The Hairy Ape

The Hairy Ape, a long one-act play containing eight scenes, was written in 1921 and performed in March of 1922. Its background lies in O’Neill’s own sojourn at sea, and its burly central figure, Yank, is patterned after Robert Driscoll, a stoker acquaintance of O’Neill who was similarly proud of his physical strength. Driscoll’s suicide at sea prompted O’Neill to imagine the factors that might have led to it.

The play explores the place of human beings in the universe. In an increasingly dehumanized modern society, the individual no longer is in harmony with nature. Paddy speaks poetically about in the first scene about the days when “a ship was part of the sea, and a man was part of a ship, and the sea joined all together and made it one.” The Hairy Ape draws a stark contrast between that idyllic past and the alienated present, asking if modern individuals can find a home in mechanistic, industrial society. O’Neill seems to reject this possibility. Yank’s animal nature, dramatized through his strength and physical appearance, is contrasted with the fragility of the would-be social worker, Mildred. Representing an affluent but insensitive society, Mildred makes a pitiful effort to reach out to those of a lower class, but her ancestry has rendered her weak and lethargic, and she is unable even to stay conscious in Yank’s presence. 

Yank and the men are hard at work shoveling coal in the noisy stokehole at the opening of Scene Three. Yank leads the men at work. The men take a break and an anonymous whistle-blower overhead in the darkness commands the men to keep working. In a rage, Yank screams up at the whistle-blower. Yank suddenly realizes that the men have stopped working. Still fuming, Yank turns to face Mildred. At the sight of Yank, Mildred whimpers for the men to take her away from the filthy beast and faints into the arms of the engineers.

The men have again gathered in the stokehold in Scene Four. They replay and rehash the Mildred scene and mock Yank, the "filthy beast." Paddy tells Yank Mildred looked at him like he was a big "hairy ape." Infuriated, Yank lunges toward the door to find Mildred, but is restrained by the other Firemen.

Yank and Long have traveled to 5th Avenue in New York City in Scene Five. Long means to show Yank that all upper class people are like Mildred. Yank tries to attract attention to himself by bumping into people and accosting a young woman, but receives no response but "I beg your pardon." Finally, Yank is arrested because he makes a Gentleman miss his bus. Yank is imprisoned on Blackwell's Island and converses with the other prisoners in Scene Six. The men tell him that if he wants to get even with Mildred and her father's company he should join the Wobblies or the Industrial Workers of the World. Yank realizes that Mildred's father built both the physical and metaphorical cage he is trapped in. In a fury, Yank actually bends the bars of his cell, but is restrained by the guards.

Yank visits the local I.W.W. in Scene Seven, but is rejected because the Secretary thinks he is a governmental spy. Yank's radicalism, willingness to blow things up and preoccupation with "belonging" make them suspicious of him. Yank is thrown out on the street. Yank spends the night at the Battery and the next morning visits the Monkey House at the Zoo. In Scene Eight, Yank attempts to befriend the ape. He tells the ape that they are alike—both caged and taunted. Yank believes he and the ape belong to the same club and calls him brother. Yank releases the gorilla from his cage and approaches the ape to shake his hand. The gorilla springs on Yank, crushes Yank with his massive arms and then tosses Yank into his cage. Yank dies in the gorilla's cage.