"Vital Contact": Eugene O'Neill and the Working Class Author(s): Patrick J.

Chura Reviewed work(s): Source: Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Winter, 2003), pp. 520-546 Published by: Hofstra University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3176038 . Accessed: 22/09/2012 15:00
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Hofstra University is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Twentieth Century Literature.

http://www.jstor.org

"VitalContact":Eugene O'Neill and theWorking Class

Chura Patrickj.

A famous ofEugene O'Neill shows theplaywright at photograph thethreshold of his in from theshore
career, gazing calmly seaward

O'Neillentered thescene asonedarkly handsome sailor upon with andburning with undiscovered talambition, burning eyes entandunproduced plays. -Leona Rust Egan(153)

He is wearing the Provincetown.. sailor's uniform navy-blue jersey thathe had been givenupon his from seaman promotion ordinary to able-bodiedseamanon board the American Line cruise ship in 1911. O'Neill's atPhiladelphia is contemplative titude andtranquil, his posture and reposed dignified, but his clothingsuggests physical labor.He is inwardly a poetand outwardly a sailor. playwright and relaxed, pensive Well-groomed, between seaandland, he advertises affiliation withthe working class in while a of leisure engaged type YaleCollection ofAmerican Literature, excludes himfrom it. Beinecke RareBookandManuscript that As an icon of the Library,Yale University playwright's

Literature 49.4 Twentieth-Century

Winter 2003

520

Class and the O'Neill Working Eugene but hasbeen sailor's andwork, O'Neill's life variously interpreted, jersey asa seaman. ofhislast than more itwascertainly voyage justa souvenir of hiscareer, the first decade he interview In nearly during gave every hisapprenticeship as a common to mention O'Neillwascareful sailor, a stint other often credentials, doing including working-class adding inMindil for the work Swift "manual 4),but rarely Packing people" (qtd. he"became certified-that to what the attention to draw jersey failing alloftwo Lineships" andspent almost American onthe anableseaman his third he had left his than 20 after sea. More at life, seafaring years years itto mended andpresented sweater hadthemoth-eaten wife Carlotta All his him with left thegift life, him; 197). (Sheaffer pleasure speechless the O'Neillkept jersey. insomethe ofthe A recent significance jersey interprets biographer it "the first outward that conventional what terms, speculating expressed inthe success world ever have the least ... that indication Eugene might the unianother On orbe self-supporting" level, however, (Black 115). out American Line white letters with bold form sweater bespoke spelling ifconflicted but its a determined notconventionality denial, symbolizing canons. ofmiddle-class rejection uniform tohave tousehissailor's O'Neillseems In 1916, attempted five after into the theater. Atthe his first tofacilitate ageof28, years entry in Line for his arrival hedonned hisoldAmerican hisseavoyages, jersey with the Provincetown Provincetown andhis audition Players, costuming full ofplays. seaman andcarrying a sailor's himself asa seasoned knapsack O'Neill "had like a sailor who had "Dressed just jumped ship," slackly on a somewhat come totown 95), apparently drawing trampishly" (Kemp to hiscurrent dramatic to lendcredibility remote seagoing experience tothe Provincetowntopresent himself asa worker efforts.The decision flannel shirts to with the themselves wore ers wasshrewd; identify Players the class. working O'Neill's someoftheoriginal sawthrough because Players Partly he and because the staged working-class play initially identity2 partly was"a very offered totheProvincetowners (Ranald slight piece" 506),3 between first didnotgo well. Atthesecond O'Neill's meeting tryout clicked" O'Neillandthe however, decidedly (Kemp Players, "something of for a one-act about the death When "Bound East Cardiff" 96). play in a ship's was read for the Provincetown a common seaman forecastle,
It was "the breakthrough was unanimous. theyhad hoped group, approval

521

Patrick J.Chura for" (Egan 11). Susan Glaspell'sProvincetown memoirrecallsthatafter thisO'Neill reading, "Then we knew whatwe were for"(254). As Harry "This time no one doubted thathere was a genuine Kemp explained, theatrical (96). If the fledgling playwright" companyhad foundits drathe dramatist had also matist, discovered, apparently throughtrialand a social theme and artistic formulathatwould sustainhis rise to error, prominence. be called an innovative Though "Bound East" maylegitimately play, itsattempt to providethe middle classwith intimate access to workingclass reality was not an unusualsocial phenomenon or artistic themein the 1910s. Numerous nonfictional downclassing experiments suggesta concernwithboth experimentally motivated and highlevel of historical reform-driven affiliation with the lower classesby genteel interlopers beginningaround the 1880s and peaking-along with the furthermost inroadsof socialisminto American politics-in the decade and a half WorldWar I.4 Mark Pittenger's narratives preceding studyof nonfiction middle-class writers who in order as workers producedby "passed" poor the underclassor experience povertyidentifies to investigate 49 such in theProgressive era alone (55). By the 1910s,a new phrase-"vital texts contact"5-had become current among rebelliousHarvardundergraduates and New York politicalliberals, exgivinga name to the frequent interaction between genteelradicalsand workers. Christine perimental recentwork,American Stansell's observes that a "vital contact," Moderns, termin generaluse in the pre-World War I decade,"distilled an ethos of cross-class was that exchange"(64).The theory "privileged youth... were enervated overeducation and overrefinement and that by theycould rethemselves contact with more hardier, vivify through supposedly simpler, spirited people" (61). For male seekersof "vital contact," class descentideallyresultedin a restoredmasculine identitythroughthe exchange of the softening lifeforthe ruggedhardships conditionsof privileged of a labor environmasculineself-renewal with themesof pastoralesment.6Intertwining mirrored cape,downclassing aspectsofTheodore Roosevelt'sideal of the life"as a methodof physically domesticated "strenuous rebuilding overly male selfhoodin the lateVictorianage.WilliamJamesmade explicitthe link between Roosevelt's masculineideal and the downclassing of the in era The Varieties for (1902). Progressive ofReligious Experience Searching a vibrant, middlegroundbetweenwhathe termed creative and "military"

