Expressionism in the plays of Eugene O’Neil

It is well known that Eugene O’Neil used expressionism a lot in his writing. The playwright has used this strategy throughout his career to offer a distinctive viewpoint on the topics and themes addressed in the play. According to Grace (95), expressionism is a subgenre of theatre in which playwrights concentrate on portraying an incredibly subjective view of life in some of their characters. Expressionism is frequently used in playwriting to explore important societal issues because of its strong subjective viewpoint, which frees the playwright to depict the perspective of the impacted character in any number of ways. In many instances, expressionistic theatre presents a fairly uncompromising picture of the weaknesses of society. It reveals the various social faults in the community, some of which are commonly underexplored or completely ignored. Expressionism often allows the strict chronological order followed to broken, presenting the playwright with an opportunity to use their imagination as they focus one character’s views (Grace 98). O’Neill has a demonstrated habit of generously employing the use of expressionism in his plays. Some of the foremost works that extensively use expressionistic theatre include The Emperor Jones, The Hairy Ape, and The Great God Brown. The three plays will be examined in isolation to determine the extents to which the stylistic device was used as well as its overall impact.

The Hairy Ape

The Hairy Ape is perhaps one of the expressionistically rich works by Eugene O’Neill. The play presents the life and general outlook of its main character, Yank. O’Neill (13) portrays Yank as a brutish, thoughtless manual labourer who craves for a sense of belonging in a society controlled by the wealthy. He is discouraged by his miniscule demeanour as he realises the world around him is occupied by persons richer than him and who make all key decisions appertained to it.

At first, Yank feels empowered as he stoke the engines of a ship and is greatly confident in his physical strength over the ocean liner’s engines and fellow workers. However, his encounter with the daughter of a rich steel merchant who refers to Yank as a “filthy beast” quickly erodes the labourer’s self-esteem. Yank spirals into crisis of identity and soon begins to deteriorate mentally and physically. He disembarks from the ship and aimlessly wonders into Manhattan (O’Neill 70). The labourer soon finds that he is grossly incompatible with the socialites on Fifth Avenue neither does he fit with labour organizers as the beachfront. Yank’s desire to belong is not quenched and soon spirals out of control with his mental stake disintegrating into animalistic. Eventually, the labourer is defeated by an ape that possesses his character. O’Neill (74)’s use of extreme social scenarios including Yank’s haughty belief in himself, his inability to fit into any of New York’s social classes, and his eventual descent into madness are clear illustrations of expressionistic theatre. The playwright sought to express the adverse impacts of industrialisation and the creation of social classes. He is protesting classism and its potential to render less fortunate members of society inconsequential.

In The Hairy Ape, the systematic sequence of the narrative is abandoned to provide a real sense of Yank’s persona and dislocation and dysfunction he experiences. Great imagination is utilised in the paper such as the scenes set in the stokehole. As is common among O’Neill’s works, many other ”normal” characters are included with individuals such as Mildred and Long being given prominent conventional roles. While the normal roles are critical in the development of the plot and in steering it from becoming a purely expressionistic play, the juxtaposition of ordinary and extreme characters only serve to highlight the disconnect of Yank and expressionism emphasis by O’Neill.

O’Neill commonly utilises expressionism in the development of the different contexts and settings of the play. In the first scene, the playwright describes a fireman’s stokehole that he indicates bears extreme semblance to a cage. O’Neill (19) provides a vivid and extremely hellish description of the environment, creating an expressionist image in the audience. The dark and gloomy imagery served to present the area as dark and nightmarish. The stokehole is portrayed as extremely claustrophobic and dreary, reminiscent of prison cages. O’Neill intends the description to have a strong effect on the audience feelings as it encroaches upon their sensibility of fear.

