Modern Social Science Research

Eugene O’Neill stands as one of the greatest playwrights in American literary history. O’Neill’s dramas delve into human psychology and emotion, exhibiting a profound interest in the psychological predicaments of human society. His works were also among the earliest to portray social outcasts. Characters from the depths of society struggle to find their identity and claim the dignity inherent to being human, only to see everything they pursue ultimately vanish without a trace. In O’Neills play The Hairy Ape(1922), the protagonist Yank spends his brief life in a relentless quest for personal identity and existential meaning. His journey progresses from fervent conviction, through profound confusion about his own existence, to the crushing of hope, culminating in his death. This paper employs Freudian psychoanalytic criticism to analyze the personality traits of the characters in The Hairy Ape. Subsequently, it explores the roots of Yank’s disillusionment through the lenses of humanity’s relationship with nature, humanity’s relationship with society, and the individual’s psychological state. Ultimately, it seeks to excavate the profound human tragedy unfolding within the world shaped by the Industrial Revolution.

The Hairy Ape; Psychoanalytic theory; Personality structure; Psychic wasteland; Tragedy; Yank