The Hairy Ape

O’Neill uses his play “The Hairy Ape” to highlight the issues of the American social classes. He especially focuses on the poorer working class by juxtaposing this with Mildred from the American aristocracy. As she sits on deck staring up at the sky, she notes the clouds of smoke and calls them beautiful. Yank and the workers in the coal room see nothing but smoke and do not find it appealing. To them, it is toxic. Mildred’s ability to relax constantly is another contrast between her and the workers. O’Neill writes that the men “Cannot stand upright. This accentuates the natural stooping posture which shoveling coal and the resultant over-development of back and shoulder muscles have given them.” The upper class would not have this problem. Mildred even wears white to the coal room and is willing to pitch her dress.

One of the key aspects to portraying the social divide is played out in Scene II. Mildred tells her aunt how she wishes to “discover how the other half lives.” She then journeys to the coal room to watch the men work. It is this that embodies a monumental element to the plot and O’Neill’s theme. Mildred is viewing the men as if she is at a zoo and the men are the animals. She constantly expresses her desire to help bridge the social gap or at least help those less fortunate than herself; however, she contradicts this by treating them as people that are beneath her and are to be observed.

                By paralleling the workers, namely Yank, and apes, as well as incorporating binary opposition of the Mildred and the workers, O’Neill comments on class in America. He dehumanizes them. They are no longer people but animals or “Neanderthals”. Yank cannot think; he cannot speak. He, unlike Mildred, is uneducated. In the end, he is killed by the gorilla, which may symbolize some sort of redemption. Perhaps, he does not belong in the animal; therefore, elevating his previous state.