522

Class Working EugeneO'Neill andthe was asceticism, Jamesconcluded thatsocioeconomic self-denial "saintly" be 'the strenuthelogical answer: acceptedpoverty "May not voluntarily weakerpeoples?" (367). Alluding withoutthe need of crushing ous life,' and terminology,James standard to Roosevelt'sbehavioral argued directly life"while implicitly indeed is the strenuous that"poverty admonishing and conmeasuresof social worth, cautioning againstmaterial snobbery, turn-ofof wealth that characterized the obscene acquisition demning financecapitalism. the-century themale model, from "vitalcontact"differed female Not surprisingly, kind of a different for its devotees sociologicalauthority.When producing JaneAddams founded Hull House in 1889 in one of Chicago's most wards,her example inspirededucated upper-classyoung impoverished matecitiesto relinquish women in Chicago and severalothernorthern rial comforts to live and work among the poor. The femaleparadigm era involvedameliorative of the proletarian journey in the Progressive and embodyingthe lower class social work,not simplypassingthrough and but reforming it-actively inculcatingbourgeois moral,spiritual, aestheticstandards subjects. Through theirdesire among working-class and make over the lower classesin theirown image,the"old to nurture thatatmaternalfunction maids at Hull House" embodied a surrogate and of sexual independence tenuatedtheirdeclarations bespoke only a of gender. fromthe conventions partialliberation the Patersonsilk In addition to these models of class interaction, theatrical of crossof 1913 producedan influential workers' strike display career. classinteraction period of O'Neill's dramatic duringtheformative and the class intellectuals The Paterson strike Bohemian working brought Madison on the of Garbefore 20,000 spectators stage Square together PatersonStrikePageant,an unprecedented den to createthe spectacular forcross-class of possibilities unitythatis now understoodby art display of radical self-conincidentin the history as "an important historians of public art" (Nochlin 64). The Paterson sciousnessand in the history events fromthe Patersonstrikeas a way of reenacted Pageant-which the violent of the classwar and raising moneyforthe reality publicizing workers an coalition between innovative strikefund-forged striking ideal of societal a fascinating and leisure-class intellectuals, exemplified dramatic textthat and producedan expressive, revitalization, revolutionary the force behind As the is stillactively pagbeing interpreted.7 principal and Greenwich eant,Harvardgraduate Village radical JohnReed exerted

523

Patrick Chura J. enormous on public in particular ofthestrike and influence perceptions theclass warin general.8 A number ofthefounding members oftheProvincetown had Players in or present beeninvolved at thePaterson that what Pageant, ensuring awaited in 1916 was a highly O'Neill at Provincetown class-conscious ofpolitically artists whowere to the group engaged particularly receptive notion ofdramatizing Reed himself was working-class experience.9 probthemost member in 1916;he wasthegroup's ofthePlayers ably dynamic andauthor coleader ofthePlayers' constitution. Reed'splayFreedom was in in Provincetown the same summer as O'Neill's authorial performed debutin "Bound East forCardiff," whichReed actedin. In terms of "O'Neill shared with Reed that drive to rubelbows with the personality, lower-class elements of a drive that is (Rosenstone 250), tough society" in Reed'sPaterson as visible an influence in as it is O'Neill's experience lifeand early laterO'Neill acknowledged thatit was early plays.Years Reed'sinfluence him that first to brought Provincetown.'o WhileReed was"particularly in developing instrumental thePlayers" in withGeorgeCram"Jig" Cook, (Rosenstone 248),he didso coalition thePlayers' artistic who hadorganized in thegroup's first season director, thesummer of1915.Two before the had Cook sat years founding Players, enthralled at thePaterson himinsight whichhe saidhad given Pageant, into"whatthetheater be" (Glaspell 250). Reed and Cook were might in theProvincetown to believe" ideaofan experimental "thefirst Players' theater that wouldprovide "vitaldrama" "thepassion of by portraying theprimitive Thatsuchlanguage resembles group." curiously eye-witness the of Paterson is not coincidental. Cook descriptions Pageant perhaps hadreferred to thepageant as"thefirst laborplay" andprofusely praised the"feeling withthestrikers ofoneness" that Reed had conveyed (qtd. in Glaspell stances ofbothofO'Neill'smajor col250).Thustheartistic laborators at Provincetown werein somewayderivative ofPaterson. As atleast one historian ofAmerican theater hasnoted,"The Paterson Strike thewayfor theProvincetown Pageant prepared plays" (Egan106)." The pageant's artistic success was undeniable, but the assumptions been which Reed's Paterson intervention had were predicated upon In the more financial for terms, example, pageant infinitely complicated. in terms wasa fiasco that thestrike ofstriker lostmoney for fund; actually theeffort or not solidarity, mayhavebeen evenmoreharmful.Whether like Reed the their realized it at exertions caused time, organizers fully

