THE HAIRY APE: A SOCIAL VISION OF EUGENE O’NEILL THROUGH EXPRESSIONISTIC TECHNIC

Abstract

Eugene O’Neill has a powerful social vision and his plays are rich in social criticism. As a social dramatist, O’Neill sees the society as a whole and gives exact ‘feel’ of it. He deals with characters, events and situations which constitute an integral part of it. O’Neill’s plays create in us a new social awareness. He visualizes society critically, without prejudice. He is rarely satisfied with the surface view of life, but moves inward to sound its depth. O’Neill’s social vision has a remarkable social range. His plays embody the ideas and conflict of the first half of the twentieth century. They deal with the social and economical chaos of our time. O’Neill’s dramas provide one of the most direct and serious criticism of modern American socio-economic order and present it in its true perspective. O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape is an expressionistic tragi-comedy of the modern industrial unrest. In the play, it is the modern industrial society which destroys the modern counter part of the protagonist Yank. The play is about the plight of capitalist class is equally disturbing. The researcher, in the present research work, proposes to study what way Eugene O’Neill’s has depicted his social vision in The Hairy Ape. The researcher also proposes to study O’Neill’s use of expressionistic technic in the play.