O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape:The Alienation of the American Anti-hero
Keywords:
Eugene O'Neill, naturalism, expressionism, alienation, anti-heroAbstract
This article analyzes Eugene O’Neill’s plays, The Emperor Jones (1920) and The Hairy Ape (1922), through the lens of naturalism and expressionism. The paper explores how these works depict the alienation of the American anti-hero in the context of early 20th-century social upheavals, including the Harlem Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution. The article argues that O’Neill’s use of scenic devices, such as the tom-tom in The Emperor Jones and metallic sounds in The Hairy Ape, serves to externalize the inner struggles of the protagonists. This study examines the plays' tragic elements, where the heroes confront their inner selves through symbolic actions and vivid expressionistic symbols. The author contends that O’Neill’s dynamic flexibility in employing these devices underscores the themes of identity, displacement, and social conflict. The significance of this work lies in its contribution to understanding how naturalism and expressionism intersect in O’Neill’s dramatization of the American anti-hero.
(The abstract and keywords were prepared retrospectively for indexing purposes using AI-assisted tools and editorial review, based on the original article. They did not appear in the original publication.)
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