524

Class Working EugeneO'Neill andthe and a loss of moraleamong the workers enormousdisharmony theyhad meant to help.12Though Reed himself came to embody an example of classcooperationthatis still in legendary theannalsof theAmericanLeft, it is likely that hispersonalactionswereultimately to thecause deleterious of the strikers.13 Foremostamong the problematic lessonsadumbrated at Patersonwas the crucial indication-clear in hindsight but apparently not to the Patersonactivists-of the impracticability of politicalunion betweenthelaboringclassand sympathetic Could bourgeoisintellectuals. a middle-classradical/dramatist first cross classesand "be" a seamlessly theninterpret workers' livesin waysthatultimately aided them worker, in the classstruggle? What are the realeffects-for both downclasser and working-class subject-of classbarrier transgression? his career, early Judgingby Eugene O'Neill seems to have been these In his early O'Neill repeatextremely intrigued by questions. plays, thatwould have both troubledthe pageantand edly exploredsituations the of the settlement movement-situationsthat complicated thinking that the harsh lessons from Paterson, suggested along with the practical the Hull limitations of House paradigm of"vitalcontact," were ultimately not lost on the self-proclaimed result is thatwhile sailor-playwright.The O'Neill's actions,public persona,and public discourseexplicitly accept theviability of"vitalcontact" as a methodof both self-realization and social progress, hisplaysbetray lesssanguineconclusions.14Moreover, other, the relationbetween O'Neill's personal"vital contact"and the deeper theorization of identically situatedclass issuesin his earlydrama is definedby disillusionment-disillusionment to engendered by a willingness confront the contradictions and potentially effects of cross-class negative interaction. has referred to O'Neill's role as authorof the earlyGlenJoel Pfister cairnplaysas thatof a "tour guide" fora middleand upper classthatwas "fascinated by exhibitsof 'exotic' workers"(109). This formulaseems not but also to the applicable onlyto O'Neill's auditionin Provincetown O'Neill work premiereveningof"Bound East for Cardiff"-the first ever produced-on 28 July1916. The atmosphere in the wharftheater, notes Susan Glaspell,recreated the feelingof a ship at sea:"There was a as the script and a fogbell in theharbor.Thetidewas demanded, fog,just the holes in the in,and it washed underus and around, spraying through the us and the the flavor of sea" floor, giving rhythm (254). As Glaspell "the people who had seen the plays, and the people who gave indicates,

525

Patrick J.Chura were adventurers werepartof thePlayers." them, together.The spectators What thespectators saw was"a kindofrealism and naturalism unexplored on theAmericanstage"(Pfister 109), a new typeof dramawith a focus on the working-class subject as its crucial element.In the play,Kemp "we heard the actual recalls, speech of men who go to sea; we sharedthe of theirlives;we feltthe motion and windy, wave beaten urge of reality a ship" (96). For the Provincetown thatO'Neill's asgroup,the play confirmed of theoutward markers of thelaboringclass-a classidentificasumption dubious-was not shallow or exteriorbut deep, tion previously judged and to move middle-class audiences.Whilethe visceral, genuineenough playwright's adopted sailor'sclothingwas certainly partof the equation, what impressed the group about O'Neill had more to do with the illusion thatthisplayfostered-the creationof a formof sharedexperience betweenthe classes. Several criticshave viewed the play as a turningpoint in theater and the long-term collaboration betweenO'Neill and the Provhistory, thatbegan withthisplayas a milestone in the developincetownPlayers mentofAmericandrama.15The artistic merits of the workstemfromits under treatment of emotions lower-class conditions and its plausible tragic dialect. accuraterendering ofworking-class As Pfister has noted,O'Neill's lifein the stifling forecastle depictionof the lonelylasthoursof a sailor's the lower class life and the idiom to American "brought stage" (109). The play'ssetting, with considered O'Neill's self-identification as a along what Reed and common seaman,suggests the correspondence between "Jig"Cook termed"nativeart" (qtd. in Glaspell 252) and radicalsocial theory. among Consideringthe receptionof O'Neill's earlysubjectmatter but also the wharftheater not only the Provincetown audience, players the playgoingexperienceas describedby Glaspellindicatesthe waysin which O'Neill's dramasatisfied the needs of a middle classseekingselfvalidationin the laboringclass.Eric Schocket describesthisprocessas "middleclassangstcuredby proletarian pain" (121), a formof whichwas of O'Neill's inherent also in the Paterson recollections Pageant.Glaspell's in of the are similar to famous accounts curiously vocabulary premier emotionaleffect of the pageant:"It is not merelyfigurative language to shook withapplause.... I have neversatbeforea more saythe old wharf theplay'scatharsis movingproduction"(254). Like the PatersonPageant,

