THE HAIRY APE

The Hairy Ape
Eugene O'Neill
Context
Eugene O'Neill was born in New York City on October 16, 1888 to James and
Ella O'Neill. James was a successful touring actor and O'Neill's mother, Ella,
accompanied her husband touring around the country. Eugene was born in a
hotel room and spent most of his childhood on the road with his family.
Summers were spent in the family's only permanent home in New London,
Connecticut. O'Neill was educated at boarding schools in his early years and
then attended Princeton University for a year, from 1906 to 1907. After
Eugene left school he began an education in, what he later called, "life
experience." Over the next six years he shipped to sea, lived destitute on the
waterfronts of New York, Buenos Aires and Liverpool, became alcoholic and
attempted suicide. At age twenty-four, O'Neill finally began to recover from
this state and held a job as a reporter for the New London Daily
Telegraph. Eugene was forced to quit his reporting job when he became
extremely ill with tuberculosis and was subsequently hospitalized in Gaylord
Farm Sanitarium in Wallington, Connecticut for six months. While in the
hospital, Eugene began to reevaluate his life in what he later termed his
"rebirth." After his hospitalization, O'Neill studied the techniques of playwriting
at Harvard University from 1914 to 1915 under the famous theater scholar
George Pierce Baker.
In the summer of 1916, O'Neill made his first appearance as a playwright in a
tiny playhouse on the wharf of Provincetown, MA. The playhouse was started
as a new experimental theater by a group of young writers and painters. The
playhouse produced Bound East for Cardiff, O'Neill's first play. This same
group of writers formed the Playwrights' Theater in New York's Greenwich
Village, eventually Provincetown Players, where O'Neill made his New York
debut. For ten years O'Neill worked as a dramatist and playwright for this

company. O'Neill's first full-length endeavor was produced on Broadway on
February 2, 1920 at the Morosco Theater. Beyond the Horizon won the
Pulitzer Prize for drama, the first of four awarded to O'Neill in his lifetime.
O'Neill was later awarded Pulitzers for Anna Christie, Strange
Interlude, and Long Day's Journey into Night. O'Neill was also the first
American playwright to receive the Nobel Prize for literature.
Between 1920 and 1943, O'Neill completed twenty long plays and many
shorter ones. All of O'Neill's plays are written from a personal point of view
and reflect on the tragedy of the human condition. There is no doubt that
O'Neill's early history contributed to his writing. Like O'Neill as a boy, many of
his characters are caught in destructive situations and paths that they cannot
escape. Before O'Neill, most American Drama was farce or melodrama.
O'Neill embraced the theater as a venue to work out serious social issues and
ideas. He transformed the American Theater into a serious and important
cultural institution.
O'Neill has been compared to virtually every literary figure in the Western
world and is considered the first great American playwright. His plays deal
specifically with the American tragedy, rooted in American history and social
movements. O'Neill had broad vision and was sometimes criticized when this
vision seemed to exceed his skill. Some critics even believed O'Neill aimed
too consciously at greatness. His dramas are marked by expressionistic
theatrical techniques and symbolic devices that function to express religious
and philosophical ideas. O'Neill even used the Ancient Greek Chorus as a
device to comment on the action of many of his plays. By bringing
psychological depth, poetic symbolism and expressionistic technique to the
American theatre, O'Neill raised the standards of American theatre.
The last twenty years of his life, O'Neill battled a crippling nervous disorder
similar to Parkinson's disease. He died in 1953.

Plot Overview
The firemen, workers who shovel coal into the engine of a Transatlantic
Ocean Liner, sit in the forecastle of the ship drinking and carrying on with
each other. They are an hour out of New York City and have seven more days
aboard ship. The men are burly and muscular. Yank, the fiercest looking of
the men, sits in the foreground quietly. Whenever Yank speaks the men
immediately hush. Yank asks for a beer and the men immediately give one to
him. As Yank and the men drink, Yank remains in control as the leader of the
group. Yank and the men joke about thinking as they drink. Yank, in a joke
repeated during the play, tells the men to be quiet because he is trying to
"tink." The men mockingly repeat after him, "think" and then erupt into a
chorus of "Drink, don't think!" Cutting through the general mayhem, a drunken
tenor sings a tune about his lass at home. Talk of home outside the ocean
liner infuriates Yank and he tells the tenor to be quiet. Long, quite drunk,
stands up and makes a Marxist speech, preaching to the men that if the ship
is home, their home is hell and the Upper Class put them there. Yank tells him
to join the Salvation Army and get a soapbox. Paddy, a wise, older fireman
tells the men that life on an Ocean Liner is hell by comparison to his life on a
Clipper Ship. Paddy reminisces about the freedom he enjoyed, the purpose
he had and skill for which he was valued. Yank tells Paddy that he is dead,
"living in the past of dreams" and glorifies his own job as the strength of the
ship's speed and force.
Mildred and her Aunt lounge on the promenade deck of the Ocean Liner.
Mildred and her Aunt discuss Mildred's need to do service for the poor.
Mildred worked with the poor in Manhattan's Lower East Side and is currently
on her way to do more service projects in Europe. Mildred's Aunt
characterizes Mildred's service as "slumming" and does not understand why
she has to do it internationally. Mildred's Aunt tells Mildred that her service
work just makes the poor feel poorer. Mildred is currently waiting for the

second engineer to take her down into the stokehole. Mildred told a lie that
her father, the president of Nazareth Steel, has given her permission. When
he arrives, the second Engineer escorts Mildred, clad in a white dress she
refused to change out of, down into the stokehole.
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.
Character List
Yank - The play's antagonist. Yank works as a Fireman on a Transatlantic
Ocean Liner. The play follows his quest to find a sense of belonging in
modern, industrial society. Yank, whose real name is Bob Smith, was born in
New York City and was brought up in a lower class family. Yank is a burly,
sometimes menacing figure who has difficulty with thought. He is known to
take the physical position of Rodin's "The Thinker" when processing
information or dealing with a problem.
Mildred Douglas - The frail, impetuous twenty-year-old daughter of the
owner of Nazareth Steel. Mildred has enjoyed the advantage of all of life's
monetary privileges and has no real knowledge of work or hardship. In an
attempt to understand the poorer classes she does service project and
studied sociology in college. Mildred's reaction to Yank causes his class
awareness.
Mildred's Aunt - A stuffy, fat, middle-aged aristocratic woman who is
intensely critical of Mildred's involvement in social work. Mildred's Aunt has no
taste for "deformity" and thinks Mildred makes the poor only feel poorer with
her presence.

Paddy - An old and wise Irishman who works with Yank as a fireman aboard
the Ocean Liner. Paddy, known for drunkenness, thinks the firemen are forced
to do slave labor. Paddy reminisces about his days working on a Clipper ship
where men were free.
Long - A fireman aboard the Ocean Liner who preaches Marxism. Long
takes Yank to New York City to prove to Yank that all members of the upper
class are the same.
The Secretary - Works at the I.W.W. office in New York City. He comes to
believe that Yank works for the government and throws him out on the street.
Gentleman - A member of the upper class. He calls the police because Yank
causes him to miss a bus.
Second Engineer - Escorts Mildred Douglas into the stokehole of the Ocean
Liner. The Second Engineer warns Mildred that her white dress be ruined, but
she ignores him.
The Guard - Works at the prison where Yank is held after causing the
Gentleman to miss his bus. The Guard shoots water at Yank when he bends
the bars of his cell back.
Yank
The struggle of Yank, a fireman who works aboard a Transatlantic Liner, is the
subject of The Hairy Ape. Yank, real name is Bob Smith, was born in New
York City. Yank does not reveal many details of his family history, but, from
what he does say, it is clear that it was painful. His mother died of the
"tremens" and his father, a shore-worker, was abusive. Yank tells Long that
on Saturday nights his parent's fighting was so intense that his parents would
break the furniture. Ironically, his parents made him attend church every
Sunday morning. After his mother died, Yank ran away from home, tired of
lickings and punishment.

