The Hairy Ape Summary

The Hairy Ape, written by Eugene O'Neill, was published in 1921 and premiered in 1922. It falls within the literary periods of Expressionism and Realism, blending these elements within the genre of drama. The play is set primarily on an ocean liner, likely around the early 20th century, before transitioning to New York City. The climax occurs when Mildred, a wealthy woman, visits the stokehole and witnesses Yank, the play's protagonist, in a violent, raving state, raising his shovel and being called a "filthy beast" by Mildred, which causes her to faint. The central antagonist in the play is not a single character but the competitive, individualistic mindset that prevents Yank from recognizing his own oppression.

The story kicks off in this manner that the firemen are taking a break in their cramped quarters at the front of the ship after shoveling coal. The ship has been sailing for an hour from New York. The men are sitting on their bunks, drinking beer, laughing, and singing loudly. Yank, a strong and confident man, demands a beer, and the men quickly quiet down and give him two drinks. Satisfied, Yank turns away, and the men encourage an older fireman, Paddy, to sing his "Whisky Song." Paddy, drunk and unsteady, sings about whisky, and the other men join in.

Yank, annoyed by the noise, asks the men to be quiet so he can think. The men mock him by repeating "Think!" in unison. Above the noise, a tenor voice is heard singing about a woman waiting for her man, but Yank silences him angrily, declaring that the ship is his home, not anywhere else. A drunk man named Long stands on a table, agreeing with Yank, but adds that the first-class passengers—the rich people—are the problem. Long calls the ship home and says it's like hell, and the passengers are to blame. Yank, angry, says he’ll knock Long down and calls his ideas foolish. Yank argues that firemen are stronger and more important than the rich passengers because they are the ones who make the ship move.

Paddy, still drunk, cries out that they belong to the ship? That they make the ship go? He says they are trapped, like "apes in the zoo." He talks about how, when he was young, working on the tall, sail-powered clipper ships was a source of pride. Those ships were fast and free, and working on them took skill and courage. But now, on the coal-powered steamers, they are stuck with no freedom, just shoveling coal in the dark.

Yank gets up to fight Paddy but stops himself. He tells Paddy to calm down because he’s too old to understand. Yank suddenly stands up, excited, and says that he belongs to the ship, and Paddy doesn’t. He’s alive, and Paddy is old and past it. Yank says he’s part of the ship’s engines: the engines move, breathe, and eat coal. Without him, the ship would stop. Like Long, Yank also thinks the ship is like hell, but it takes a man to work in hell. He says he is like the steel of the ship—strong and powerful.

Mildred Douglas and her Aunt are relaxing on the ship's promenade deck, enjoying the sunny weather. Mildred comments on the beauty of the black smoke rising into the clear sky. They sit, far removed from the hard work of the men below, particularly the firemen like Yank. Mildred, the daughter of a wealthy steel tycoon, is aware that she lives a life disconnected from the struggles of the working class. Though she tries to understand the lives of the poor through studying sociology and doing charity work, her Aunt dismisses her efforts.

Her Aunt doesn't understand why Mildred would want to help people she sees as inferior. She calls Mildred's attempts at kindness "fanciful" and thinks they will only make the poor feel worse. Mildred, however, feels like a "waste product" of her family's wealth, having everything without any purpose or sense of fulfillment. She says that, though she has benefited from the family's business, she feels disconnected from the hard work that built it. Her Aunt criticizes Mildred's efforts, calling them nothing more than a passing trend.

When Mildred is about to visit the stokehole to see the firemen at work, the first engineer suggests she change out of her fancy dress. Mildred says it doesn't matter because she has many dresses like it and will throw it away when she gets back. As Mildred heads below deck, her Aunt calls her a "poser," and Mildred laughs, firing back with "Old Hag!"

Scene Three shifts to the stokehole, where Yank and the other firemen are hard at work, shoveling coal into the furnace. The noise of the machinery, clanging shovels, and roaring fire fills the air. The men take a short break, and Paddy complains about his aching back, but Yank tells him to stop being weak and encourages the men to keep going. A whistle blows, signaling for them to work harder, but Yank angrily shakes his fist and insists that he decides when they move. As the men stop working to listen, Yank becomes aware of Mildred entering the room, her white dress standing out against the dark, dirty environment.

The men stare at her, and as Yank begins to yell at the whistle-blower, he notices them staring at Mildred. He turns around, furious, and sees that Mildred is faint from the heat and filth. The engineers rush to help her. As they carry her out, Mildred weakly says, "Take me away! Oh, the filthy beast!" Yank, enraged, shouts back, "God damn yuh!"

The firemen are gathered in the front part of the ship, resting after their shift. Yank's team has finished their work, and the men are relaxing. All of them have washed except for Yank. Even though they cleaned up, some coal dust still lingers around their eyes, making them look a bit rough. Yank, on the other hand, is still covered in coal dust, sitting hunched over like Rodin's The Thinker, lost in thought. The men watch him closely, expecting an outburst after his encounter with Mildred. They tease him about forgetting to wash, but he stays quiet. They joke that the dust will never come off, making his skin itch and giving him spots like a leopard. Annoyed, Yank tells them to stop bothering him—he's trying to "tink." As usual, they correct him, saying "think!" Yank jumps up, frustrated, and asks what’s wrong with the way he says "tinking."