526

Class Working EugeneO'Neill andthe of itsaesthetic would have been a joint function powerand itsrole in alformof"vital contact." lowing the audience to experiencea substitute of livesis Thus O'Neill's propitious sailor's merging garbwithsailors' in It indicate his first foothold that, gaining problematic. may professional in Provincetown, O'Neill presagedand intentionally accommodatedhis audience's desireto formlower-classaffiliations. It may suggestthatat thisstage of his career, O'Neill genuinelyaccepted certainpremisesof It maymean thathe "vital contact"as an ideal formof classinteraction. did both.In any case,Glaspell'sobservation that"The sea has been good to Eugene O'Neill. It was thereforhis opening" (254) asserts the central of the sailor's world-the locus of the author's importance personalencounterwith the lower classes-among O'Neill's distinguishing artistic innovations. An equallyimportant but rarely considered documentfrom O'Neill's early career is the unpublishedand unperformed play "The Personal one of first dramatic O'Neill's efforts, Equation," completed about the same time he wrote"Bound East,"or about one yearbeforehis arrival in Provincetown. This play suggests the degree to which O'Neill, from in the politicalmeaning the inceptionof his career, had been interested and psychological effects The centralcharacter of cross-class interaction. is Tom Perkins, a middle-class college dropoutwho has become a radical labor activist as a memberof the International Workersof the Earth Described O'Neill as "a broken-down (IWE). by college boy" (9), the in is several a of the protagonist ways self-portrait youngO'Neill (Floyd 90). Tom's experience in the play is similarto O'Neill's: he is the same and he shipsas age as O'Neill would have been in theplay's1911 setting, a stoker on an ocean linerand witnesses a for preparations generalstrike in Liverpool,as O'Neill did in his first sea voyage.Like the middle-class radicalsat Paterson, Tom has troublefinding a tenablepositionon either side of the classwar.The labor activist Enwrightnotes thathe "isn'tour Tom's motivesto eitherhis love forthe beautiful type"(8) and attributes fellowradicalOlga or a puerile combinationof"curiosity" and "craving foradventure." When the playopens,Tom is the pictureof vacillating radicalcommitment. Among the radicalsof the IWE, as O'Neill's stage directions "His manneris one of boyishly naive enthusiasm with a certain indicate, note of defiancecreepingin as ifhe were fighting an inwardembarrassment and was determinedto live it down" (8). Tom's love forOlga has

527

Patrick Chura J. led himintotheinner circle oftheIWE, where he is informed that the to use himin a project willinvolve that a risk ofimorganization plans or death. He nevertheless the a as prisonment accepts assignment wayof the of his labor-class commitment to himself andto Olga. proving depth Whenhe learns that thescheme involves thedynamiting oftheengine roomoftheSS San Francisco, thevery is second shipon whichhisfather he still does not hesitate. The climactic moment theplay of engineer, Tom in his father a confrontation over control of the pits against engine HereTom's father holdsatbaya crowd ofstrikers led byhisson, room.16 who is intent on smashing theship's to whichtheelder Perkins engines, feels a strong Perkins is thus forced to choose between his attachment.17 lovefor theengines andhislovefor hisson.When he wounds hissonin defense oftheengines, he demonstrates hisallegiance to capitalist industrial and purposes capitalist-defined aspirations. The play's final sceneis in a hospital weeks after theincident.A doctorexplains to Perkins and Olga that themaimed Tomwillprobably be "likea childfortherest ofhislife"(69). Ironically, Perkins hasreceived a promotion to chief forthestand he tookagainst thestrikengineer he explains to Olga thathe never intended to harm Tom. ers,though warhasbroken outinEurope, andthe"great radical leaders" Meanwhile, therevolution in orderto "crushGerman (74) havedecidedto forgo "blind fools" her (75) andexpresses militarism."Though Olga callsthem faith in social she withdraws from the radical revolution, lasting personally in order movement tobecome Tom'scaretaker, andthemother of nurse, Tom'schild, withwhich sheis pregnant. Attheplay's theprincipal close, characters arereconciled-Tom and Olga as conventional husband and and Tom and Perkins as father and son. will all live wife, They together in thecomfortable middle-class homethat was to be Perkins's wedding toTomandOlga-the homethat, as O'Neill indicates, hadbeen present for them all "meant" (70) along. In "The Personal the finalreconciliation of the three Equation," conflicts that hadalienated them beliesthesocialandpolitical principals from eachother, thedownward that affiliations ofradicals are suggesting as as a need for fulfillment that after available is, all, only deep personal within theparameters ofa bourgeois realizes society. Olga,forexample, that she loves Tom morethanshe does theclasswarand embraces the traditional socialroles ofmother and caretaker. Tomdisguises himself as
a workerand rejectsthe bourgeois moral code, but because of deeper

528

Class Working EugeneO'Neill andthe commitments within his own classmilieu, he is lessthancompletely viable as a revolutionary. A similar areapparent in the history and classtrajectory development of the PatersonPageantand JohnReed, who claimed thathe belonged returned to the comforts of the leiamong the workersbut ultimately sureclass. Tom's politicsand the actionsof Reed were motivated, at least in part,by "curiosity," a for and desire to adventure," "craving impress a woman who took the side of social revolution. Referringto Tom's "he was doing it only forme" (71). Afterhis radicalism, Olga remarks, have activout,Tom'srevolutionary complex impulses playedthemselves an becomes as of his real desires and ity recognizable only approximation commitments. permanent It is interesting to note that Perkins's30-year love for his ship's while capitalist-produced enginesis validatedby the play'sdenouement, with radicalsis belittled. Tom's affiliation At the end of the play, when what war sees the has done to she class Tom, Olga profusely apologizes both to him and to his father forleadinghim into the conflict. Considthat the crux of the divisionbetweenTom and Perkinshad been ering one of classaffiliation-asTom argues, "you'rein one world and I'm in another"-O'Neill's play ultimately affirms the superiority not only of familialties but of innate,intrinsic class loyalties over those formedin to the extrinsic ofradicalism.The downresponse ideologicalpromptings classeris physically maimed,and the ideals of labor activism are,though not fully to whatarepositionedas deeperpsychic subordinated dismissed, love and familial affiliation. This dialecticessenpromptings-romantic describes radicalism and tially class-transgressing ideology as temporary and ineffectual for the genuine psychologicalneeds of the substitutes middle class. Not until 1922, with The Hairy Ape, would O'Neill develop an inof cross-class relations that the splitbetweenthe reveals terpretation fully of seaman and between the personae playwright, sailor-poetwho both assumed and acted upon the abilityto translate perceptionacross class boundaries and the more deeply questioningartist who perceivedthe of In disablingparadoxes downclassing expeditions. The HairyApe, the contactbetweenclassesintended to result in mutualunderstanding is presentedas a violentconfrontation thatproducesonlyheightened suffering and alienationon both sides of the class divide.The unmistakable apex of the play'sdramaticaction is a harrowing cross-class encounter-the