In the beginning of The Hairy Ape, Yank seems fairly content as, if not proud
to be a fireman. He defends the ship as his home and insists that the work he
does is vital—it is the force that makes the ship go twenty-five knots an hour.
Mildred Douglas's reaction to Yank is the catalyst which makes Yank come to
class awareness. His attempt to get revenge on Mildred Douglas widens to
revenge on the steel industry and finally the entire Bourgeois. Throughout this
struggle Yank defines "belonging" as power. When he thinks he "belongs" to
something he gains strength, when Yank is rejected by a group, he is terribly
weak. However, Yank is rejected by all facets of society: his fellow firemen,
Mildred, the street goers of 5th Ave., The I.W.W., and finally the ape in the
zoo. Yank symbolizes the struggle of modern man within industrial society—
he cannot break class or ideological barriers, nor create new ones. Yank is
the outsider, and eventually just the freak at the zoo for people to cage and
point at.
Mildred Douglas
Mildred Douglas, the picture of piety and service, is anything but. Mildred is
the pale and feeble daughter of the owner of Nazareth Steel. She has been
lavishly spoiled and enjoyed every possible privilege money can buy. In
college, Mildred studied sociology and is on a crusade to help the poor.
Mildred has previously worked with the disadvantaged people in New York's
Lower East Side. Mildred's Aunt is accompanying her to Europe where she
will embark on more service projects. While on the Ocean Liner Mildred asks
permission to visit the lower portions ship to view how the "other half" (Yank
and the firemen) live. As if on a trip to the zoo, she wears a bright white dress
down into the stokehole, ignoring the Engineer's warning that is will get dirty
from the coal dust.
Although Mildred should be considered the antagonist of The Hairy Ape, she
is equally victimized by class as Yank. Though Mildred has more education
and cultural experience than Yank, she still cannot escape her cultural

identity. Mildred describes herself as the waste of her father's steel company,
as she has felt the benefits, but not the hard work that brought them. She
shares with Yank the need to find a sense of usefulness or belonging—the
fate of both characters were decided before they were born. Thus, Yank and
Mildred desperately search to find an identity that is their own.
The failure of both these characters lies in their conscious and unconscious
refusal to shed their values and knowledge while searching for a new identity.
For example, Mildred will not change out of her white dress and Yank's coal
dust is saturated into his skin.
Paddy
Although Paddy only appears in The Hairy Ape in two scenes, he is an
essential element of the play. Paddy is an old Irishman who likes to drink
heavily, and he is known for his rendition of "Whiskey Johnny" and spouting
philosophy and stories of the past when intoxicated. Although Paddy is quite a
thinker, O'Neill describes Paddy's facial features as "extremely monkey—with
the sad, patient pathos of that animal in his small eyes." Of the men on the
ship Paddy could be considered the "extreme-monkey" because he has been
doing labor jobs longer than most of the firemen—labor jobs fit for monkeys.
Paddy brings historical perspective to The Hairy Ape. His extensive
monologue in Scene One details how shipping used to be aboard Clipper
Ships. Without Paddy's presence the audience would not have as much
perspective about the revolution brought about by machines. Paddy has
experienced life on the sea that was free, where he was empowered and
valued. Paddy, unlike many of the men, knows what it is like to not do slave
labor.
Yank's continual references to Paddy as "dead" and "old" and not "belonging"
with the other men aboard the Ocean Liner reveals Yank's own rejection of
freedom. The acceptance and attachment to the modern-ship machine
enslaves men like Yank. The need for belonging, without the knowledge of

what else to belong to, is dangerous as exemplified by Yank's encounter with
Mildred.
Paddy's characterization of Mildred in Scene Four demonstrates that he has
real knowledge of the Bourgeois lifestyle. Paddy's description of Mildred's look
and fainting spell in the stokehole defines Yank's own opinion of Mildred.
Paddy's experiences let him have real opinions. While the development of
one's opinion is definitely a process of age, it is also a benefit of freedom.
Themes, Motifs and Symbols
Themes
HUMAN REGRESSION BY INDUSTRIALIZATION
The resounding theme of The Hairy Ape is the effect of industrialization and
technological progress on the worker. Industrialization has reduced the human
worker into a machine. The men are programmed to do one task, are turned
on and off by whistles, and are not required to think independently. Today, the
job of the coal stoker is actually done by a machine. Workers are thus forced
into jobs that require nothing but grunt work and physical labor, which has, in
turn, caused a general deterioration of the worker into a Neanderthal or Ape-
like state. This is made clear by O'Neill's stage direction, which indicates that
the Firemen actually look like Neanderthals and one of the oldest workers,
Paddy, as "extremely monkey-like." The longer the Firemen work, the further
back they fall on the human evolutionary path—thus Paddy, one of the oldest,
is especially "monkey-like." As a whole, the play is a close investigation of this
regressive pattern through the character Yank—the play marks his regression
from a Neanderthal on the ship to an actual ape at the zoo.

THE FRUSTRATION OF CLASS
Mildred and Yank are representative of the highest and lowest societal
classes—as Long would term it, the bourgeois and the proletariat. However,
while Mildred and Yank's lifestyles are extremely different, they share similar
complaints about class. Mildred describes herself as the "waste product" of
her father's steel company. She has reaped the financial benefits of the
company, but has felt none of the vigor or passion that created it. Mildred
yearns to find passion—to touch "life" beyond her cushioned, bourgeois world.
Yank, on the other hand, has felt too much of the "life" Mildred describes.
Yank desires to topple the class structure by re-inscribing the importance and
necessity of the working class. Yank defines importance as "who belongs."
Class limits and determines both Mildred and Yank's financial resources,
educational opportunities, outlook on life, and culture. The Hairy Ape reveals
how deeply and rigidly class is inscribed into American Culture and the
cultural and financial boundaries it erects.
Motifs
BELONGING
The motif and idea of who "belongs" and the idea of "belonging" are
continually reinforced throughout The Hairy Ape. Yank equates "belonging"
with power and importance and uses "belonging" as a way to reverse societal
power structures. In Scene One, Yank claims that he "belongs" to the ship, as
opposed to the passengers in first class who are merely "baggage." Yank also
associates "belonging" with an individual's usefulness and functionality. The
firemen "belong" because they make the ship run and are essential to its
workings.
Yank is especially affected by Mildred because she presents a world and
class which he cannot belong to. After their meeting, the play essentially

