Full Title The Hairy Ape

Author Eugene O'Neill

Type of Work Play

Genre Early Expressionist

Language English

Time and Place Written Early 1920s, United States

Date of First Publication 1922

Publisher Library of America

Narrator Not applicable (drama)

Point of View Not applicable (drama)

Tone O'Neill is sympathetic to the plight of the modern industrial worker, victimized and enslaved by social class, but does not imagine a new class system within the work.

Tense Not applicable (drama)

Setting (time) Early 1920s

Setting (place) ?

Aboard a transatlantic liner headed to Europe and New York City. ?

Protagonist Yank

Major Conflict Mildred Douglas, an innocent aristocratic girl, visits the stokehole, sees Yank, and calls him a "filthy beast" and faints.

Rising Action Mildred's request to see the stokehole; Yank screaming up at the whistle-blower; Mildred seeing Yank

Climax Mildred and Yank look at each other

Themes The fear of entrapment; the regression of mankind; the frustration of class

Motifs Belonging, thought, slavery, service

Symbols Steel, Rodin's "The Thinker," Apes, Steel

Foreshadowing Characters repeatedly calling Yank an ape