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The Hairy Ape
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The Hairy Ape

play by O’Neill
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Article History

The Hairy Ape, drama in eight scenes by Eugene O’Neill, produced in 1922 and published the following year. It is considered one of the prime achievements of Expressionism on stage.

Yank Smith, a brutish stoker on a transatlantic liner, bullies and despises everyone around him, considering himself superior. He is devastated when a millionaire’s daughter is repulsed by his simian ways, and he vows to get even with her. Ashore in New York, Yank schemes to destroy the factory owned by the woman’s father, but his plans fail. Yank wanders into a zoo. There, feeling alienated from humanity, he releases an ape (for whom he feels some kinship), and the ape kills him.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.