O' Neill's The Harry Ape, takes place in "the firemen's forecastle of an ocean liner". The scene opens an hour after they finished sailing from New York and are all consuming alcohol. It is obvious to see that they are all drunk due to them constantly yelling at one another and the random singing that takes place throughout the scene. One of these man, however, stands out from the rest. This man, named Yank, is best described as the leader of these men since everybody would quiet down whenever he spoke and respected him. The introduction described him as "broader, fiercer, more truculent, more powerful, more sure of himself than the rest". Yank definitely showed leadership roles during the play by ordering and demanding the men to work in powering the ship's engine with coal, which happens later on. At this particular scene though, another man named Paddy mentions how in the past the ships used sails instead of physical labor (which is what they do) in order to travel. He goes on the say that he found that to be more liberating, whereas now he feels imprisoned and "caged in by steel from a sight of the sky like the bloody apes in the Zoo!" This makes Yank furious for a moment and he then declares that Paddy doesn't belong because he is too old. He then adds on to say that he himself belongs ("a part of the engine") and is alive while Paddy doesn't. The concept of belonging is mentioned throughout the play as well.
One of the things that makes me curious is that the play continues to make references to caged animals in the zoo. More particularly, Yank is later refereed to as a "filthy beast" by Mildred, who is introduced in the second scene as this twenty year old lady who gained access in seeing the men (which she addressed as "the other half") work. The fact that these men have so far been seen as heavy and being very aggressive and barbaric does seem to resemble some sort of animalistic behavior. Paddy's comment about feeling like a trapped ape in the zoo also adds on to this. Could this have some sort of connection with the idea of belonging and that they are perhaps seeking to be a part of something greater instead of feeling trapped?
On another note, I am not quite sure what to make of Mildred's character. We are told that she had done social service work, studied sociology in college and that she is interested in learning about how the "other half lives". Even though this might make her look as an educated person who cares about understand and helping people, her personality doesn't seem to justify that. One moment in particular would be when the second engineer asks her if she was going to wear her white dress during her visit to the stokehole. Not only did she refuse to change out of it, but she said she would throw her dress into the ocean after leaving from the stokehole since she has fifty dresses just like it. This show a lack of humility, which gives me a bad impression of her. Still, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to for some reason.
So here are the questions that I want to discuss in class:
1.) Why is "being part of an engine" and the concept of belonging brought up throughout the play?
2.) What does the animalistic references seen with the men imply? Does it have anything to do with their struggle with the idea of belonging? Are they the only ones that they see as animals?
3.) What is your understanding of Mildred's character? Is she meant to be seen as a good person (white and pure as the dress that she wore) or vile ("a natural born ghoul")?
I like some of the approaches that you have made in this post, especially one about the idea of 'belonging'.
ReplyDeleteI have noticed that there is an interesting dichotomy of location in this play. One place is described by Paddy, who, in the first scene, reminisces on the days when ships ran by sail, not by men. He had spent his time on deck, witnessing the most beautiful of nocturnal sights, such as the foam of the wake flaming with fire, blazing sky, full moons, and most importantly, the sight of the ship as it drove "through the gray night, her sails stretching aloft all silver and white" (O'Neill 127). Paddy goes on to say that this setting was like that of a dream, "till you'd believe 'twas no real ship at all you was on but a ghost ship like the Flying Dutchman..." (ibid.). Curiously, Mildred seems to match this description, with an all-white dress, like the full sails, and the appearance of a ghost, as Yank mistakes her to be. This atmosphere of the world above deck has a very ethereal quality to it, and resembles a sort of heaven, in a way.
On the other hand, there is also a world below the deck, which Long proclaims is their 'home'. Indeed, the world below resembles a sort of hell, and is even called a hell by the crewmen. This is especially depicted in the third scene, where the atmosphere is much darker than the one above. The air is filled with ash, darkness and shadows are abundant, and the furnaces with their engulfing flames receive the black charcoal. Yank is proud to be in this 'home' of his, and his own appearance (like Mildred and the sky) retains the soot and ash from the smoky engines, as he is portrayed as such in the opening of the fourth scene.
The inhabitants of both of these worlds both act and react accordingly, which brings in the concept of what 'belongs'. As Mildred goes down into the belly of the ship, she is horrified by what she sees. Clearly, she does not 'belong' down below deck, especially when Yank impulsively throws his shovel at her, although it was thrown too late. This same kind of anger is often directed at Paddy, who feels like he 'belongs' above deck, where the sky and luminaries enchant him. Both Mildred and Paddy are curious to see their opposite worlds, but neither may be prepared for it.
This may have been a bit long, but hopefully my observations will contribute something to the dialogue. I am curious to see how the relationships of the worlds above and below will function with one another later in the play.
I still wonder about the heaven/hell dichotomy you point to -- and especially about how a "ghost" might be able to wander between the two without really belonging in either. It's noteworthy that Mildred isn't some hackneyed "angel" descending to the lower depths -- that archetype is certainly alluded to, but it's stripped of its "Christian" dichotomy: above-deck isn't exactly heaven, which suggests that Yank's salamander-home, for all if it's smoke and fire, isn't exactly hell. An angel is a creature of light, one of the elect: a ghost is a revenant, doomed to haunt a world in which it doesn't belong. If "heaven" has its ghosts, then so does hell: Yank's encounter with Mildred makes him feel, at least for a moment, as though he might be a ghost as well. Does this mean that Yank has been "spiritualized"? Or has he simply become unmoored? The helpless inefficacy with which he blunders up against the stolid upper world (I'm thinking particularly of the scene on Fifth Avenue) suggests a a "spirit storming in blank walls."
ReplyDeletePaddy, in contrast, is not a ghost: Yank thinks he's stone dead. And in the world of the play, Yank may be right. Paddy, like the ape, has the memory of a world in which he really belonged -- the beautiful passage from which you quoted is the closest the play gets to an invocation of heaven. It's not the world of the upper deck -- that world's been colonized by Mildreds and their aunts, spectral, unnatural things that make the world ugly. And it's certainly not the world of the stokehole. It's the world of...an antiquated mode of production?