The Iceman Cometh as a critique on the disillusionment of Human Psyche in comparison To Mourning Becomes Electra and Wild Duck

The Iceman Cometh is a play, based on the psychological study of human beings. Therefore, while analyzing the characters in the play we can critically evaluate human psyche. Right from the beginning of the play we witness certain attributes in the characters to discuss them by applying psychoanalytical criticism, as the characters in the play struggle for their identity and existence, so, the play presents a critique of existential dilemma faced by the Bourgeois class. The play begins with the description of Harrys saloon that is presented as a dark and dirty place. As said in the play It is now splotched, peeled, stained and dusty that it can be best described as dirty (5). It shelters all the homeless drunkards who are disillusioned and are struggling for a way out of the wasteland of illusion. But this insatiable pursuit fails because disillusionment prevails much in their lives in the form of Pipe dreams that acts as an ultimate way of escapism to deny the reality. Pipe Dreams here mean hope or a plan that is impossible to achieve (Word web). Basically pipe dream is a bond that connects the mad lot of drunkards in the play. Most of them are retired who have spent their youths and now they have lost their souls in pipe dreaming to justify their existence. They all are aware of the fact that it is useless to hope high when they are being dumped in a place that is being compared to Morgue. Though the act of pipe dreaming is common but the nature of dreaming varies from person to person in the play. Larry Hugo and Parrit are presented dreaming about the Political revolution and Political Salvation.

Hickey wants to have religious salvation so he takes upon himself the responsibility of a preacher. Others like Jimmy and Joe dream for a better future. Past acts as a brooding force in their lives it haunts all of them and leads them more into disparity and in state of denial. They all bear a jargon of peace but in a passive manner without any action.

The Iceman Cometh portrays a hopeless scenario of an irreverent domain being populated by misbegotten beings (19) in which life is a nightmare and death is the only way out for the mad lot of drunkards. They just aim and talk high for a better future but with bogus air heroism. As stated in the play Theyve all a touching credulity concerning tomorrows (12). Most of the characters in the play talk about a movement named Tomorrow or Anarchist Movement, Hugo and Larry right from the beginning are seen talking of that. Larry denies the fact about his being connected with the movement because that movement reminds him of his illegitimate relationship with Rosa mother of Don Parrit who is presented as a tall man of eighteen and the only youngster in the play. He is a confused character yearning for his mothers love. He is suffering from a psychological dilemma and is unable to conclude that what he is actually searching for. In our point of view he can be qualified as the one having the oedipal characteristics. He comes to Larry just because he was his mothers love. He resents her relationship with him. Being the only child of his mother he yearns for her love but she never pays any heed to him. For his mother, movement is the only important thing in life and for that she spoils her relationship with her son. He comes to Larry to know what he was for his mother. He hates him because he ruined his childhood as his mother gave great importance to him ignoring his son. He calls his mother a whore. As Lacan says language is the only medium

through which one can readthe unconscious mind. So here we can analyst Parrits state of mind by his speech with Larry. She was never true to anyone but to herself [. . .] I know you cant help still feeling- - because I still love her, too. (187). Rosa expressed her independence through sexual freedom. While Parrit had no father growing up, he had many competitors for his mothers affection and Larry was the strongest of them. She just had to keep on having lovers to prove to herself how free was she (132). He is never at peace because he is disillusioned and takes his mother as a whore but sells her for another tart. So he has a guilt ridden conscience and he is repressed in terms of psychoanalysis. He wants to speak his inner turmoil out to Larry but Larry doesnt allow him to do so. Parrit confesses his deed that he has sold his mother for a tart and Larry hates him for that and in the end of the play Larry asks him to die by saying Go! Get the hell out of life, God damn you, before I choke it out of you (253). And Parrit, at last finds himself contented that he will punish himself. This act of punishing himself can also be attributed as an oedipal characteristic. Larry Slade is presented as a sadist who takes pleasure in harming others. He claims himself detached from Pipe Dreams but thats just an illusion. He is a repressed being and sense of displacement prevails much in his personality. He claims time and again not to bea part ofmovement anymore but in mentioning again and again he approves that how important it has been to him but he retired from it due to Rosa, Parrits mother. Even at Parrits death who considered him at the place of his father.He is contented and doesnt even stop him from punishing himself. He is contemptuous towards all those who criticize him of being an anarchist. Above all he hates Hickey who is the main character in the play and has been introduced quite late.

