Re-reading The Hairy Ape As An Ecological Comedy

As the winner of Nobel Prize in Literature and the founder of American modern drama,Eugene O'Neill explores in his plays such themes as the fight of human with fate,the relationship between human and nature,between human and society,as well as family ethics,by using dramatizing techniques as various as realism,naturalism,expressionism,symbolism and stream of consciousness.An ecological awareness permeates O'Neill's dramatic canon,and is especially obvious in his expressionist play The Hairy Ape.The playwright pays more attention to natural ecology in his early plays and puts more emphasis on social ecology in his middle and later plays.The Hairy Ape,which is written in 1922,not only reflects O'Neill's natural ecological awareness,but also demonstrates his social ecological awareness.Previous studies on The Hairy Ape mainly focus on the following aspects:symbolism and expressionism,identity crisis,the image of the hairy ape,stage performance,existentialism,Marxism,ecocriticism,and so on.Most of those analyzing the play from the perspective of ecocriticism focus on the natural,social and spiritual ecological issues revealed in the play.However,they do not explore O'Neill's ecological vision in the play systematically;neither do they investigate the deeper reason for O'Neill to subtitle the play as "A Comedy of Ancient and Modern Life in Eight Scenes." Therefore,this thesis attempts to reinterpret The Hairy Ape,which is often regarded as a tragedy,from the perspective of ecocriticism.By placing the play in the context of the O'Neillian canon,and by analyzing the inherent connection between comedy and ecology,the thesis attempts to re-read The Hairy Ape as a comedy that encapsulates the playwright's whole ecological vision.The thesis argues that O'Neill's natural and social ecological awareness is fully reflected through his exposure and criticism of the natural and social ecological issues caused by the ideology of anthropocentrism and androcentrism as well as class division,and through his comic representation of these ecological issues.In The Hairy Ape,O'Neill exposes the harm of anthropocentrism on natural ecology through his description and criticism of environmental pollution and animal persecution,thus promoting a change in the human-nature relationship from antagonism to holistic integration.In addition,O'Neill also expresses his deep concern for social ecological problems caused by androcentrism and serious class division.Moreover,in light of the inherent connection between comedy and ecology,O'Neill expresses his ecological awareness through a comic representation of the protagonist's absurd situation in the modern world by using comic devices such as irony and parody.His vision of ecology as comedy is also reflected in the play's allusion to Dante's Divine Comedy in presenting the protagonist Yank,s allegorical journey of searching for ecological existence and a sense of being in nature.As an ecological comedy,The Hairy Ape not only has great significance among O'Neill's works,but also plays an important role in inspiring later American playwrights' ecological awareness and its dramatic representation.