Revisiting the Idea of Belongingness and Alienation in Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape through Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of the Carnivalesque, Grotesque, and Masks

Abstract

Eugene O’Neill's The Hairy Ape was a reaction to the mounting hypocrisy before and after First World War. Yank's existential crisis after being humiliated by Mildred, the flag bearer of capitalism in the play, is O’Neill's use of expressionism which addresses the issue of alienation in the post-war world. This play, therefore, instigates the audience for social awareness against Yank’s otherization, by a capitalist system which conditions him to harbour a wrong idea of “belonging”. Mildred's initiative to serve the poor at Manhattan's lower east side but discrimination against Yank is a veiled reality. Yank as a filthy beast is an idea that Mildred has created and doesn't necessarily mean that Yank is animal-like. O’Neill uses masked characters and the grotesque body of the Masculine Primitive to create ironic humour and subvert ideas created by people in power. Yank’s obsession with the idea of “belonging” is deliberately used as a comic element because he belongs neither with the Mildreds nor with the Gorillas. As the subtitle A Comedy of Ancient and Modern Life in Eight Scenes reveals, The Hairy Ape is Eugene O’Neill’s social satire. This play read through Mikhail Bakhtin's idea of the carnivalesque (as a social criticism of rising American capitalism), the grotesque body (Yank’s dehumanized apelike body), and the use of masks (Yank’s face with coal dust and Mildred’s milky white dress) laughs at power by challenging ideas like Social Darwinism and Masculine Primitive in the play and the early 20th century America.