The Hairy Ape

Yank is a coal stoker in the belly of a transatlantic liner, proud of his brute strength and certain that he belongs, until a wealthy young woman recoils from him and calls him a filthy beast. That single insult shatters his sense of place and sends him searching, ashore and half mad, for where he fits in a world that has no room for him. Eugene O’Neill built this 1922 play in bold expressionist strokes, staging the machinery of industry and class as a kind of cage. It is a short, ferocious work about identity, belonging, and the men modern society uses and discards. Available here as a free PDF and EPUB edition.