follows Yank in his quest to find belonging, finally leading him to the monkey-
house at the zoo.
THOUGHT
For Yank, thought is the ultimate boundary. Whether pressing his fingers to
his head or sitting in the position of Rodin's "The Thinker," he cannot muster
enough thought to make sense of or come to peace with the world around
him. Thought only becomes necessary for Yank after he encounters Mildred in
the stokehole. Mildred and he class present a new threat that Yank cannot
eliminate or get rid of by physical might. Yank is forced to think how he can
defend himself. This transition is exemplified in the "tink" joke among the men.
Before Mildred enters the stokehole Yank finds thinking ridiculous and
unnecessary, he laughs when he tells the other men he is "trying to tink."
However, after the encounter, Yank earnestly tells the men that he is trying to
"tink." When they joke and correct him in a mocking chorus, "Think!," he is
genuinely hurt.
Yank's inability to think not only reveals his regression to a lower animal form,
but also renders him unable to adapt to or defend himself in the world beyond
the ship.
LANGUAGE
Yank's idiosyncratic speech, characterized by chopped and mangled words
eliminate the possibility of Yank's successes or acceptance in a world or class
other than his own. His deformed language makes real communication
impossible. Ann Massa in "Intention and Effect in The Hairy Ape" puts it quite
beautifully, "Yank can only break the bounds of his vocabulary and his style in
the same violent and ultimately frustrated way that he bends the bars of his
cell he can't break the mould of the apparently flexible yet imprisoning medium

that is language and that is life." Yank's speech defines his class and place in
society—rigid, unchanging and binding.
SETTING
The settings and environments of The Hairy Ape reveal larger social and
cultural realities. Yank and the Firemen exist within the cramped and hot
forecastle and stokehole, described as a formidable cage. In contrast, Mildred
and her Aunt's environment, the Promenade Deck of the ship, is filled with
fresh air and sun. The ocean that surrounds them is infinitely spacious and the
general feeling of freedom abounds. The promenade deck is also symbolically
situated above at the top of the ship, far above the stokehole. Both the
stokehole and the promenade deck setting epitomize the lifestyles and
characteristics of the ship's literal decks and subsequent upper and lower
classes aboard.
Symbols
RODIN'S "THE THINKER"
Yank's impression of Rodin's statue, "The Thinker" is symbolic of Yank's need
to think. While he physically embodies the cultural symbol of a "thinker" he
cannot think himself. Every time O'Neill's stage direction calls for the actor to
take the position of "The Thinker" Yank has come up against an obstacle that
cannot be tackled by any other means but thought—when Yank cannot
process the realities before him. After Yank is thrown out of the I.W.W he
immediately gets into "The Thinker" pose. He is desperate to make sense of
his situation and understand why the union would throw him out
The real ape in Scene Eight is the only other character that takes "The
Thinker" position. The ape sharing this habitual body position reflects on
Yanks own animalistic state—his mode of thought is no more advanced than
the ape's.

APES
Apes are everywhere in The Hairy Ape: Yank is called an ape, Yank thinks he
is an ape, Mildred thinks she sees an ape, Yank tells people he is an ape,
Senator Queen writes that the Wobblies will degenerate American civilization
"back to the ape" and, most importantly, there is a real live ape in Scene 8.
The ape symbolizes man in a primitive state before technology, complex
language structures, complex thought or money was necessary. The ape
represents man that is not only behind in an evolutionary sense, but is free of
class, technology and other elements of modern society. The ape is only
concerned with survival.
Thus Yank, constantly compared with apes, does share some characteristics
with his early primate relatives. Yank, like the ape, struggles with thought,
doesn't understand the class system, has at best basic language skills and is
most concerned with his survival on Earth. In addition, male apes are known
to be very territorial, obstinate, bull headed and aggressive—all descriptors
that could be used to describe Yank.
STEEL
Steel is both a symbol of power and oppression in The Hairy Ape. While Yank
exclaims in Scene One that he is steel, "the muscles and the punch behind it,"
he is all the while penned in a virtual cage of steel created by the ship around
him. Steel creates other cages in the play—Yank's jail cell and the cell of the
Ape. Steel is also oppressive because it creates jobs like Yank's, it is symbolic
of the technology that force Yank and the Firemen into slave-like jobs.
Scene One
SUMMARY
The firemen have gathered in the ship's forecastle, the crew's cramped
quarters in the bow of the ship, on break from shoveling coal. The ocean liner

has sailed an hour out of New York. The men are sitting around on their bunks
drinking beer, carrying on with each other and singing in a clamorous uproar.
Yank, "broader, fiercer, more truculent, more powerful, more sure of himself
than the rest" turns his attention to the mob and asks for a beer. When Yank
speaks the men are immediately quiet, they don't hesitate to hand him two
drinks. Yank, satisfied, turns away and the rowdy men cajole an older fireman,
Paddy to sing his "Whisky Song." Intoxicated, swaying and clutching his bunk
he wails "Whisky! O Johnny!" and is quickly joined by the other men. Yank
again turns his attention to the crowd and commands them to be quiet as he is
trying to "tink." The men, in unison, repeat after him mockingly, "Think!"
Above the men's noise a tenor voice is heard singing, about a "lass who
fondly waits/Making a home for me—." Yank silences the tenor and fiercely
tells him that the ship is his home, nowhere else. A drunken Long jumps on a
table in support of what Yank has said, but adds to it. Long declares that the
ship is home, home is hell and the first class passengers, the "capitalist class"
is to blame. Yank stands and threatens to knock Long down calling his ideas
"Salvation Army—socialist bull." He defiantly states that the firemen are
superior to the first class passengers because they are physically stronger
and they "belong" to the ship. Paddy emerges from his stupor and cries out,
"We belong to this you're saying? We make the ship go, you're saying? God
have pity on us!" Paddy persists in a lengthy and passionate speech, detailing
his former life on the sea. Paddy explains that in his youth men had reason to
be proud to work on ships. The tall clipper ships, powered by sails rather than
coal were, "clean" and "free." The ship gave Paddy a fantastic feeling of
freedom and speed, rather than entrapment and slavery in the coal steamers.
Paddy argues that working aboard the clipper ship required skill and guts.
Men could belong to clipper ships, but do not belong to steamers. Paddy
concludes that the men aboard the steam ship shoveling coal are caged in by
steel, without the sight of land or sea like "apes in the Zoo!"

Yank gets up to fight Paddy, but controls himself. He tells Paddy to calm
down, that he is crazy and too old to understand. Excitedly, Yank suddenly
cries out that he belongs to the ship and Paddy does not, Paddy is dead and
he is alive. Yank declares that he is part of the engines: he moves, he
breathes coal dust and he eats it up. Without Yank, without the engines,
everything would stop. Like Long, Yank describes the bottom of the ship as
hell, but it "takes a man to work in hell." Yank equates himself with steel, the
"muscles" and the "punch behind it."
ANALYSIS
Through the plight and struggle of an ocean liner fireman, Eugene O'Neill
exposes the regression of civilized man to an animalistic state. The firemen
are reduced to work animals, caged and abused. The ocean liner functions as
a metaphor for the larger confinement and oppression of blue-collar workers
into a tight niche in the bottom of society. The cage-like forecastle is
representative or the cramped world, void of opportunity, that the men exist in.
O'Neill suggests that the men should "resemble those pictures in which the
appearance of Neanderthal man is guessed at." The tight quarters of the
forecastle and low ceilings force men to stoop low, preventing the men from
having normal, upright posture. Only valued for their physical might, their
ability to shovel coal into the ship's furnace, the men have abandoned the
need for modern or complex thought and have regressed into a Neanderthal
state.
O'Neill reinforces the firemen's Neanderthal state in the firemen's speech
patterns. O'Neill carefully spells out the broken words and vocal patterns of
the men to ensure that the actor will effectively use speech as another barrier
and divide between the firemen and the higher class characters. With the
exception of Paddy and Long, the men speak in short, simple phrases in
broken English. Paddy and Long also have thick accents, but express