Paddy finally speaks and jokes that maybe Yank has fallen in love with Mildred. The men laugh and shout, "Love!" But Yank angrily insists he hasn’t fallen in love—he’s fallen in hate. Paddy tells him that only a truly wise man can tell the difference between love and hate. He also suggests that maybe Mildred loves Yank—why else would she have come down into the stokehole?

Long, another fireman, climbs onto a bench and shouts that Mildred and the ship’s engineers insulted them all. He asks what right they have to treat the firemen like animals in a zoo. Long then tells the men that Mildred is the daughter of a rich man who owns half the steel in the world, which is why she was able to go wherever she pleased. He suggests they should take legal action for the way they were treated. But Yank just scoffs, "Hell! Law!" The men repeat after him in unison, "Law!" Paddy suggests they go to the government, but Yank mocks, "Hell! Government!" Again, the men echo him. Desperate, Long says that at least God sees everyone equally. Once more, Yank and the men repeat, "God!" Yank sarcastically tells Long to go join the Salvation Army.

Long steps down, and Paddy speaks again. He bitterly describes how the engineer spoke to Mildred about them, pointing at the workers like they were circus animals. Yank defends himself, saying he thought Mildred was a ghost. Paddy, now mocking, says he could see the "kind, loving look" in her eyes—just like she was staring at a "great hairy ape" that had escaped from the zoo.

This hits Yank hard. The words "hairy ape" stick in his mind. He tries to explain that he was just as scared of Mildred as she was of him, but it doesn’t matter—the insult won’t go away.

Furious, Yank swears to get revenge. He shouts that Mildred doesn’t belong in their world, but the firemen do. His anger builds until he charges toward the door, determined to find her. But before he can leave, the other men tackle him to the ground. Paddy warns him that going after Mildred is useless—she’s not even real in the way they are, as if she doesn’t have real blood in her veins.

Yank and Long walk down Fifth Avenue in New York City, somewhere in the Fifties. Yank pronounces it "Fif'Avenoo." They pass by fancy stores—a jeweler and a fur shop—where expensive things like monkey fur and diamonds are displayed in the windows. Long has brought Yank here to find Mildred. He tells Yank that, as working-class men, they don’t belong on Fifth Avenue. Yank is amazed by how clean the sidewalks are and jokes that he could eat an egg off them. He asks where all the office workers are, and Long explains that they are in church but will be out soon.

Yank remembers going to church as a kid, though his parents never did. He shares that his father worked on the shore in New York and that his mother died from alcohol withdrawal, which he calls the "tremens." After she passed, Yank worked briefly in trucking before joining a ship as a fireman in the stokehold.

After waiting a while, Yank grows frustrated because he doesn’t see anyone like Mildred. He wants to leave, saying the area is too fancy and makes him feel bad. Long reminds Yank that he came here to get back at Mildred for what happened in the stokehold. Yank angrily agrees, shouting, "Sure thing I do!" Long, however, tells him that his anger shouldn’t just be at Mildred but at all rich people. He wants Yank to think about class struggle. Yank gets fired up and tells Long to "bring on the gang!"

They stop to look at the jewelry and fur in the store windows. Long rants about how expensive everything is—how just one item could pay for a fireman’s whole trip or feed a family for a year. Yank is briefly impressed by the shiny diamonds and soft furs but admits they don’t "belong," just like Mildred. Long points out some monkey fur and jokes that the rich would never want to pay for an ape’s skin. Yank clenches his fists, growing angrier.

Soon, churchgoers begin to fill the street. Long warns Yank to stay calm and tells him to look down on the rich like they are horses. As Yank watches the fancy-dressed men and women walk by, he snorts in disgust. He stands in their way, but they simply walk around him, ignoring him. Yank jumps in front of a man in a top hat, but the man just says, "Beg your pardon." Long starts to panic, afraid the police will come, but Yank won’t back down.

Yank steps in front of a woman and asks if she wants to crawl under the docks with him. She ignores him completely. Frustrated, Yank yells that none of these people belong. He points at the massive skyscraper above and shouts that he is the skyscraper—he is the steel, the engine, the force that builds it. He calls the people "dolls," saying they don’t move like he does, they don’t have his strength. But no one listens. Furious, he shouts that they are just trash, like the ash firemen throw into the sea.

Desperate for a reaction, Yank starts pushing into people, but they just mutter, "Beg your pardon," and keep walking. Yank shoves into a man calling for a bus, hoping for a fight. The man knocks Yank down but doesn’t get angry—he just complains about missing his bus. Yank punches the man in the face, but the man barely reacts. Instead, he calls the police. The cops club Yank to the ground, but still, no one even notices.

It is nighttime in the prison on Blackwell’s Island. A single electric light shines on Yank in his cell. He sits with his head resting on his fist, like the statue The Thinker. His face is covered in bruises from the police beating, and a blood-soaked bandage wraps around his head. Suddenly, he grabs the bars of his cell and shakes them violently. "Steel," he mutters. "So this is the zoo, huh?"

