尤金奥尼尔 毛猿 分析.ppt

工业文明下丧失自我的悲剧:The Hairy Ape《毛猿》
——Eugene O’Neill(1888-1953)尤金·奥尼尔
上海海事
PlotThe play narrates the struggle and tragic death of Yank, a fireman who works aboard a Transatlantic Liner.
Yank, the protagonist, is a leading stoker on a transatlantic liner.
Strong and brutish, he has won respect from his fellow men, the kind of “grudging respect of fear.”
Completely adapted to his environment, Yank is satisfied with the life he leads, and is proud of himself.
But when Mildred Douglas, daughter of the ship’s owner, displays her horror and terror of him and calls him a “filthy beast” on her visit to the stokehole, Yank feels insulted, and denied a position in the world.
He goes out to prove his position by insulting aristocratic strollers in New York and is then put into prison.
He cannot make himself understood by his fellow prisoners, and is later rejected by the I. W. W. (Industrial Workers of the World), a anization.
Frustrated, Yank goes to the zoo to see the ape at night.
He sets free the beast, offers to shake hands with it but is killed.
Team Topics for Discussion
Character analysis : Yank
Mildred Douglas
technique of expression: Expressionism
Symbolism
Themes: The Frustration of Class
Human Regression by Industrialization
Yank
1) He is the representative of the working class alienated by capitalism
2) caged in steel——the victim of industrialization and technological progress
3) Mildred Douglas's reaction to Yank makes e to class awareness. His attempts to revenge on the steel industry and finally the entire Bourgeois.
4) Throughout this struggle Yank defines "belonging" as power. When he thinks he "belongs" to something he gains strength, when Yank is rejected by a group, he is terribly weak.
Mildred Douglas
1) daughter of the owner of Nazareth Steel
2) Studied sociology and is on a crusade to help the poor
3) She shares with Yank the need to find a sense of usefulness or belonging—the fates of both characters were decided before they were