Applying the Theories of New Historicism to Eugene ONeills The Hairy Ape free essay sample

It is clear that when this approach is applied to Eugene ONeills play The Hairy Ape, we achieve a more complete understanding of the text. Born on 1888, ONeill writes from a personal point of view that reflects not only his own battles with depression, alcoholism, attempts at suicide, and illness but the general tragedy of the human condition. After reading The Hairy Ape, we can conclude that ONeills early life influenced his writing. Like ONeill, the protagonist, Bob Smith (Yank), leads a painful life because he is caught in destructive situations and paths that he cannot escape, as he searches for ways to adjust to the economic and cultural realities of 1920s New York. ONeill, himself, left school to begin an education in, what he later called, life experience. Over the next six years he worked as a sailor, lived penniless on the waterfronts of New York, Buenos Aires, and Liverpool, became an alcoholic and tried to commit suicide. We will write a custom essay sample on Applying the Theories of New Historicism to Eugene ONeills The Hairy Ape or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page However, at 24, things began to look up for him when he became a reporter for The New London Daily Telegraph. However, things took a turn for the worse when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. While in hospital, ONeill began to reevaluate his life in what he later termed his rebirth. It is after this period of hospitalization in 1912-1913 that he refocused his life to become a great playwright. Before ONeill, most American Drama was farce or melodrama; however, after ONeill American Theater was transformed into a serious and important cultural institution. For him, the theater was a place to highlight important social issues and ideas. Considered the first great American playwright, his plays deal with the American tragedy through the backdrop of American history and social movements. According to Ulrich Weisstein, ONeill single-handedly catapulted American drama into world prominence (193). Moreover, he introduced the European movements of realism, naturalism, and expressionism to the American stage as devices to express his comprehensive interest in all of life (Magill 323). As a leading playwright, a Nobel Laureate, and four time Pulitzer Prize winner, ONeill, utilized the Expressionist mode†¦ [to] dramatize the tortured inner life of twentieth-century man (203). Originating in art, Expressionism was a reaction against Impressionism, which aimed at painting external reality. In Literature, the Expressionists wanted to create and project their own reality, their own inner ideas and visions of what they perceived. Expressionism does not care about creating an imitation of the world; what it cares about is applying subjective and eccentric views of the world. Thus, ONeill uses the Expressionist mode in The Hairy Ape, in [order to] project the inner experience of the protagonist (Weisstein 194). For instance, in Scene One, ONeill uses light and the lack of it to express the stark contrast between the world of the passengers and the world of the workers on the Ocean Liner. Mildred Douglas epitomizes aristocracy and opportunity while Yank signifies the under- privileged worker. ONiell shifts the scene from the brightly lit promenade deck where Mildred and her Aunt relax in beautiful sunshine in a great flood, the fresh sea wind blowing across it, to the stokehole where one hanging electric bulb shed just enough light through the murky air laden with coal dust to pile up masses of shadows everywhere. Indeed, the aim of New Historicism is to treat Literature as a participant in a dynamic, changeable culture. The potential for change becomes important, because it means that Literature has a role to play in the reformation of society. With its help, power bases can be restructured and the marginalized recognized (Dobie 182). Of course, the marginalized in The Hairy Ape are the low er-class people like Yank who are oppressed by a bloody capitalist (Scene Four) society. The Hairy Ape deals with modernization and the resulting deterioration of peoples lives. The effect of industrialization and technological development is negatively felt by both the laborers and the wealthy. For the former, industrialization has diminished the human worker to nothing more than an animal. There is no thinking involved in what they need to do. Thus, these workers are forced into jobs that need only physical labor and brute force. ONeill shows this basic decline of the worker into a Neanderthal (Scene One) or Ape-like state when the Firemen are shown to resemble Neanderthals. One of the oldest workers, Paddy, is described as extremely monkey-like. It seems that the more the Firemen work, the more they retreat on the human evolutionary path. For this reason, Yank shows an affinity with a real ape at the end of the play when he says: Me n you, huh? –bot members of dis club! (Scene 8). As for the wealthy class, they are described in the stage directions as a procession of gaudy marionettes, yet with something of the relentless horror of Frankensteins in their detached, mechanical unawareness (Scene Five). Such human degeneration is apparent when Mildred calls herself the waste product (Scene Two) of her fathers steel company. Although she enjoys the financial benefits of the company, she feels unfulfilled. For her, industrialization and technological advancements do little to boost her self-worth; ONeill describes Mildred as skinny, pale and wearing white, with an expression like looking as if the vitality of her stock had been sapped before she was conceived, the expression not of its life energy but merely of the artificialities that energy had won for itself in the spending (Scene Two). For ONeill, the poor have not advanced but rather have been pulled to a low, animalistic state, while the aristocrats have risen so high above nature they have become artificial beings. In Scene Five, we see class warfare being waged against her kind. Using 5th Avenue as a battle ground, Yank attempts to initiate this revolution against Mildred and the higher class. Here, ONeill seems to be using Long as a mouthpiece for Marxist views when he says: Were trespassers ere. Proletarians keep orf the grass! arskin Jesus to giveem more money I wants to convince yer she was ony a representative of er clarss. I wants to awaken yer bloody clarss consciousness. Then yerll see its er clarss yerve got to fight, not er alone (Scene Five). Long has divided Yank and Mildred into the proletariat and the upper classes. The proletariat is the lower, working