A Traumatic Study Of Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape

Eugene O’Neill is acclaimed as the founder of American drama.His works not only have an epoch-making significance on American literature but also become the paradigm of modern theater in the twentieth century.Traumatic memories become an important element in creating his dramas.In The Hairy Ape,O’Neill reveals people’s extreme anxiety toward their living plight,the lack of faith and sense of belonging in modern industrial society.This thesis mainly employs trauma theory to analyze Yank’s traumatic syndromes,the origins of his traumas and the recovery from his traumatic experiences.He attains his self-salvation after he has experienced identity crisis,the alienation with his surroundings as well as his cracked perception between the present and the past.In addition,this thesis further discusses the author’s recovery from trauma.O’Neill clearly records his traumatic experiences through writing.He relieves from the complicated relationship interwoven with mixed feelings and liberates from the painful memories of his intimate friends’passing.Ultimately,he finds a piece of pure land in his mind through writing.This thesis explores Yank’s personal trauma and collective trauma as well as the cultral trauma within the social context.It offers a new perspective to understand this drama,differing from scholars and critics at home and abroad who have already investigated this work from different perspectives such as expressionism,existentialism as well as the western Marxism’s on the alienation of human relationships.Thus,the thesis provides a relatively new perspective for readers to have an insight into the cultural and psychological traumas that American lower workers have long endured.