529

Patrick J.Chura face-to-facemeetingbetween Mildred Douglas, a self-absorbed social a workeron slumming andYank,a powerful, expedition, hairy-chested, coal-blackened from meaningof theplayderives engineroom stoker.The the confusionthatoccurs in Yank's sense of selfas a resultof Mildred's into the stokeholels-anintrusion intrusion thatepitomizesa potentially harmful and adventuresocial transaction basic to both reform-driven driven "vitalcontact." The play's opening scene presentslife in the cramped stokehole, where"the ceilingcrushesdown on the men's heads" (121) and the atworkerssuggestbeastsin a cage, titudesof the stooping,proto-simian white steel." As the action "imprisonedby begins,Yankhas achieved a a positionmorefulfilling modusvivendiwithinthe capitalist than system, Mildred'semptyposing as a sinceresocial reformer. As the"most highly to the forecastle,Yank represents developed individual"in the fireman's in the what workers last word stokehole "a self-expression, very they to the stokehole and refers are."Yankis the authority among the stokers of as "home" (124). He is self-aggrandizing, givento outbursts arrogant, him a and he in his to cause the to exults ship move,giving rage, ability As he sees it,he is a servant of the formof controloverhis environment. him: but the also to start "I somepin and ship'sengine, engine responds the woild moves" (128).Yank has achievedwhat Maria Miliora refers to sense of selfthatenableshim to as "self-cohesiveness" (415), a sustaining and withina milieu to which he has adapted both physically function Yank's sense of central construct of well-being emotionally.The enabling men dan "We're better is a beliefthathe is superiorto the upper classes. de whole "One of us could clean are" asserts: (125),Yank guys up dey Yank's mob wit one mit.... Dem boids don't amountto nothin."While what terms his and to the world Miliora relation to labor mayexemplify "feelsrelatively cohea "blissful (419), he nevertheless fantasy" grandiose needs are met by his social milieu" (418). sive ... because his selfobject comes from The first assaultonYank'scohesiveness Long,the socialwho attempts to induceYank to embraceclass consciousness ist activist his experiencein the vocabularyof the classwar.Calling by blanketing "Comrades" (125) who have been made "wage slaves"by the stokers as a way damned socialist "the clarss," terminology Long offers Capitalist But Yank his Yank's relation to environment. of superficially reordering bull" that oflaboras "Salvation Army-Socialist Long'stheorization rejects he has heard before.His responseemphasizestwo points.First, Long's

530

Class Working EugeneO'Neill andthe because it respondsverballyrather view involvesa loss of masculinity to materialconditions: "Talk is cheap,"Long is told,and thanphysically "the job" that"takes a man" is what "belongs." Under Yank's direction, Long is called cowardly and reminded that"we don't need no . one cryin' over us . .Makin' speeches" (128). Second, Long's socialism involvesan unwelcome recognitionof the inherentpowerlessness of the laboring class-a cancellationofYank's fantasy of cohesiveness: hell! We run de whole woiks" (129).Yank'scontemptforLong's "Slaves, outlook therefore stemsfromits implicitdenial of his superiorrelation to thehigher-ups on the social scale.Revealingly, Long failsto influence Yank because his"talk"is insufficient to induceYank to contemplate an interconnected relation betweentheupperand lowerclasses: "What'sdem slobs in the foistcabin got to do wit us?" (125). Later in scene 1, the IrishmanPaddy attempts to awakenYank to anotheressential feature of modern working-class life-alienation from contactwith a naturalenvironment as a result of technological progress. describesthe now-numbereddaysof sailingvessels, Paddy nostalgically when "men belongedto ships... a shipwas partof thesea,and a man was and made it one" (126). part of the ship,and the sea joined all together Yank's responseis to claim an identity thathe admitsis "new stuff" but no less he because feels himself a partof apparently spiritually satisfying the engines.Not needing the wind and the sun to which Paddy refers, Yank resolvesto "eat up the coal dust"and dismisses Paddy as he does and he don't" state of (128).ThusYank's Long:"I belong being in scene 1 in a manufactured allowshim both to function and to be a "man" security to himself-an insular one but tenable asposition, enough to withstand saultsfrom withinhis own class. Scene 2 introducesand describesMildred Douglas, a "bored" dothe"morbid gooder who has been playingat social work,experiencing thrills of social service"(131) on New York'sLower East Side, and who is attempting to use her influenceas the daughter of a steelmagnateto arrangea tourof the ship'sstokeholein orderto "see how the otherhalf lives." Mildredis now on herway to Englandon a journeyherauntrefers to as a "slumminginternational." Like Yank, she is outwardly arrogant about the position-a credentialed workerforsocial reform-thatshe has achievedwithinher own milieu,but her"superiority" (130) is "discontented"and "disdainful" even towardher formidable aunt. The conversation between the two women on the promenadedeck