class while the upper class is the aristocrats. Influenced by Karl Marx, the Socialist Party of the United States was formed in 1901. As industrialism swept Europe and the United States, many workers felt trapped in the capitalist system, in which they faced horrific working conditions, arbitrary wage cuts, and a sense that their lives were controlled by wealthy business owners (Danver 746). According to Steve Golden, in reading literature and history, Marxist theory focuses on economics and social class, and how those elements affect the balance of power in a text. Like Marxist theory, the new historicism also focuses on the exercise of power. However, new historicist critics prefer to examine social issues, marginalized groups, and institutions that wielded power (e. g. , the church) in the time period. From his biography, we know that ONeill befriended many radicals in the Communist Labor Party and he was, therefore, sympathetic to their cause. It seems that ONeill is blaming the upper, capitalist class for causing the industrial worker to spiral downwards. It is likely that ONeill was aware that many steel workers worked twelve hours a day, seven days a week, and lived in squalid housing (Norton 667). For these reasons, when his protagonist, Yank, deteriorates into a primitive, animal-like state, it is because the jobs created by steel companies treat men like animals: imprisoned by white steel (Scene One), they are caged and forced to work in unsafe conditions. Thus, when Yank says: he made disdis cage! Steel! IT dont belong, dats what! Cages, cells, locks, bolts, barsdats what it means! holdin me down wit him at de top! (S6), it symbolizes steel as an oppressive tool for a capitalist system. Indeed, technological changes had been widening the gap between employees and employers and an upsurge of dissent emerged from this gap (Norton 583). Nowhere is this dissent more vivid than when Yank learns about the Wobblies (Scene Six). He sees this workers union as a way to seek revenge against Mildred and aristocrats in general. Referred to as a tough gang (Scene Six), the I. W. W. as a powerful force when The Hairy Ape was written. In fact, O’Neill joined the Marine Transport Workers Union of IWW, which was fighting a kind of guerrilla war for livable conditions with quick on the job direct action (Wikipedia). Clearly, ONeill was influenced by their ideas to promote worker solidarity in the revolutionary struggle to overthrow the employing class (Wikipedia). Another influence over ONeill was Karl Marx who predicted that workers worldwide would become so discontented that they would revolt and seize factories, farms, banks, and transportation lines (Norton 583). However, the only revolution that ONeill presents to us is the one going on inside Yanks mind. In Scene Seven, he has become so disillusioned with life that he protests to the police officer that his only crime was being born: I was born, see? I was born, get me! But it seems that his only way for release is to die; by the end of the play, Yank sinks so deep in depression that he chooses to die by the one creature he is constantly compared toan ape. Throughout the play, ONeill ironically notes that Yank takes on the physical posture of Auguste Rodins sculpture, The Thinker. This statue is one of the most recognizable symbols of thought. By taking the posture of this statue in the play, Yank shows his inept attempts at thinking because he does not know what it means to truly think. The closest he can get to The Thinker is to physically imitate the cultural symbol. When the stage directions call for taking the position of The Thinker, Yank cannot understand the problems he faces. As h e struggles to tink, in Scene One, he begins to look like the thinking statue. However, the other men look at him half- amusedly, as if they saw a joke. But for Yank it is no joke when he hears from Paddy how she [Mildred] shriveled away with her hands over her eyes to shut out the sight of him twas as if shed seen a great hairy ape escaped from the Zoo! Moreover, ONeill is suggesting how Yanks job has not only reduced him to an animal but also to a non-thinking piece of metal: Im part of de engines! Its me makes it hot! Its me makes it roar! Its me makes it move! Im steelsteelsteel! Im de muscles in steel, de punch behind it! (Scene One). It is only after he clashes with upper society that he begins to realize his low position in life. Their two worlds clash when Mildred first sees Yank pounding on his chest, gorilla-like (Scene Three). Mildred calls him a filthy beast and he hurls his shovel after them at the door which has just closed. It hits the steel bulkhead with a clang and falls clattering on the steel floor (Scene Three). The falling steel corresponds to Yanks falling spirit and it foreshadows his falling into despair at the end of the play. Another episode that shows his poor thinking skills is when he is thrown out of the I. W. W. He fails to grasp what has happened or why the union would throw him out. Because Yank cannot figure out the situations before him, he is incapable of functioning in a modern society. Works do not exist in isolation from their historical and cultural environments. Without a doubt, Literature has a relevancy that takes it beyond the confines of art for arts sake. Literature is a powerful force that has far reaching implications to life in general. Thus, through our analysis of ONeills The Hairy Ape, the New Historicist approach is an excellent method for analyzing and appreciating this and any other literary work. By fusing biography, politics, ideology, culture, and history, this technique revives the play from a time long gone to reawaken our senses in order to enrich and illuminate our overall understanding and appreciation of the work. Works Cited Danver, Steven. ed. Revolts, Protests, Demonstrations, and Rebellions in American History. Vol I. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2011. Eugene ONeill. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. , 26 Feb. 2013. Web. 2 May. 2013. Golden, Steve. The Influence of Postmodernism, Part 4: New Historicism. Web. 2 May. 2013 Magill, Frank N. Ed. Mourning Becomes Electra. Masterpieces of American Literature. New York: Harpercollins, 1993. 321-325. Print. Norton, Mary Beth. et al. A People amp; a Nation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008. Print. ONeill, Eugene. The Hairy Ape. New York: Dover, 2005. Print. Weisstein, Ulrich. Ed. Expressionism As an International Literary Phenomenon. John Benjamins: Philadelphia, 2011. Print. Wobblies. Wikipedia: Th e Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. , 2 May. 2013. Web. 3 May. 2013.