complex though through their dialogue. In this scene the dialogue between the
firemen comes in waves of exclamations:
"Gif me trink dere, you! 'Ave a wet! Salute! Gasundheit! Skoal! Drunk as a
lord, God stiffen you! Here's How! Luck!"
Scene One
The firemen's lines are like animal sounds, void of structure or cohesiveness.
This is not to ignore the fact that the firemen, in a life outside the play may
communicate full sentences and ideas, but within the text the firemen are
characterized like a pack of dogs. The men are reactive and easily bothered,
defensive and constantly ready to put up a fight. Yank, the leader of the pack,
gains respect not because he is the smartest, but because he is physically the
strongest.
The repetition and mockery of Yank's language is a clear indication that the
men do not respect Yank for his brainpower. When Yank tells the men to "nix
on de loud noise" because he is trying to "tink" the men to repeat in unison
"think!" The men purposefully point out the irony of Yank, barely able to form
the word, attempting to think. In a wave of barking exclamations, the men
warn Yank not to crack his head thinking, "You gat headache, py yingo! One
thing about it—it rhymes with drink!" The men equate thought with physical
labor and alcohol, the factors which posses and drive their lives. The chorus
that erupts reinforces this, "Drink, don't think" repeated three times.
Whether by necessity or comfort physical labor and alcohol allow the men to
exist within their societal niche and confines of the ship. Yank's reaction to the
tenor who sings of his home and lassie is deeply offensive to Yank because it
suggests thought and life beyond that of a laborer. Yank is equally offended
by Paddy, who reminisces about life on a clipper ship. Yank desperately

attempts to weight his existence, reverse societal structure on the basis of
"belonging," a theme that is developed extensively in the play.
Scenes Two–Three
SUMMARY
Mildred Douglas and her Aunt lounge on the ship's promenade deck. Basking
in the bright sunlight, Mildred remarks at the beauty of the black plumes of
smoke wafting into the blue sky. Unfettered and relaxed, Mildred and her Aunt
sit painfully disconnected from the workings of the ship, the world of Yank and
the other firemen below. Mildred and her Aunt are "artificial characters," solely
bred from and pampered by aristocratic and monetary pleasures. Mildred, the
daughter of a steel tycoon, is aware of her disconnection from the poorer
classes. She attempts regain some connection to and understanding of the
"other half" by studying sociology and doing various service projects.
Mildred currently awaits the Second Engineer who will take her on a tour of
the stokehole so she can investigate the state the workers on the ship. As she
waits, Mildred and her Aunt quibble about Mildred's desire to help the poor.
Mildred abhors her Aunt's apathy. Mildred's Aunt kindly tells her niece she is a
"ghoul," that Mildred's work with the poor will only make them feel poorer.
Mildred's Aunt has no idea why Mildred would desire to work with such
people, as she loathes "deformity." Mildred describes her dispassionate Aunt
as a "cold pork pudding against a background of linoleum." Mildred not only
wishes to understand and help the poor, but she seeks to find purpose in life.
Mildred expresses to her Aunt that she feels like a "waste product" of her
family's steel business. She has reaped the rewards, but has no taste for the
vigor and fight that brought them. Mildred's Aunt thinks Mildred's service
projects are simply fanciful indulgences, a trendy suit of sincerity and
humbleness that will be short-lived. Mildred compares herself to a leopard
who complains of his spots. Mildred is trapped in an identity with spots she

cannot "scratch off." The first engineer interrupts Mildred and her Aunt to
escort Mildred to the stokehole. He asks Mildred if she would like to change
out of her bright white dress before descending. Mildred replies that she has
fifty dresses just like it and she will simply toss it into the sea when she
returns. As Mildred follows after the engineer to the lower decks her Aunt calls
after her, "poser!" Laughing, without pause, Mildred fires, "Old Hag!"
Scene Three opens in the stokehole where Yank and the Firemen are busy
shoveling fire into the ship's furnace. The men shovel in a rhythmic motion,
swinging shovels of coal from the pile into the furnace doors. The sound of
steel doors slamming, the clank of the shovels against the engine and the
raging fire is deafening. The men stop for a short break. Paddy remarks that
his back is broken and Yank tells him he is being weak. Yank rallies the other
men to keep working and enthusiastically cheers them on. Paddy once again
interjects that his back is broken. From the dark region above a whistle
sounds instructing the men to keep going. Yank furiously shakes his fist at the
whistle blower and shouts that he is the one to decide when people move. In a
fit he starts to work once again with the other men. Meanwhile, Mildred has
entered the stokehole with the Engineer. While Yank keeps shoveling, the
other men turn to stare at the ghostly Mildred, in stark white against the coal-
blackened room. As the workers have stopped to stare, the whistle blows
once again. Yank yells threats up to the whistle-blower and brandishes his
shovel. Suddenly he becomes aware that the other men have stopped
working and swings around violently to see Mildred. Mildred, pale and about
to faint, is helped by the engineers. Before she is carried away she whimpers,
"Take me away! Oh, the filthy beast!" Yank roars, "God damn yuh!"
ANALYSIS
The progression of and stark contrast between Scene One to Scene Three
exemplify the wide gulf between the world of the worker and the world of the

passenger on the Ocean Liner. The audience experiences these two worlds,
representative of upper and lower social classes, through Mildred Douglas
and Yank—the epitome of the worker and the aristocratic and over-privledged
child. The audience is taken from the brightly lit promenade deck where
Mildred and her Aunt bask in the sun 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." In contrast, the promenade deck
where Mildred and her Aunt sit is "beautiful sunshine in a great flood, the fresh
sea wind blowing across it."
There are also enormous physical differences between Mildred and the
firemen. She is skinny, pale and wears white. The firemen are
characteristically blackened by coal dust, dirty and muscular. O'Neill describes
Mildred's expression as "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." The Firemen
are perhaps as "natural" or "in-human" imaginable, constantly compared with
Neanderthals and animals, described as a "chained gorillas."
Mildred and Yank, artificial and animal, are both transposed onto canvasses
that contrast their character. Mildred (the unnatural) is surrounded by powerful
ocean, Yank (the animal) is caged in steel. It would seem that neither
character belongs in his or her environment. This is not to suggest that Yank
should live in a jungle and Mildred should sit in a plastic box, but it shows that
both of these characters actively struggle with their environmental and class
boundaries. Yank yearns to become steel and Mildred desires to learn what is
natural. Their attempts to do so drive the action of the play.
In Scene Two, Mildred attempts to leave her environment and visit the men in
the stokehole. Yank leaves his boundaries as he visits New York City later in
the play. Both characters meet disaster when they try to cross their social

boundaries. When Mildred goes to visit the stokehole where Yank and the
Men are working she is overwhelmed and faints. When Yank visits 5th
Avenue he is incapable of communicating with or existing within "civilized"
society and retreats to the zoo. Both characters are stuck in worlds they wish
to escape, but are ill equipped physically and emotionally to do so.
Thus, both Mildred and Yank attempt to scratch off their "spots." Like the
leopard Mildred describes to her Aunt, Mildred and Yank are unsatisfied with
the life, bodies and society they have been born into, but are powerless to
change them. Both the aristocracy and the lower classes instruct Mildred and
Yank to "Purr, scratch, tear, kill gorge yourself and be happy—only stay in the
jungle where your spots are camouflage in a cage they make you
conspicuous." O'Neill develops the theme of entrapment through characters
that exist within extremely different social strata. The mutual discontent and
helplessness shared by Yank and Mildred is not only imposed by the greater
societal structure. Their discontentment also stems from a restless ignorance
of their societal and natural other—Yanks lack of knowledge of Mildred and
Mildred's ignorance of Yank.
Scene Four
In Scene One Yank is described as the fireman's most "highly evolved
individual." However, Yank's inability to deal with Mildred reveals Yank has
evolved only to specifically survive the rigors of the Ocean Liner and industrial
work—not to process complex, cerebral issues. The men kid and taunt Yank,
repeatedly recalling the scene of Yank turning to see the ghostly Mildred.
Paddy recalls Mildred's reaction, "She [Mildred] shriveled away with her hands
over her eyes to shut out the sight of him 'twas as if she'd seen a great hairy
ape escaped from the Zoo!"