531

Patrick J.Chura a strongly viewofMildred andindirectly ofthemotives suggests cynical of the female settlement workers who wereconspicuous in theplay's the early-twentieth-century setting. Effectively foreshadowing transaction between Mildred andYank, theauntstates, "How they must havehated the the that in made so much you,by way, poor you poorer their eyes" thusderives from theaunt's that thetypeof (131). Conflict perception socialworkpracticed is actually a form ofpredation on the byMildred lowerclasses. Mildred's claims of her aunt Despite sincerity, scornfully refers to heras "artificial" and a "poser" in (130) in hersocialconcern herexpressed desire to find a "newthrill" and"touch life" the byvisiting stokehole. Described to thenatural environment by O'Neill in relation and disharmonious." ofthesea,Mildred is"incongruous ... inert As the directions Mildred's for and indicate, sincerity stage possibilities empathy havebeen"bredout of her"by an effete classwithneither nor vitality class whoseostensibly ameliorative deefforts integrity-a onlyfurther gradethepoor. The crucialmoment of theplayis the brief scene3 but intense in thestokehole confrontation between Mildred andYank.Duringthis Yank"feelshimself O'Neill's stagedirections indicate that encounter, in someunknown in thevery insulted fashion heart ofhispride"(137). In general the effect on is twofold: it himpainfully Yank "makes terms, and suddenly awareof hissocialinferiority conscious of hisinadequaIn ciesas a human fathom to 241). attempting being"(Floyd particulars in which Yankis victimized aboutthemanner we ascertain byMildred, essentials abouttheclass as O'Neill pictured it atthepeakof relationship withtheProvincetown hiscreative association Players. exAs thenumerous disdainful allusions to Mildred as a "skoit" (for of at the issues bothclass andgender are coreofthe ample142) confirm, encounter.The that hisidentity, andwhichYank ship's engine givesYank is in theprocess ofservicing as Mildred is notonlyfigured as intrudes, is "she" the focus of tumultuous but also feminine, activity unequivocally bears sexualact-a fact that connotations ofa frenzied insistently strong exhortations to "pilesomegrubin her... indicated byYank's repeated her ... her ... itinto trow it into open up! belly! letherhaveit!... sling her!"(135). For herpart, Mildred seekscontact withthelowerclasses in order to enhance hersocialservice credentials butas a renotsimply sublimated sexualdesires. to psychological deficiencies including sponse to touch She enters thestokehole becauseshe"wouldliketo be sincere,

532

Class EugeneO'Neill andthe Working lifesomewhere"(131). When the anemic,pale,"slender, delicate" (130) Mildredappearsdressed in white, she seemsan attenuated feminine entity, one whose vitality has been "sapped beforeshe was conceived."She lacks sexual energyof the kind thatflowsnaturally from Yank and permeates In thestokehole,Yank's his everymovement. "naked and shameless" (137) is appallingto Mildred.Having been interrupted in his furimasculinity ous and sexuallychargedstokingof the engine,Yankturnsa gaze upon Mildredthatis physically and suggestive of sexualpenetration. At menacing themoment of their "he glares intohereyes, turned to stone... interaction, his eyesbore into her." As O'Neill indicates, her"whole personality" is "crushed"in the stokehole. That the symbolicrapeYank enactsdestroys both him and her-that theirvictimization is mutual-is a figurative indicationof the depth of effect and potentialtraumathat,as O'Neill could be comprehended transacrealized, undoubtedly by the cross-class an tion, exchange thatcould not but reproduceseveraltypesof psychic and social power disparities-for which rape is an apt metaphor. This relationis further emphasized by the surrounding group of who witness the Yank-Mildred encounter and sense a deep workers, emotionalparleybetween them.Paddy taunts Yank with having"fallen in love" with Mildred.Yank retorts, "Love, Hell! Hate, dat's what. I've fallenin hate,get me?" Paddy'sremark that"Twould takea wise man to tellone from the other"elucidates thepotentially ambivalent destructive, at the centerof cross-class contact. relationship Robert J.Andreachtheorizes Concerning thisbipolar classrelation, thatYank feelslove forMildredbecause she has"descendedintohisworld to awaken him.As he awakenshis love changesto hatredbecause she him" (53). By herverypresence, MildredawakensYank to thepurrejects of life labor-class withoutoffering therealchanceof anything poselessness After the encounter, as Andreachpointsout,Yank's higher. fury "changes fromthatof a spurnedlover to thatof a betrayed His quest is questor." a searchforidentity promptedby the complex awakeningor awareness arousedby Mildred.Yank is bewildered since he cannotunderstand what motivates and why she would Mildred,what she seeksin the stokehole, awakenhim to a reality thanhimself: "I don'tgether.She's new to higher me.What does a skoitlike her mean,huh?"(142).Yank cannotknow that in seeking"reality" Mildred is drivenby the same need forcohesiveness thatcompels him.The "reality" she seeks through a downclassing foray eludes her,and she is insteaddeeplyharmedby her awareness of Yank.

