Student: José Martínez Hernández e-mail: jomarhe5@alumni.uv.es
English Filology. First cicle, first course.
English
Theatre XIX & XX Centuries Group B ( evenings )
Play: The
Hairy Ape ( 1922 ) ( Also in second paper )
The main
character is Yank, more a brute than a person. With a past of
being beaten up as a child, at the beginning looks and acts as an ape.
He works in a liner feeding the furnaces. At the start he does
"belong", but when he begins adopting "the position of Rodin, the thinker ", and he goes out of the liner's
furnaces he does not belong anymore. The belonging of people in this play is an
important idea. The process of the character being a rather
cool start then getting step by step increasingly vulnerable.
Mildred
Douglas. A young but not too healthy lady that belongs to the
upper class, daughter of the owner of the liner´s
company and half the steel of the world. She studied sociology, and when
she goes to see the people at a place where she does not belong ( the liner's furnaces ), she not only faints, but as well
she gets Yank terribly angry when she calls him what he is, a " filthy
beast ". When this character is portrayed as a ghost, an apparition; all
in white, and pale, receiving the light of the furnaces...
Long. A sailor that gives speeches about politics. Used to introduce the author´s ideas on
the working class fight.
Paddy. Another of the many sailors, drunkard companions of Yank.
The sailors look like apes, developed muscles like apes because of the way they
are forced to work, have to move like apes, and they behave like them.
The plot is
that Yank is sort of filthy hero that belongs in his filthy world, until
Mildred, with sociologist tendency, visits the furnaces. She gets shocked and
terrified by the brutality of Yank and that hurts him. From then he wants to
get even with her, and starts to think. He gets angry with the people from
upper classes, and a fight lands him in jail, where he keeps thinking it all
over. That makes him go a trade union looking for a revenge on the upper class,
but although he is expecting the acceptance that he had at the furnaces, he
discovers that he does not belong anymore. He is thrown out of the trade union
headquarters and harassed from a policeman, he goes to the zoo and starts a
talk with the gorilla he identifies himself with, or no even that, as he thinks
even the gorilla belongs more than he does. He opens the gorilla's door and the
gorilla kills him.
There is
constant oppression. Either multiple references to " the
cage " or being trapped, or in jail, or hunted down, or having nowhere to
go to, being overwhelmed by the situation. That ape in the zoo was free once,
but the he has never been.
It is
reflected as well that the same thing or issue can be seen in a very different
way by different people, mainly if they are from different social class; e.g the " monkey Fur "
in " The Hairy Ape " scandalises the firemen, but pleases the upper
class ladies. The smoke of the liner makes choking and dirtying the firemen,
while for the upper class lady is a beautiful sight.
A main
feature is the ( Working ) Class Fight. The whole play
is more or less about that one and only issue. For instance, long speeches from
Long about classes and politics, e.g. " As voters and citizens we kin force the bloody
governments " or the phrase that rich people " are only baggage
".
The use of
irony is another characteristic of the play. It gets really bitter in "
The Hairy Ape ", when talking about brutal guys that look and act like
animals and are absolutely drunk just one hour after the ship´s
departure, gives the reader the information of having people ( sailors ) from
different nationalities writing " All the civilized white races are
represented ".
It is
present as well, and has its importance for the ambiance in "The Hairy
Ape", the warm temperature ( and in some scenes,
also the light ) of the furnaces of the liner.
In the
plays the character Yank undergoes a huge change and transformation, from the
point where he starts, to the point where he ends.
The treatment
of light is important. The play has its cycles about light, since there is a
dim light in the stokehole, more light on the deck, then again less back in the
stokehole, then more in the
In
"Hairy Ape " the sound is discontinuous and doesn´t seem to have such un important role. Merely the
whistles of the liner´s officials and the sounds from
people in jail seem to have a big load of meaning. Only ther
is keeping of pace between Yanks´speech and the
sounds from the gorilla in the Zoo.
Settings closed space first ( the
vessel ), later open (
It talks
about human condition in general. It reflects the fact that people - at least
some people - are nothing more than Apes.
There is a
speech about the old times ( fine clippers ) the
modern times are spoiling it all . Contrast between old sailors clean faces and
the dirty faces ( and live on board ) of modern
sailors. Workers make things run, but they rather are brutes with nothing but
muscles.
There is a
particular use of the language, reflecting the coal feeders mannerisms ( e.g. Yank says t'ink instead of
think ),, and low language and bad with a lot of swear words.
There are
some sounds reflected in the play, some noises, the singing of men and the
whistle of the liner's crew.
In the talk
of Yank with the Ape in the Zoo he says " You don´t
belong with them and you know it. But me, I belong with them, but I don´t, see ? ".
There is
some kind of tempo, a parallelism between the speech of Yank to the Ape and the
noises, rhythm and attitude of the Ape.
Sailors
criticise their different nationalities, when they are all the same. Low class workers.
There are
too the idea of nature being a source of good, speaking well about the sea, and
about the poor animals slaughtered, the monstrosity of ladies that like monkey
fur, etc...
A very nice
and good quality play that is enjoyable to read.