As Raymond Williams says that Tragedy is a tradition that every era inherits with a slight change, so according our point of view Eugene ONeill inherits Greeks tradition of tragedy in modern a vision. Some critics qualify the cast of the play as a Quasi-Greek chorus. The arrival of Hickey is being foreshadowed time and again by the characters as the Greek chorus celebrates the arrival of protagonist and hopes that he will come to change their fates. There also is a relation between the characters of Hickman in the play with of Ezra Mannon in Mourning Becomes Electra (MBE). Both of them bear an attitude of being an iceman and try to impose their will on others. Hickey kills his wife while Ezra Mannon mutilates his relationship with his wife. Both men are awaited by others. The title The Iceman Cometh compliments Hickeys arrival in the play. While the subtitle Homecoming complements Ezra Mannons arrival at his house. Both of them are afraid of their wives.For Hickey his wife acts as an alter ego and shows himself his distorted and grotesque being which shatters his personality and he couldnt bear the fact that he is a sinner and a lousy drunkard. While Ezra Mannon in MBE fears his wife because her beauty challenges his instinctive desire but being a Mannon love is a forbidden fruit for him. Both men bring death and destruction with them. Hickey who claims to bring peace leaves in his fellows a sense of hollowness as Larry states Its the peace of death he has brought with him (208). And in MBE Ezra Mannon becomes the core reason of the tragic action in the play. Both men suffer because of their wives, one because he is a sinner and other because he is a puritan. As Sartre states that We are condemned because we did not create ourselves. We must choose and act from within whatever situation we find ourselves No matter what one chooses in life,one has to suffer. Hickey suffers because he is a sinner and Ezra suffers because he is a puritan.

Hickey is presented as a major character in The Iceman Cometh. He takes upon himself the responsibility of a preacher and bears a flag to bring peace in Harrys Morgue of drunkards. His arrival is celebrated by all the characters in the play because according to them he will bring joy with him. But paradoxically he becomes the core reason of tragic action in the play and his arrival just disturbs everyone because of his projection of a transformed Hickey. He is described as a Wet Blanket (86) which is used for a person who has a depressing effect on others. Hickeys mission of reformation is not messianic, nor is it re-creational; it is rather devastating and destructive. He turns Harrys birthday party to an unfortunate event. He tries to wake everybody up for a better tomorrow but leads them to nothing but destruction. He who wants to awake everybody from their pipe dream is actually himself a dreamer who thinks that the murder of his wife will bring peace to him but it is not the case. In the light of psychoanalytical criticism if we analyze his character then the guilt is there in his mind pinching him to confess and he does this by calling the cops to arrest him. He actually tries to justify the murder of his wife by saying that he brought her peace but his guilt ridden conscience doesnt allow him to do so. Hickeys wife thus acts as an alter ego for him and he at the end of the play is taken away by cope. The argument that ONeill here presents is that a man cant live without sticking to an illusion of life-lie". Everyone has pipe dreams in ones life to sustain existence and to lessen the pain. As in Wild Duck by Henrik Ibsen: Dr Relling states that Take the life lie away from the average man and straight away you take away his happiness similar is the case with all these characters in the play.They all have pipe dreams to sustain their livings otherwise the reality is too harsh to bear. In Wilde Duck,Gregor has a purpose of reformation and tries to rid Hjalmar of his illusions but it results only in destruction and leads his poor little daughter to commit suicide. Here in The

Iceman Cometh, Hickey takes upon himself the responsibility of reforming others by trying to rid them of their illusions and his insistence on change leaves the characters caught between hope and disappointment. Hickeys struggle results in nothing but a confessionof killing his wife. He, likewise Don Parrit,faces reality that brings nothing to him but destroys his life rendering him a murderer of his dear wife. His jargon of salvation makes death an end rather than a meanto an end. Thus in our point of view, ONeills play is a critique on modern man that how misery is inevitable and once man is deprived by the life-lie he is nothing but a distorted being who cant face reality because its too harsh to bear. This play gives us an insight to the devastation and helplessness of Modern Man and doesnt leave any space for Salvation or for those claiming to be the eternal Saviors. As Raymond Williams states that tragedy is all about the common man and its a continuous process of suffering.Here at the end of the play we find Hickey being arrested and Don Parrit committing suicide.But in spite of these two tragic incidents, the remaining characters in the play are seen celebrating and singing. As mentioned above that characters in the play are presented as quasi Greek chorus, they end the play singing together in a chorus which in Greek tradition is the representation of society at large.Here also they are representing Bourgeois society because they all belong to different professions.