533

Patrick J.Chura That relations betweenlaborerand downclasser are inevitably destructive the underscores waysthatdownclassing are not exemptfromthe forays thatcreateclassdisparity in the first identicalpower relations place. While Mildred's intrusioninto the stokehole stages the disabling it is not the only example of psychologically paradox of "vital contact," contactin the drama. The playmaybe viewed as a cross-class disruptive with draseriesof calculatedtrespassings of classboundaries, punctuated thatare recognizable as paradigms in the maticsituations of social conflict era in which O'Neill wrote.Scene 5 findsYank and Long on NewYork's Fifth where"the adornments of extreme wealthare tantalizingly Avenue, Yank In contrast and and are to his (144) "trespassers." displayed" Long he which describes as "too clean and and dolled quiet up" surroundings, in "dirty dressed as a stoker unshaven, (145),Yank is coveredin coal dust, cap.Yankadmitsthathe seeks another dungarees"(144) and a fireman's encounterwith Mildred's"kind" (145) in orderto "get even with her." Yank to socialist Throughoutthe scene,Long again triesto indoctrinate ideals and which are summarily vocabulary, political rejectedbyYank: "Votes forwomen ...Force, dat'sme!" (147).Though thereis cross-class hereas in scene 2, thereis no interaction betweenYankand juxtaposition is not downwardbut upward. the rich because the barriertransgression of thestokehole and onto Fifth The changein setting--out Avenue-enables the upper-class (147) to remainoblivious to "gaudy marionettes" Yank's presence.Even directphysicalcontactbetweenYank and a "fat (149) is "as ifnothinghas happened." gentleman" of the Industrial Workers of theWorld Scene 7 is located at a chapter "Can't yousesee nearthe city's waterfront.Yank seeksmembership, asking I belong?" Yank's interaction here is not with anotherworkerbut with For a radicalintellectual whose politicscome fromthe IWW manifesto. and the contrast the real workerthisis anotherupwardclassencounter, betweenYank and the secretary in spoken dialectand social philosophy is nearlyas pronounced as that encounteredon FifthAvenue. In an of the worker a basic lack of understanding exchange thatunderscores Yank's desire to "fix tings"(158) through class, among the intellectual violence and sabotageis viewed as a "wrongslant" secretary. by the IW\XW IWW determination the Yank is,however, literally espoused onlytaking direct action" of societyby legitimate "to changethe unequal conditions with Mildred. and seekinga concretesolutionin orderto "square tings" and intellectually toYank'ssubreacts The IWW official bureaucratically

534

Class EugeneO'Neill andthe Working

anarchism andto hisexpectation ofanti-industrial action, jective wrongly thatYank is an "agent Avenue (159).IftheFifth concluding provocator" see Yank at to the IWW see Yank to for fail all, fails capitalists secretary whathe is. The play's final sceneportrays an encounter between Yank and a in "the house the of Zoo" Mildred's (160).Whereas cagedgorilla monkey downward intrusion into Yank's realm had destroyedYank's self-concept and"crushed" the"personality" of theslumming "Yank's inreformer, trusion intotheworldin whichthegorilla is kingalsobrings abouthis destruction" between thetwoscenes (Ranald281).The affinity physical is explicit: at thegorilla,Yank "I wasyouto her"(161). remarks, looking it is onlyin theplay's interactions and class Significantly, downclassing barrier that real action and interaction are transgressions psychological entrance into the like descent precipitated.Yank's gorilla's cage, Mildred's into Yank's underscores theintruder's failure to countenance stokehole, thetruecondition ofthe"primitive" andalleges theproduction ofinjuriousrageand confusion within theintrusion's this is subject. Arguably, thecentral oftheplay, anditis theproblem ofall class-crossing problem efforts as O'Neill has come to understand themthroughout his early drama and up to TheHairy the that marks his last Ape, play productive association with theProvincetown under and Cook'sleadership group Jig theculmination ofO'Neill'searly career. Placedwithin itshistorical TheHairy be understood context, Apemay as O'Neill'sdrastic reevaluation ofbothhisadventurous downpersonal ethos and of the reform-driven "vital contact" endemic to the classing 1910s the "the disorientplay's setting.Throughoutplay,Yank experiences of therapidly socialenvironment of early twentieth ingaffects shifting America" whichboth"progressive" social (Miliora century 416),among and "drastic distinctions in social class" are crucial.This ideology ideology is exemplified worker with"social by Mildred Douglas,thesettlement service credentials." Mildred anarmy stands for ofmiddleandupper-class womenwho worked in settlement houses andstrived for socialprogress contact with lower-class In life. The through philanthropic Hairy Ape,the socialist to this multitude whenhe warns,"There's a 'ole mob Longrefers of'em likeher, Gawdblind'em." In interviews hisearly O'Neill hadoften relied on career, throughout to the of his in and art, "progressive" suppositions express purpose doing so he had voiceda socialtheory to that whichmotivates quitesimilar

535

Patrick Chura J. Mildred Douglas to visit the stokehole (see for example Bird). But as O'Neill meticulously exploresthe classparadoxesof the earlytwentieth centuryin The HairyApe, he seriouslyquestionsthe basic preceptsof of the drama.In The thatunderliethe historical "social progress" setting forces become social agentsof a harmful progressive Hairy Ape,ostensibly and Mildred'sinassaulton lower-class Primarily throughYank selfhood. an thus us "ironic in scene 3, TheHairy teraction disfiguration" Ape gives but not a pattern of progression of the concept of progress, "dramatizing of regression" (Zapf 36).Yank theworkerbecomes "a mereobject of the which were historical process, being imprisonedin the verystructures alienated and must him" we serve intended to add,being and, originally by personified "understanding" destroyed by the process of cross-class Mildredin the stokehole. historian The Hairy In waysthatilluminate T.J.Jackson Ape, cultural and of the settlement Lears has analyzedthe central movement, goals of of which Mildredis a repfocusedsocial serviceefforts the downwardly foundedby thewaysin which the movement Lears describes resentative. life" a "fuller for to create its with attempts workers, factory JaneAddams, and intense class for more of her own the experience longings "paralleled was in a way a projectionof those longings"(80). As Lears notes,"The at the recoil fromovercivilized pervaded the ethos of reform gentility theirown lives,reformers Determined to revitalize turnof the century. lives as well."As became convinced theycould revitalize working-class to shareexperiencewithlower classes thishappened,the focusof efforts from socialjustice to personalfulfillment." "began to shift of as "a key momentin the re-formation thisshift Lears identifies that dissects it a shift O'Neill and is cultural hegemony"(80), capitalist Addams in The HairyApe with painstaking precision.If,as Lears asserts, to the themselves to accommodate and herfollowers "began unwittingly of"uncin an attitude of resulting system organized capitalism," corporate is reflected versionof such an attitude an exaggerated tuouspaternalism," in Mildred.Her manipulationof capitalist by drawing power relations in orderto acquire access to the stokehole as a millionaire on her status withmodernindustrial to as a "compromise whatLearsrefers epitomizes of the most relevant this For at ... analysis, key points"(81). capitalism into lower-class these compromisesis that of treating forays voluntary as Mildred does in conditionsas "a source of therapeutic revitalization," Under O'Neill's control, pursuingher desireto "touch lifesomewhere."