Yank is stung by Paddy's descriptions of how Mildred looked at him. In an odd
mixture of "thought-punches," Yank vows to "brain her! I'll brain her yet, wait
'n' see!" Yank threatens to kill her by a blow he head, the word choice is
revealing about his character. The word "brain" can refer to the physical
organ, a very smart person or killing by smashing one's skull. Yank wants to
take aim at what makes Mildred smarter and superior to him—to "brain" as in
to hit and also to "brain" as to be smarter than Mildred.
Unable to physically "get even" with Mildred, Yank resorts to the adolescent
tactic of "belonging"—insisting that Mildred does not "belong." Mildred is
inferior to the likes of Yank because he "moves," helps run the ship engine,
and she's "dead." Yank reduces Mildred to "baggage" that he physically
carries. Because Mildred has no physical function, because she does not help
to propel the ship, she is lesser.
Scene Five
SUMMARY
Yank and Long walk down "Fif'Avenoo" (Yank's pronunciation of Fifth Avenue)
in New York City somewhere in the Fifties. On Fifth Avenue we can see the
storefront windows of a furrier and a jeweler. Both stores have outrageously
priced items, such as monkey fur and diamonds, in the windows. Long has
brought Yank to Fifth Avenue to seek out Mildred. Long tells Yank that they
are trespasses on Fifth Avenue as members of the Proletariat. Yank cannot
believe how clean the sidewalks are and tells Long he could eat an egg off
them. Yank asks Long where all the white collar workers are. Long informs
Yank that they are in church and will be out on the streets soon. Yank
discloses that he once went to church when he was a kid. Although his
parents never attended, they made Yank go. Yank also shares that his father
worked on the shore in New York and his mother died of the "tremens." After

his mother died, Yank briefly helped with trucking in the market and then
shipped in the stokehold.
After waiting a while longer, Yank is becomes angry that he sees no one like
Mildred on the streets and tells Long he wants to get out of the area, as it is
too clean and fancy and gives him pain. Long remind Yank that he came to
get even with Mildred for the incident in the stokehole. Yank bursts, "Sure ting
I do!" and tirades about how he will get even. Long tells Yank he's been
looking at the whole issue between him and Mildred wrong, that he should not
just be upset at Mildred, but at the whole bourgeois class. Long wants Yank to
be class conscious. When Yank hears this he tells Long to "bring on the
gang!" Yank and Long's attention is suddenly caught by the jeweler and
furrier's windows. While peering in the windows, Long rages about the prices
of the furs and diamonds, prices that easily equal the work of many firemen's
voyages or even the price of feeding a family for a year. Yank seems
momentarily impressed by the furs and diamonds, but admits they do not
"belong," just like Mildred. Long notices monkey fur in the window and tells
Yank the rich certainly would not pay for a hairy ape's skin. Clenching his fists,
Yanks anger grows.
Churchgoers begin to filter down the street. Long tries to calm Yank down and
tells Yank to treat the people with "proper contempt"—treat them like horses.
As Yank glares at the rouged, overdressed women and men, a "procession of
gaudy marionettes" he snorts in disgust. He places himself directly in the
middle of the churchgoer's path. The people ignore Yank and walk around
him. Yank purposefully jumps in front of a gentleman with a top hat, but the
man only mutters, "beg your pardon." Long is frightened and is certain the
cops will come soon, but he cannot control Yank. Yank approaches a woman
and asks her if she would like to crawl under the docks with him. The lady
walks by Yank without a glance. Yank yells that she does not belong, and that
none of the people belong. Yank proudly points to the towering skyscraper

above. Yank tells them that he is the skyscraper, he is the steel, he is the
engine that puts the skyscraper together and pushes it higher. Yank tells the
people that they are dolls and do not move like he does, the do not possess
the force that he does. Still without an audience, he yells the people that they
are garbage and ash the firemen throw out to sea. Enraged, Yank forcefully
bumps into more people but is still unable to get a reaction. The people
mechanically squawk, "beg your pardon." Yank pushes himself into a
Gentleman calling for a bus. Yank is knocked down, but sees the opportunity
to start a fight. Yank punches to man in the face, but the man does not react
and tells Yank that he made him loose his bus. The man calls on the nearby
police who club Yank to the ground, all the while no one noticing.
ANALYSIS
In Scene Five, Long attempts to teach Yank a lesson. According to Peter Egri,
Long means to demonstrate that "Yank's individual [humiliation from Mildred]
is part of a general pattern."
Acting as the voice of Marxism, Long has cleanly divided Mildred and Yank
into the proletariat and the bourgeois classes. The proletariat is the lower,
working class and the bourgeois is considered the upper, aristocratic class.
Yank is a Marxist student. Although he does not recognize the proper class
names (bourgeois and proletariat) or know the philosophy, he embodies the
spirit of Marxism. Marxism predicts that the lower classes, the workers will rise
and take over the Bourgeois in a great revolution. Yank attempts to start this
revolution on his own. On 5th Avenue he attempts to disrupt and bother
"her [Mildred's] kind."
Long does, however, give Yank the needed encouragement to start his
rampage. When the men first arrive at 5th Avenue, Yank wants to leave. He
tells Long it is "too clean and quiet and dolled-up" and gives him pain. Long
reminds Yank that they came to get back at Mildred. He also informs Yank

that everyone he will see on 5th Avenue is just like Mildred, effectually giving
Yank a bigger target. Yank tells Long to "bring on de gang!" A Marxist is
made.
Yank's fails to impose himself on the Bourgeois he encounters on the street.
He cannot attract attention to himself even by forcefully bumping into people,
accosting a lady or screaming out, "Bums! Pigs! Tarts! Bitches!" The person
that finally takes notice of Yank is a Gentleman that Yank causes to loose his
bus. The Gentleman only calls the police because Yank interfered with his bus
schedule. The Proletariat's helplessness is only equaled by the Bourgeois'
egocentrism. The men and women of 5th Avenue are, indeed, like Mildred.
They are described as "a procession of gaudy marionettes, yet with something
of the relentless horror of Frankenstein in their detached, mechanical
unawareness." The people on Fifth Avenue are detached from all things
natural and have become artificial, solely concerned with themselves. O'Neil
has suggested that human faces might even be obscured in this scene with
masks, saying that "From the opening of the fourth scene, where Yank begins
to think he enters into a masked world, even the familiar faces of his mates in
the forecastle have become strange and alien. They should be masked, and
the faces of everyone he encounters thereafter, including the symbolic
gorilla's."
Yank is awakened to the sameness and great generality of members
belonging to a like social class. In Scene Four, Yank begins to recognize the
sameness of his own mates on the Ocean Liner and in Scene Five he sees
the likeness all upper class to Mildred. Yank's new understanding of class
intensifies his struggle to break free from his class boundaries while
simultaneously making his attempt seem all the more futile.

