Comparison of the Multitired World within a World in the Plays - Essay Example

?A Comparison of the Multitiered World within a World in “The Hairy Ape” by Eugene O’Neill and “The Wasteland” by T S Eliot Eugene O’Neill’s play, “The Hairy Ape,” tells the story of Yank, a laborer on a luxury cruise ship, whose sense of self importance strips him of his basic humanity and becomes the cause of his doom. “The Wasteland” by T S Eliot, on the other hand, narrates the post World War social conditions, through many distorted images in multiple settings. Both these works of literature are notable for their portrayal of human life and misery through a multi-tiered world within a world as their settings to achieve impact on the audience. By doing so, these works illustrate the pathetic condition of human existence on earth, which is worsened by their ignorance of the true values of life. The settings of “The Hairy Ape” are on board of a luxury cruise ship, the streets of New York and the inside of a zoo. The episodes in the poem, “The Wasteland,” on the other hand, take the readers on a surrealistic sojourn of desert waste, an imaginary London street inhabited by the spirits of the dead, a deck of tarot cards, a game of chess etc. While O’Neill is considered as the father of modern American drama, Eliot claims his position as one of the pioneers in modern and post modern poetry. Their works, while sharing a lot in common in terms of content and theme, also differ in many aspects, especially in the context of setting. The most significant similarity between these works can be seen from the fact that they deploy the vernacular instead of poetic language to achieve a realistic portrayal of their characters. O’Neill places his character, a workman, inside the furnace room of a cruise ship. The setting onboard the luxury ship is altogether different from the world within, from where the work for its journey is undertaken. Outward world of the ship is one of luxury and pomp, where the rich, aristocratic passengers dwell, making merry. The inside, the furnace room, is the place where the actual action that makes the ship sail, happens. This is a world within a world, where the laborers toil and shoveling coal into the furnace, keep the ship on the move. The use of vernacular in such a setting lends credibility to the characters and makes the story realistic. Similarly, in the second part of Section-II, “A Game of Chess,” Eliot depicts a bar in London, where two women sit and converse. One of them speaks of her husband, who is being discharged from the army and fears that he will seek other women if she does not keep up her appearance, while the other speaks of her abortion, despite the warning calls from the barman to finish soon as they are about to close. This setting of a bar, within a major city, where two women share their apprehension, is also an example of a world within a world. Eliot, again, eschews the concept of poetic aesthetics and slips into vernacular, using dialog tags like “I said,” “She said” etc ignoring the need to stick to specific poetic norms of meter or proper structure. Another major similarity between the works is their portrayal of themes through the use of different settings. The most dominant theme of “A Hairy Ape” is the difference among various social classes and how this affects individuals. The author uses a variety of settings to emphasize the class differences and the effect of discrimination has on human life. Yank, the protagonist, a laborer fuelling the furnace of a cruise ship, considers himself as an important person in the entire process of moving the ship. He refuses to acknowledge the fact that he is merely a laborer; one merely as good as any other and he can be replaced by any other. Thus, his ignorance becomes his undoing. He retorts, “Who de hell is she? Ain't she de same as me? Hairy ape, huh? [With his old confident bravado.] I'll show her I'm better'n her, if she on'y knew it. I belong and she don't, see! I move and she's dead! Twenty-five knots a hour, dats me! Dat carries her but I make dat. She's on'y baggage” (O’Neill Page). This reaction clearly underlines his ignorance because he does not understand that the very reason for his being there is due to the passengers who pay for the voyage. Mildred, rich and aristocratic, quells his ego by calling him “Hairy Ape” and makes him finally realize his position in the scheme of things. Similarly, in “The Wasteland” also Eliot portrays the theme of human ignorance as the root cause of their miseries. The devastation war causes, the desert waste, the setting of the imaginary London street, populated by the ghosts of those dead in the war etc, represent the carnage that human folly of ignorance has caused. Thus, by using different settings and images both writers seek to communicate a same theme. The main difference between O’Neill’s play and Eliot’s poem can be perceived in the context to which they place the themes of these works. While “The Hairy Ape” examines the issue of human ignorance from a social perspective, “The Wasteland” does so from a spiritual angle. Industrialization and the resultant emergence of labor unions and socialism are some of the major changes on the turn of the 19th century. These changes have highlighted working people’s significance. However, the fact remains that capitalists still dictate the terms because without capital, labor becomes useless. Yank, the representative of the working class lays too much significance on him, to the extent that he even harbors contempt for the machines due to his obvious ignorance. However, his social class becomes clear to him when the rich girl pass the remark and shows him the place where he belongs. His emotions on this realization finally bring his doom and he meets his fate at the hands of a real ape. On the contrary, Eliot examines the issue of human ignorance in the context of lack of spirituality which causes the war and subsequent devastation to the human race. To illustrate this theme, he uses different settings including wastelands, desert waste, city streets that house the ghosts of dead etc. The author also uses the setting of different climates to show the emotional shifts in his character which absent in O’Neill’s work. Thus, the authors use different setting and perspectives to show human ignorance. On another note, Eliot’s poem contains a lot of religious undertones apart from the allusions to various philosophies including Hinduism and Buddhism. To accentuate the need of spiritual considerations in human life, he introduces the concept of Nirvana. He also does invite reference to the philosophies of Aristotle and Dante in the poem to emphasize human follies due to which the war and consequent disasters entail. Thus, “The Wasteland” exposes before its audience a world, which, due to its lack of spiritual and moral values faces a major problem of devastation. Contrary to this, O’Neill focuses entirely on class difference and how it causes the ruin of a certain class. By alluding to this, the author attempts to emphasize the need for harmony between different classes to achieve development in the society. The poem can be seen as experimental in many contexts and it denounces various established norms both in terms structure and meter scheme. However, the style O’Neill uses rather conforms to the dramas during that period except for the fact that he chooses to use vernacular instead of polished language. Besides, while the images and settings in Eliot’s poem are distorted on several occasions, leading to ambiguity, the images and settings that O’Neill uses are clear to the audience. However, despite the many difference in the treatment of the theme and how the authors use different settings and contexts to portray the events, the effect they achieve is the same. Both writers successfully communicate to their audience the class differences and how these affect human life in general. They show the readers the multi tiered world within the world in a modern society and how these impact human lives. The works also demonstrate how ignorance and disharmony can cause damages to the basic existence of human beings in the modern society. Read More