Symbolism In Eugene O 'Neill's The Hairy Ape'?

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Eugene O’Neill is regarded as America’s greatest playwright, and also the only American to ever win a Nobel Prize for Literature. His plays were a wake up call for the nation and world alike, and he is credited with changing the way Americans viewed the theater. Before O’Neill, the American theater was viewed as childish and purely for entertainment, but O’Neill used his expressionist writing style to transform it into a strong social medium for change. One of O’Neill’s most eye-opening plays was The Hairy Ape, a play about a poor ship worker who is questioning his identity and searching for his place in society, but ultimately decides that he doesn’t fit in any social group. This play brought attention to the oppression and mistreatment of the working class by the wealthy upper class, and also the increasing deterioration of the worker caused by industrialization. The play received great reviews for its expressionistic themes, and help O’Neill’s already high reputation. O’Neill’s expressionistic writing style and use of poetic symbolism were responsible for the maturation of the American theater; therefore, earning him the title of “America’s greatest playwright” and a leaving a permanent mark in the history of its theater. …show more content…

Born October 16, 1888 to Mary Ellen and James O’Neill in a New York City Hotel Room, Eugene Gladstone O’Neill had a rough childhood. His father was an alcoholic, and his mother, stressed over a his difficult childbirth and the loss of one of her sons three years before, became addicted to morphine shortly after his birth. Most of Eugene’s early childhood was spent in on the move, traveling across the United States with his family because of his father. His father was a well-known touring actor because of his part in the Count of Monte Cristo, and was the one who introduced him to the theatrical

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