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  • Essay / Primitivism and the working class in The "Hairy Ape" by Eugene O'neill

    The subtle association of primitivism with the working class in Eugene O'Neill's expressionist play The Hairy Ape is quite intriguing. In the play we feel the primitivist approach of the firefighters working together in the ship, likened to a group of animals doing and saying the same thing all the time. They have no individualities and represent the same class which is the working class. There are two aspects to O'Neill's use of primitivism to describe this particular class. One is related to their existence as a crowd and the other to their identification with their physique, which also shows traces of Darwinism. Therefore, to examine how working class people define themselves and are defined by the modern world, which is quite primitivist, we can examine their representation as a mob body in The Hairy Ape. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay The first approach to firefighters as primitives comes from their existence as a mob. In order to examine these working class people as a crowd in the room, we must consider them in general terms. We see that they are simply called "voices" or "all" in the play. We don't know their names except Yank, Paddy and Long, who have some specific characteristics on their own. Thus, as Gustave Le Bon states, firefighters lose their identity when they are together, becoming a grain of sand among other grains of sand” (Nye 48). Therefore, they are depicted as identical in body and mind, which originate in Yank's ideology and actions. In the case of their body image, the firefighters, who resemble chained gorillas with their crouching, inhuman attitudes, move in rhythmic movements and do the same work, shoveling in an orderly tumult of noise (O'Neill 160). We cannot ignore the animal, “inhuman” and gorilla portrait of the firefighters. As for the rhythm and noise present in the crowd, according to Robert Nye, they elevate the mood and emotions of individuals (42). Sometimes they become more and more enthusiastic and somehow lose control. This is most evident when they say the same thing at the same time, which relates to the fact that they are similar in spirit. As they exclaim with statements such as "Thinking", "Love", "God" and "Law", they become barbaric and atavistic because they are somehow turning back to their prehistoric human state, losing completely their individuality and becoming totally one body. The reason is that the meaning of these words is empty, indicating that they may not be able to think at all since these words are just a sound and there is no communication. Furthermore, the repetitions of these statements are akin to the operation of machines. Firefighters then become like machines devoid of the capacity to contemplate, which deepens their primitivization. This type of representation of firefighters is quite animal, barbaric and atavistic, because they exist on the edge of animality, repeating what they do without thinking. The firefighters' existence as a crowd is also linked to their identification with their physical strength, which is also somewhat animalistic and primitive: their belief in and interest in their physicality results from their losing their identity and their ability to contemplate in a crowd or vice versa. There is therefore a binary between the body and the mind and, since the workers represent the body, they do not have an individual voice. Accordingly, we find their point of view in the lyrics and.