Alienation in Eugene O'Neill's Plays: The Hairy Ape, The Iceman Cometh, and Long Day's Journey Into Night

Abstract

This stud y traces the theme of ali enation in three of O'Neill 's plays: The

//oil y Ape, The Iceman Cometh , and Long Day's Journey into N ight. According to modern devel opmenta l psychology, a child 's environment, above a ll his rel a tion shi p w ith parents, shapes hi s out look and personality. The O'Ne ill fam i ly was torn. They had no permanent h ouse. O'N e ill had m any di sappointments in li fe: fa t her's pa rsi mon y, mot her's addi ction, a nd brother's profli gacy and di ssipation. /\11 these things left an irrecoverable emotional scar in O'Nei ll 's subconsci ous. O'Neill was a n omnt vorous reader. He could read what he could lay h i s

ha nds on. lie got acq ua inted with many wri ters and thin kers who enriched and widened the scope o r hi s imagination s uch as S igmund Freud, Schopenhauer, Carl Jung and Strind berg. His ability to render the ideas a nd thoughts of these thinkers into entirel y new or differen t forms served h im best in writing hi s plays. Yank of The !-f airy Ape has a false, id eal sel f-image as the power that moves thi s world. JJut t hat idea l image is destroyed at the brief encounter with Mild red. Ya nk travel s a l ong journey towa rds self real iza tion But all h is trials co me to no ava il. Yank does not know that hi s revolt aga inst Mildred and her la mil y i s a revolt aga inst the whol e structure of society. Therefore, society subjugates hi s movement in its embryonic stage. I f soc iety rejects him, there is still a cha nce in the an imal world, where the

ha iry ape i s enjoy ing the warmth of belonging. So, he goes to the zoo. But, unf ortu na tel y, the gorilla k ill s him. Thus, Yank is rejected by the h uman world a nd the aninwl world. The Iceman Comet h presents a dozen of social outcasts and mi sfits who are

cu t of T !"rom the w hol e world physi cally and spirituall y. An atmosphere of a l i \.'t Jatio n hovers over them. Each d erelict h as reached the borderline of the so-

ca ll ed norma l liJe a nd i s li v ing in a d eath-like sta te or somn ambul ance. Thi s com;"lose con d i t i on gencrn tes powerl essness in the d ereli cts. Thi s po'vverl essn ess, in turn, crea tes a sense o f ali ena tion. A fter fa iling t o gi ve up d rin k ing, a nd to face the rea lit y a bout themse l ves, the dere li c ts become m ore con vinced o fthc imrossi bilit y o f relinqui shing. lhci r pipe drea m s. Illusi on is i mport a nt to survi val. For them, dreams m ea n life a nd tru t h means d ea th . Long Day's Journey into Night presen ts one d ay in the life ofth e four tort u red Tyrones wh o me l oc k ed in their summer hou se. Seclu sion a nd sepa ra ti on are the sy mpto m s of their li fe. The tyrone fa mil y i s coll a psing from wi thin. They are a ttacking each other. Attack a nd counter attack create psychol ogical unrest in t he fa mil y atm osphere. Their mutua l accusa ti ons w ill l ast l ong. In spite o f th e ir separati on , accusati on and recriminations, they re ma in a fa mil y inside an isolated house, rac ing each other. Thus, they are isol ated and a lienated. O' Neill 's pl ays d epi c t m an 's sriritua l su ffering in the mod ern time. lie tri es t o di g d eep i nlo the inner psyche of ma n . !\Iiena tion i s the product of I i v i ng in a h i ghl y com petiti ve soci ety. It i s the sicken o f tod ay.