Scene Six
SUMMARY
It is nighttime in the prison at Blackwell's Island. The cellblock is lit by one
electric bulb that sheds light on Yank in his cell. Yank is seated in the position
of Rodin's "The Thinker." Yank's face is covered with bruises from the police
officer's clubs and a bandage, soaked with blood, is wrapped around his head.
Suddenly, he reaches out and violently shakes the bars to his cage, "steel,"
he says to himself, "Dis is de Zoo, huh?" Laughter echoes through the
cellblock from other inmates. Conversation is heard among the inmates in
reaction to Yank. They tell him that the jail is an old iron house. Yank tells the
men he thought he was in a cage at the zoo. The men tell him he is certainly
in a cage, but not at the zoo. The men and ask him to tell them why he is in
jail. Yank dully begins his tale of being a fireman, but then in a sudden rage
exclaims them he is a hairy ape. As he shakes his bars, Yank tells the men he
will hurt them if they kid him. He asks them if they're apes as well. The men
don't act favorably to this idea and yell threats back at Yank. The men tell
Yank to be quiet so the guard does not come. Delusional, Yank corrects them,
saying that they must mean the Zookeeper, not the guard.
After Yank calms down, he finally tells the men why he was put in jail. Yank
describes Mildred in the stokehole dressed in white and how he thought she
was a ghost. Yank depicts Mildred as a dead thing the cat brought in that
belonged in the window of a toy store or in a garbage can. The men ask what
the girl's name was. After disclosing Mildred's last name the men tell Yank she
must be the daughter of Douglas, the president of Steel Trust.
A man tells Yank he should join the Wobblies if he wants to bring down Steel
Trust. The same man reads an excerpt from the Sunday Times about the
Wobblies excerpted from a speech by Senator Queen. The speech describes
the "menacing" Wobblies; the Industrial Workers of the World Senator Queen

renames the "Industrial Wreckers of the World." Yank is fascinated by the
wobblies, in Senator Queen's words the "foul ulcer on the fair body of our
Democracy—." At an especially patriotic point in the speech, Hisses and
catcalls erupt from the cell block and the men mockingly yell out patriotic
slogans, "justice! honor!..Opportunity! Brotherhood!" Their cries dissolve into a
unison, surrendering exclamation, "ah hell." A voice calls for the men to give
the Queen Senator "a bark" and a chorus of barking and yapping sounds in
the block. The voice continues to read the senator's speech that describes the
Wobblies as the force that would tear down society and put the lowest scum in
seats of power, turning the world the civilized world to "topsy-turvy" and
degenerate man back to the ape.
Yank is given the paper to read for himself. Again, he molds in the form of
Rodin's "The Thinker." With a furious groan, Yank leaps to his feat, suddenly
realizing that Mildred's father makes steel—the steel that he thought he
belonged to. Yank shakes his cage, crying out that Mildred's father made his
cage, but he will drive through and destroy it. While bracing his feet against
the other bars, Yank seizes a bar and wrenches it backward. Under his
strength, the bar actually bends back. The guard rushes in as Yank bends
another bar. To restrain Yank, the Guard shoots a powerful stream of water at
him as the guard calls for backup and a straightjacket.
ANALYSIS
Scene Six is a brief sermon, a short history lesson on the Wobblies, also
called The Industrial Workers of the World. For Yank, a workers union spells
hope, it brings the possibility of "belonging" and turning the societal power
structure in his favor. The I.W.W. was quite active when The Hairy Ape was
written. Undoubtedly O'Neill was influenced by their mandate, "The working
class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no
peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working

people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good
things of life."
The Hairy Ape makes clear distinctions between the "employing class" and
the "working class." Yank, as exemplified in Scene five, understands these
differences quite specifically. What Yank wants, however, is not the same as
what the I.W.W. has historically striven to achieve. As explained in Scene
seven, the I.W.W. promotes "Direct Action." Direct Action is defined as,
"Industrial action directly by, for, and of the workers themselves, without the
treacherous aid of labor misleaders or scheming politicians. A strike that is
initiated, controlled, and settled by the workers directly affected is direct
action. Direct action is industrial democracy."
For Yank, "Direct Action" is impossible because he has no relationship or
communication with his superiors. The whistle-blower that commands the
workers to keep moving is hidden in darkness above the stokehole and the
Engineers that escort Mildred have no verbal communication with Yank.
Authority on board the Ocean Liner is faceless and nameless—not a
negotiable or, in the case of the whistle-blower, even a human presence.
As is apparent in Scene seven, Yank does not understand the concept of
"direct action." He wants to join the I.W.W. because he thinks they use
destructive means to gain worker rights. Senator Queen's speech, read from a
paper by one of his inmates, characterizes the group as dangerous, forceful
and explosive—all attractive to Yank. Queen describes them as an "ever-
present dagger pointed at the heart of the greatest nation the world has ever
known" and the "International Wreckers of the World." Yank also feels a
special kinship to the Wobblies because Senator Queen remarks that the
group would degenerate modern American society "back to the ape."
Yank transitions from the "ape" to the "thinker" in Scene Six. After he hears
that the Wobblies described as making men like apes, men like him, he takes
the paper and sits in the "attitude of Rodin's 'The Thinker.'" As Yank sits there

he suddenly jumps up as if "some appalling thought had crushed on him."
Yank rejects his identity as an "ape." This is a major change from the
beginning of the scene where he identifies himself to the other inmates as the
"ape" and thinks he is in a Zoo. Yank realizes that he is not an ape, but a
person caged and imprisoned into a social identity by companies like Steel
Trust. While this thought makes Yank realize he is not a wild animal it inspires
him to act like one, and bend back the bars of his cage.
Scenes Seven–Eight
SUMMARY
A month has gone by and Yank has finally been released from prison. Yank
stands outside an International Workers of the World office near the local
waterfront. Inside the I.W.W. office sits the Secretary putting entries in a large
ledger. Yank knocks on the door of the office as if he were entering a secret
club. Receiving no answer, he knocks again, this time louder. The Secretary
shouts that he should just come in. The men in the room look over Yank who
enters the room suspiciously. Yank tells the Secretary that he wants to join the
I.W.W. The Secretary is satisfied to hear that Yank is a fireman, as not many
have joined. Yank agrees, he tells the Secretary that the firemen are dead to
the world. The Secretary makes out a membership card for Bob Smith, Yank's
real name, and tells Yank membership will cost him half a dollar. Surprised at
how easy it was to join, Yank hands the Secretary the change. The Secretary
tells Yank to look at some of the literature on the table and tell the men on his
ship about what the I.W.W. are doing.
The Secretary asks Yank why he knocked. Yank responds that he thought
they would need to check him out to know if he was safe to let in. The
Secretary assures Yank that the I.W.W. is above board and does not break
any laws. Yank, thinking the Secretary is just trying to test him, gives the
Secretary a knowing wink. Yank assures the Secretary that he belongs to the

