life. They move about, they speak in chorus and entirely ignore the existence of yank and thus help to heighten Yank’s sense of his own insignificance and his feeling of insecurity.

v The Prisoner and the members of the I.W.W.

Similarly, the prisoners in the prison cells have not been individualized. They have not been given even a name. They are merely voices providing yank with information regarding the I.W.W. the secretary of the I.W.W. and other people in the office are equally lacking in individuality. The secretary talks of the use of dynamite and violence as suggested by Yank. He represent the proletariat, touched and corrupted by politics as contrasted with Yank ho strands for a class of workers, still uninfluenced by politics, still enjoying its primitive animal like simplicity.

         Yank’s sense of isolation is further aggravated; he does not belong even to the I.W.W.

v Yank, the only living character: His Obsession

The foregoing analysis makes it quite clear that Yank is the only living character in the play. The other characters simply constitute the background which throws into sharp relief the personality of Yank. In the opening scenes, Yank has been conceived realistically and the external details of his appearance, gesture, motions etc. have been graphically and vividly given but after his confrontation with Mildred. The action is increasingly internalized. O’Neill’s major figures generally suffer from some obsession which sends them to their doom and Yank is no exception in his respect. His obsession is a feeling of insecurity and insignificance and the consequent search for social security and significance. He wants to demonstrate to people of Fifth Avenue and upper class people, his own physical superiority over them and they are merging ‘baggage’ in comparison with him. The result is he soon fined himself in jail.

v His Regression

Yank’s obsession nearly derives him mad. In prison, he sees himself as a hairy ape in a cage, breaks upon the cell, and comes out. He has the strength of a gorilla but is not longer capable of rational thought. He is given the house and again put behind the bars. After release, he goes straight to the zoo. He imaginatively identifies himself with the gorilla. He calls it a ‘brother’. But alas! He does not belong even to the gorilla. Gorilla kills him and throws him into cage. Thus, Yank’s obsession leads him to death.

v Symbolic Significance

Yank has been sharply individualized but he is also a type. The end of yank is terrible a frightful symbol of the decay and disintegration of spiritual values in a mechanized and materialized age. Yank is every man, for what happens to yank in the play is happening to millions in the modern machine age. Yank is typical of the isolated and alienated proletariat in an urbanized and industrialized civilization all the world over. Yank is both and individual and a type. According to Edwin Engels, he is typical of the modern man. He has not also lost faith in himself.