There are many other instances in which O’Neill utilises expressionistic theatre. Another key example is the vivid descriptions of the sounds in the engine room. The playwright explains, ”there is a deafening metallic roar, through which Yank’s voice can be heard bello- wing”… ”Eight bells sound, muffled, vibrating through the steel walls as if some enormous brazen gong were imbedded in the heart of the ship” (O’Neill 44). The explicit details present deep insight into the atmosphere in the room adding the expressionistic flavour of the articles. O’Neill quickly shifts to the deck which he describes as beautiful. He provides a large contrast between the two parts of the ship as he presents the deck to be quieter with gentle winds blowing through it as opposed to the deafeningly loud and sweaty engine room.

The Emperor Jones

The Emperor Jones is yet another key work of Eugene O’Neill that uses expressionism extensively. The play comprises of eight sequential scenes. While the first and last scenes explores ordinary themes, the six in the middle are extremely expressionistic. They consist of the monologues of the main character, Jones, interposed with portrayals of the Great Forest in which the play is set.

In The Emperor Jones, O’Neill (66) presents a fevered and battered Brutus Jones who is overwhelmed fear and panic and eventually loses his life when he is shot by silver bullet. His expressionistic perspective is best portrayed by the excesses he engaged in and the extremes Jones indulges in. The Emperor, Brutus Jones is a self-assure and handy African-American who murders another black man following a disagreement in a dice game. Jones is apprehended and jailed but later escapes to an underdeveloped island in the West Indies where he declares himself an emperor. Enraged by his actions, a native tries to shoot Jones but the gun misfires. Jones seizes the moment and announces that he is protected by a charm and only a silver bullet can harm him. O’Neill (95)’s presentation of the background appears fairly normal as activities that would ordinarily occur are portrayed. However, his declaration as an emperor of another empire appears sufficiently unusual and exaggerated revealing the play’s expressionist characteristics. O’Neill proceeds further by proving more context to the storyline.

Emperor Jones amasses a fortune by imposing heavy taxation and engaging in massive corruption and misappropriation of public finances. The islanders grow rebellious and begin charting up a plan to dislodge Jones as the emperor. They consult the gods and demons of the forest. As the play nears its end, traditional drums can be heard sounding the distance. The emperor is eventually killed by a silver bullet. The surreal insight into the conduct of the characters Jones sufficiently points towards the use of a significant degree of the expressionism. It is unlikely that any of the events described by O’Neill (23) in the play The Emperor Jones would actually happen in real life. The use of exaggerated perspectives indicate a masterful use of expressionism.

The Great God Brown

Dramatist Eugene O’Neill’s extensive use of expressionism extended to one of his most renowned plays, The Great God Brown. The drama has four major scenes and a prologue (Bogard and O’Neill 30). The public and private personas of the characters are revealed with a huge divide being noted among the protagonist and other ordinary characters. The central personalities are Dion Anthony, an immensely gifted but morally depraved artist and Billy Brown, an average architect. Both persons are deeply in love with Margaret and seek to earn her regard. Margaret chooses Dion as she is in love with the cynical, sensual self he presents to the world (Bogard and O’Neill 34). However, when Dion reveals his true spiritual and artistic side, Margaret is deeply repulsed.

Dion finds himself unable to realise his artistic potential and slumps into self-destructive behaviour. He soon dies. O’Neill’s employment of expressionistic theatre in the play continues as he depicts Billy as being so jealous of Dion’s talent that he assumes the latter’s persona. Billy even goes ahead to marry Margaret, who is oblivious of the fact that his new husband is not Dion (Bogard and O’Neill 39). Many of these perspectives are highly improbable in real life, indicating O’Neill’s reverence for expressionism.

Works Cited

Bogard, T., and Eugene O’Neill. (1988). Contour in time: the plays of Eugene O’Neill. Oxford University Press on Demand.

Grace, Sherrill. Regression and Apocalypse: Studies in North American Literary Expressionism. Univ of Toronto Pr, 1989.

O’neill, Eugene. Selected Letters of Eugene O’Neill. Hal Leonard Corporation, 1994.

O’Neill, Eugene. The Emperor Jones. Courier Corporation, 1997.

O’Neill, Eugene. The hairy ape. The Floating Press, 2014.