group and he will "shoot de woiks for youse." Yank assures the Secretary that
after he is initiated into the group he will show how he belongs to the group.
The Secretary again tells Yank the I.W.W. has no secrets and cautiously asks
him if he thinks social change should be enacted by legitimate direct action or
by dynamite. Yank enthusiastically replies, "Dynamite!" Yank discloses to the
Secretary that he wants to blow up Steel Trust, blow up all the steel in the
world and then send Mildred a letter, signed the "Hairy Ape."
The Secretary backs away from Yank and gives a signal for the men to search
Yank for weapons. The Secretary comes up to Yank and laughs in his face.
The Secretary accuses Yank of working for the government, he tells Yank he
is the biggest joke they have dealt with yet and calls Yank a brainless ape.
The Secretary then instructs the men to throw Yank out. Landing in the street
he is confused and pathetic. Brooding, he once again takes the form of
Rodin's "The Thinker." Yank describes himself as a busted Ingersoll—he was
steel and he owned the world and now steel owns him. Yank asks to the man
in the moon for the answer. A policeman tells Yank to move along. Yank asks
where he should go and the Policeman tells him "hell."
It is twilight of the next day and Yank looks in on the monkey house at the
Zoo. The ape inside sits on his haunches and resembles the Rodin's "The
Thinker." Yank admiringly talks to the gorilla and complements his strong
arms and chest. Yank sympathizes with the Gorilla who seems to want to
challenge the "challenge de whole woild" by pounding his chest. Yank
attempts to befriend the ape. He tells the ape that they are alike, as they are
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 as a chorus of monkeys is heard from surrounding cages.

ANALYSIS
Scenes Seven and Eight complete Yank's deterioration into an animalistic
state. While in Scene Seven Yank rejects the his "ape" identity, he embraces
it again in Scene Eight as the animal world suddenly presents itself as his last
hope of "belonging"." Yank cannot meld himself into any societal group and is
finally destroyed by his attempts to befriend the animal group. Hubert Zapf, in
O'Neill's Hairy Ape and the Reversal of Hegelian Dialectics characterizes
Yank as the result of social progress, "Modern man's loss of any sort of
cultural or social identity the anonymous, non-communicative nature of
industrial society; the captivity of individuals in circumstances alien to their
most fundamental anthropological needs."
Initially Yank sees himself as the motivator of progress—the steel and the
engine that drives the Ocean Liner or modern society. Yank does not realize
that as the "mover," the industrial worker, he is caged in the bottom of the ship
and never feels any of the benefits of the ship's movement. While Yank
shovels coal into the engine, the upper classes, symbolically on the top deck
lounge on the promenade deck and take in the sea breeze. Technology has
further separated and spread upper and lower classes.
Zapf compared this phenomenon to Hegelian Dialectics. Hegel, a famous
philosopher, suggested that progress is a process where two antithetical
forces resolve into a new synthesis where opposing forces are preserved.
However, O'Neill presents many sets of antithetical forces, but reaches no
synthesis. The play resolves with the death of the worker, the death of Yank.
Death is the antithesis of progress.
Thus O'Neill deconstructs industrial progress as a means of human progress.
O'Neill dramatizes the industrial worker forcefully deteriorated into a primitive,
animal-like state by the upper, aristocratic class. The jobs created by steel
companies treat men like work animals: they are caged, do one task, and

have no need for intellectual thought. Where the poor have regressed to a
more natural, animalistic state, the aristocracy has ascended so far above
nature they have become artificial beings. Mildred expresses this in Scene
Two. She, like Yank, seeks to find synthesis, a new "resolution" between the
classes. The synthesis both seek is embodied in the theme of "belonging."
This sense of "not belonging" is the predicament of modern society. Cast into
class identities from birth, one becomes the product of the culture and industry
they were born into. Yank nor Mildred identify fully with their societal class
because they didn't choose them. Mildred describes herself as the "waste" of
her father's steel company—she benefits from the rewards, but has no idea of
the work and vigor that brought them. Yank was born into a working class
family from NY and had no opportunity for education or job other than his own.
Neither Yank nor Mildred "belong" because they did not join.
The audience journeys with Yank in his fatal quest to find belonging. O'Neill
exposes the impossibility of his task, the attempt to define and inscribe one's
identity in a world where it has already been sealed.
Important Quotations Explained
I'm a busted Ingersoll, dat's what. Steel was me, and I owned de woild. Now I
ain't steel, and de woild owns me. Aw, hell! I can't see—it's all dark, get me?
It's all wrong!
This quotation appears at the conclusion of Scene eight, immediately after
Yank has been thrown out of the I.W.W. office. Yank, talking to himself,
attempts to negotiate who he is and his personal importance even after being
disgraced by The Secretary and the Wobblies. Yank realizes he is no longer
as powerful as he once was. He no longer identifies himself as steel, the
symbolic metal Yank equates with power, but rather thinks of himself as a
busted machine. This quotation also reveals Yank's progression within the

play. In Scene one, Yank boasts that he is steel, the muscles and punch
behind the power of the ship. However, by the end of Scene Seven, Yank is
stripped of this sense of strength and utility. Yank now sees himself as a
machine that does not work, he has been exhausted by his efforts to find
belonging and purpose and is left as a "busted Ingersoll." The "darkness" he
describes is the result of confusion—now that Yank sees himself devoid of
function, he cannot see the future or any hope for what's ahead.
A procession of gaudy marionettes, yet with something of the relentless horror
of Frankensteins in their detached, mechanical unawareness
This quotation is taken from the stage direction in Scene Five. The references
to human "liveliness" are indicative of class in the play. O'Neill describes both
Mildred and the people on 5th Avenue as distanced or detached from "life."
Mildred tells her aunt she wants to "touch life somewhere," help "life" like Yank
and others who inhabit the poorer classes. Mildred's inability to actually
communicate or "touch" life is clearly revealed in her encounter with Yank.
The instant Mildred sees Yank, her expression of intense fear, is perhaps her
most "real" moment in the play. In this moment Mildred is forced to come out
from her veil of superficial expression and politeness—Mildred is confronted
with the basic fear of survival. Furthermore, the poorer classes who have such
fears on a daily basis are seemingly more alive than those who spend days
shopping on 5th Avenue.
This stage direction also dictates a specific physicality among the actors. They
should move as "gaudy marionettes"—being pulled and directed by a puppet
master overhead. How literally each stage production will take this direction
will certainly vary. Nonetheless, O'Neill implies that these people have evolved
to the point where they have become artificial. Artificial in the sense that they
are manmade—controlled and manufactured solely by human business,
commerce and pleasures. Where class has pushed down and smothered the

poor, it has also lifted the rich above nature and an association with the
animal.
I seen de sun come up. Dat was pretty, too—all red and pink and green. I was
lookin' at de skyscrapers—steel—and de ships comin' in, sailin' out, all over
de oith—and dey was steel, too. De sun was warm, dey want' no clouds, and
dere was a breeze blowin'. Sure it was great stuff. I go it aw right—what
Paddy said about dat bein' de right dope—on'y I couldn't get in it, see? I
couldn't belong in dat.
This quote, found at the end of Scene Eight, is the first time in the play Yank
identifies himself with nature. Yank's contented description of the bits of
nature, the sunrise and the breeze, he views while spending the night at the
Battery is the first time he speaks of nature's beauty and importance. It is the
first time Yank gives value to nature.
Feeling displaced and rejected, Yank must once again justify his existence
that leads him to notice nature which he subsequently finds valuable. Yank
even disassociates himself with industry, telling the ape that the skyscraper
and ships he observed were "above his head." Rightly, Yank also tells the ape
that he could never "belong in dat." Yank finally realizes that he is not a
machine, but an organic life form that is distinct from technology. In the
beginning of the play, Yank identifies himself with steel and industry not only
because it was his livlihood, but also because he thought it had great
functionality on Earth. Discarded from the system, Yank searches for what he
still belongs to. This search leads down to the greatest common denomiator
among men—their animalistic nature.
He slips on the floor and dies. The monkeys set up a chattering, whimpering
wail. And, perhaps, the Hairy Ape at last belongs."