The other prisoners laugh. They tell him the jail is an old iron cage. Yank, confused, says he thought he was in an actual zoo. The men laugh again, saying he is in a cage, just not at a zoo. They ask him why he was arrested. At first, Yank speaks slowly, saying he was a fireman, but then he bursts into anger and shouts that he is a "hairy ape." He shakes the bars again, warning the men not to make fun of him. Then, he asks if they are apes too. The other prisoners don't like this and yell back at him, threatening him. They tell Yank to be quiet before the guard hears them. But Yank, lost in his own thoughts, insists they mean the "zookeeper," not the guard.

After calming down, Yank finally explains why he was arrested. He describes seeing a woman named Mildred dressed in white in the stokehole. He thought she was a ghost. To him, she looked like something dead—a doll in a toy store window or trash thrown away. The men ask for her full name. When Yank tells them, they realize she is the daughter of Douglas, the president of Steel Trust.

One prisoner suggests that if Yank wants to take down Steel Trust, he should join the Wobblies (a labor group fighting for workers' rights). Another man reads a newspaper article from The Sunday Times about the Wobblies. The article is a speech by Senator Queen, who calls them "Industrial Wreckers of the World" instead of their real name, the Industrial Workers of the World. Yank is fascinated by what he hears. The senator describes the Wobblies as dangerous and a threat to democracy.

As the speech continues, the prisoners begin mocking it, shouting sarcastic words like “Justice! Honor! Opportunity! Brotherhood!” Then, they all sigh together, saying, “Ah, hell.” One man jokingly tells them to “bark” for the senator, and the whole cellblock erupts in barking and yapping. The speech continues, warning that the Wobblies would destroy society, putting the lowest people in power and turning humans back into apes.

Yank takes the newspaper and reads it himself. He once again sits in The Thinker pose, deep in thought. Suddenly, he groans in frustration and jumps to his feet. He finally understands—Mildred’s father is the one who makes steel, the same steel Yank thought he belonged to. Furious, he grabs the bars of his cell and shakes them, shouting that Mildred’s father built this cage, but he will break free and destroy it. He pushes his feet against one side of the cage and pulls a bar with all his strength. Incredibly, the metal bends.

The guard rushes in just as Yank bends another bar. Seeing this, the guard sprays Yank with a powerful stream of water, calling for backup and a straightjacket to restrain him.

A month after being in prison, Yank is finally free. He stands outside an International Workers of the World (I.W.W.) office near the waterfront. Inside, the Secretary is writing in a big book. Yank knocks on the door, thinking it’s like a secret club. When no one answers, he knocks again, louder. The Secretary calls out, telling him to just come in. Yank enters, looking around suspiciously as the other men in the room glance at him.

Yank tells the Secretary he wants to join the I.W.W. The Secretary is pleased to hear that Yank is a fireman since not many firemen have joined. Yank agrees, saying that firemen are forgotten by the world. The Secretary fills out a membership card with Yank’s real name, Bob Smith, and tells him it costs fifty cents to join. Surprised at how easy it is, Yank hands over the money. The Secretary tells him to read some of the pamphlets on the table and to spread the word to the men on his ship about what the I.W.W. is doing.

The Secretary asks Yank why he knocked on the door. Yank says he thought they would need to check if he was trustworthy. The Secretary assures him that the I.W.W. is a legal group and doesn’t break any laws. Yank, thinking the Secretary is just testing him, winks and says he will prove he belongs. He promises to show his dedication once he is fully accepted into the group. The Secretary, now cautious, asks Yank if he believes in changing society through legal action or violence. Yank excitedly shouts, "Dynamite!" He says he wants to blow up the Steel Trust, destroy all the steel in the world, and then send a letter to Mildred, signing it as "The Hairy Ape."

Hearing this, the Secretary steps back and signals for the other men to search Yank for weapons. Then, he laughs in Yank’s face, calling him a fool and accusing him of working for the government. The Secretary says Yank is the biggest joke they’ve ever seen and calls him a brainless ape. He orders the men to throw Yank out. Yank lands on the street, feeling lost and confused. He sits there, deep in thought, like Rodin’s statue "The Thinker." He says he used to feel like he was strong, like steel, and owned the world, but now steel owns him. Looking up at the moon, he asks for answers. A policeman tells him to move along. When Yank asks where he should go, the policeman tells him, "To hell."

The next evening at twilight, Yank finds himself at the zoo, staring at a gorilla in its cage. The gorilla sits like "The Thinker," just like Yank did. Yank admires the gorilla’s strong arms and chest. He feels a connection to the gorilla, believing they are both trapped and mocked by the world. He calls the gorilla his brother and says they are the same.

Wanting to bond with the animal, Yank opens the gorilla’s cage. He reaches out to shake the gorilla’s hand. Suddenly, the gorilla attacks, crushing Yank in its powerful arms. Then, the gorilla throws Yank into the cage. Yank dies inside, and the sound of monkeys screeching fills the air.