This quote, the final stage direction of the play in Scene Eight, evokes a sense
of Yank coming home to the animal world. O'Neill's final reading of the play is
clear: Yank is accepted by the animal kingdom, finally discovering the sense
of "belonging" he has been searching for. Yank has been rejected from
human society and has finally found refuge in the basest form of himself—the
animal. However, this refuge is death. Yank finally finds refuge as he lies dead
on the floor of the ape's cage.
Yank's death can be interpreted in numerous ways. O'Neill reveals that such a
bond between a living human and animal is unattainable on Earth, but also
suggests that the impetus for Yank's belonging is his death—he has
succumbed to nature and been destroyed by it.
I ain't on oith and I ain't in Heaven, get me? I'm in de middel tryin' to seperate
em, takin all de woist punches from bot' of 'em. Maybe dat's whay dey call
Hell, huh?
This quotation, found in Scene Eight, indicates Yank's displacement on Earth.
Earth and Heaven both represent states of happiness, neither of which Yank
can find his way into. Yank is the victim of a society that won't "let him in" or
find belonging anywhere. Yank describes himself as receiving the "woist
punches"—actual, physical blows. Yank has been weakened both emotionally
and physically through the course of the play. Yank sees himself as the lone
victim of a great assault and cannot find anyone to sympathize with him.
O'Neill suggests a similarity between uncaring capitalists and uncaring
socialists within society. Both, as Anna Massa puts it in "Intention and Effect
in The Hairy Ape" suggest "brother hoods of workers and criminals." Thus,
O'Neill does not suggest "refuge" in either capitalism or socialism for Yank,
but reveals how each can be destructive to the individual. Yank has been
assaulted by a society that has no tolerance for "not belonging" and is
consequently left in "de middel" as close to hell as Yank can imagine.

Key Facts
full title · The Hairy Ape
author · Eugene O'Neill
type of work · Play
genre · Early Expressionist
language · English
time and place written · Early 1920s, United States
date of first publication · 1922
publisher · Library of America
narrator · Not applicable (drama)
point of view · Not applicable (drama)
tone · O'Neill is sympathetic to the plight of the modern industrial worker,
victimized and enslaved by social class, but does not imagine a new class
system within the work.
tense · Not applicable (drama)
setting (time) · Early 1920s
setting (place) ·
aboard a transatlantic liner headed to europe and new york city. ·
protagonist · Yank
major conflict · Mildred Douglas, an innocent aristocratic girl, visits the
stokehole, sees Yank, and calls him a "filthy beast" and faints.
rising action · Mildred's request to see the stokehole; Yank screaming up at
the whistle-blower; Mildred seeing Yank
climax · Mildred and Yank look at each other
themes · The fear of entrapment; the regression of mankind; the frustration of
class
motifs · Belonging, thought, slavery, service
symbols · Steel, Rodin's "The Thinker," Apes, Steel
foreshadowing · Characters repeatedly calling Yank an ape

Study Questions and Suggested Essay Topics
Study Questions
How does O'Neill use voices and nameless characters in the play? How do
these "voices" comment on the text?
O'Neill uses "voices" in The Hairy Ape to emphasize specific class structures
and groups within the play. Yank aurally and physically stands out against
these "voices," dramatically revealing his displacement and detachment from
society at large. Yank does not "join in" with the other firemen laughing and
joking in Scene One. On 5th Avenue Yank certainly does not "fit in" with the
noise of the street goers, talking about church and monkey fur. And, lastly,
Yank confronts voices, perhaps most strikingly, in Scene six as he sits in jail.
The voices of Yank's inmates a nameless and faceless group that scorn and
laugh at him. In each situation Yank encounters a force that opposes him,
which he cannot "join."
How do symbols function within the Hairy Ape? Why do you think O'Neill
chose to use such heavy symbolism in the text? How do they work
thematically? Give specific examples of three symbols in the text, why you
think O'Neill chose them and how they comment on theme.
Symbols within The Hairy Ape are an expressionistic means to communicate
and indicate abstract ideas with concrete "things." For instance, Mildred's
white dress symbolically represents the artificiality and detachment of the
aristocracy. Her dress makes a literal black and white contrast between
herself and the coal-dusted men. Another symbol, the Transatlantic Liner,
reveals the world as a big boat—complete with a "first class" on the top deck
and workers below in the bowels of the ship. Steel is yet another symbol in the
play, simultaneously representing great strength, industrialization and the
repression of the working class. These symbols are vital because they

strengthen and heighten Yank's struggle and visually signify class structure
and the effects of industry on the worker.
Why does O'Neill choose to place Yank in the position of Rodin's "The
Thinker"? How does this comment on the life of the industrial worker and
Yank's capability for thought?
Rodin's statue "The Thinker" is perhaps society's most distinguishable symbol
of thought. By taking the "attitude" of the statue in the play Yank reveals his
attempt to "ape" or copy thought. In reality he does not know how to do it
otherwise. While he physically embodies the cultural symbol of a "thinker" he
cannot think himself. Every time O'Neill's stage direction calls for the actor to
take the position of "The Thinker" Yank has met an obstacle that cannot be
tackled by any other means but thought—when Yank cannot process the
realities before him. After Yank is thrown out of the I.W.W. he immediately
gets into "The Thinker" pose. He is desperate to make sense of his situation
and to understand why the union would throw him out. Because Yank cannot
process the problems before him, he is sent reeling backward on the
evolutionary path—unable to function in modern society.
The real ape in Scene Eight is the only other character that takes "The
Thinker" position. The ape is not included in the class or social structures of
the human world. Like Yank, he sits in a cage and perhaps wonders how he
can join the rest of society and like his human counterpart, imitates what
humans define as thought. The Ape, by sharing this habitual body position
reflects on Yanks own animalistic state—his mode of thought is no more
advanced than the ape's.
Suggested Essay Topics
Look at O'Neill's stage directions. How are they important to one's reading of
the play?

Describe the language of Senator Queen's speech. What specific imagery and
phrases might appeal to Yank? Why?
In your opinion, does Yank finally find a sense of "belonging"? Is "belonging"
possible? How does Yank define "belonging"? Does this change throughout
the text?
Mildred Douglas' father is said to work for two different steel companies. Why
do you suppose O'Neill added this detail? How does is comment thematically?
How might the Transatlantic Liner be representative of a specific worldview?
How do characters feel about Hell? Pick two characters and compare their
views on hell and how this is indicative of their class status.
Why would O'Neill describe Paddy as "extremely monkey-like"? What does
this say about Paddy's character and history?

THE HAIRY APE

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THE HAIRY APE