536

Class Working EugeneO'Neill andthe

is transformed defeat for interaction into a crushing such therapeutic Mildred's ethic ofsocialprogress. In TheHairy thestark alienation oflower-class Ape,O'Neill suggests not as mitigated existence butas exacerbated and viewsthisalienation At the Hull House LaborMuseum, as Lears intrusions. by upper-class learned thehistorical and industrial workers oftheir notes, significance have that a role in their ultimately played legitimizing jobs-a process may an awareness inYankof what FromMildred, who creates exploitation. a similarly he actually doesin theshipandwho he actually is,Yank gains The of ambivalent identical ambivalence which effect, self-knowledge. and seems to attend both real fictional of classrepresentations persistently in theperiod, thatof thePaterson crossing including Pageant-which the "exhibited" and destitute workers on stageof an opulent starving while harmto the strike pleasure irreparable capitalist palace causing in TheHairy itself-isby O'Neill bothconcretized and corrected Ape. and innovative aboutO'Neill's method of interaction Whatis striking classes is notsimply that itportrays an impossibility ofsynthesis between and downclassers but that "vitalcontact" between workers becomesa and with the workers' force, pernicious malignant incompatible subjective needs. into in Long Night By thetimeO'Neill beganwriting Day'sJourney not onlythe ineluctable harmof 1939,he seemsto haveunderstood like Mildred's cross-class interventions but also a potentially injurious his and adventure-driven oversimplification underlying own youthful In acts3 and 4 of thisplay, Edmund es"vitalcontact." Tyrone clearly the social theories of the while Edmund's O'Neill, pouses young Eugene father thesocialconclusions Tyrone James just as persuasively expresses reached this bythemature playwright.19 ReadingEdmund waysuggests that theEugeneO'Neill oftheearly 1910shad imbibed a spirit ofclass that his in colored of class interaction idealistic antagonism perceptions shades. LikeO'Neill in 1912, Edmund hasrecently from a slumreturned adventure at sea where he has his health while ming apparently damaged a rudimentary socialist class consciousness. In act4 ofLong forming Day's thesocially Edmundextols effects ofhis"vitalconJourney, productive it hasenabled that himto relate moresympathetically to tact," claiming hisfather:
foundout what hardwork and littlepay was,and what it felt

sinceI wentto sea andwason myown,and God,Papa,ever

537

Patrick J.Chura like to be broke, and starve, and camp on parkbenchesbecause I had no place to sleep,I've triedto be fairto you because I knew as a kid. what you'd been up against (109) Tyronerealizes,however,thathis own childhood had been essentially different fromEdmund'sadventures-"There was no damned romance its in our poverty"-and asserts thereis no way Edmund can understand actual consequences: The You said you realizedwhat I'd been up againstas a boy. hell you do! .. .You've had food,clothing. Oh, I know you had a flingof hardworkwithyourback and hands,a bit of being in a foreign homelessand penniless land.... But it was a game.... It was play. (110) ordeal and AlthoughEdmund expressesnostalgiafor his self-imposed as in its views effects, Edmund's temporary Tyrone downclassing pride "a game of romance and adventure"(146-47). Tyrone'schildhood in enableshim to discernthe pretense of his son'svolunauthentic poverty offers a Edmund's brother also perceptive taryprivation. Jamie appraisal thatalthoughEdmund has "had the gutsto go offon when he remarks to live his own" (35), he "alwayscame home broke finally," presumably of "vitalcontact"-reflective his father. Edmund'scrude theorization off of a period when O'Neill's classviews were at an embryonic stage-is thusframed with ironicrejoinders. forthevaluesof his own classand his comBut Edmund'scontempt to Long the workingclassare as central to share with experience pulsion as theyare to O'Neill's earlyart. The two key crisesof the Day's ourney into addiction and the diagnosisof drama-Mary's relapse morphine results ofEdmund'sdownclassing Edmund'sconsumption-are the direct The dramaunfoldson the veryday he and the otherTyrones adventure. excursionbefore learn the physical price of the young man'sslumming of "workinghisway all overthe mapsas a sailor... the"stunt" the mast, dives,drinkingrotgut"(35). Edmund's "ruined health" living in filthy (33) is attributed by Tyroneto the "mad life"he has led "ever since he fromcollege"-a lifecenteredaroundformative was fired downclassing the of the As in The downclassing Hairy Ape, consequences experiences. not of reform-oriexcursionare utterly negative.That theyare the result male counterpart ented female"vital contact"but its adventure-driven assertion thatwiththisplayO'Neill "renouncedthe Alexander's supports

538

Class Working EugeneO'Neill andthe

that involved a severe ideasofhisyears ofrevolt" 61),a process (Tempering ofhisownandhisgeneration's impulse. downclassing questioning claimed his"realstart as a dramatist" camewhen that O'Neill often he "gotoutofan academy sea" andamong on the men, (qtd.in Downes forwithout hissailor's 10).This seemscredible, jerseyand sailor's plays it is unlikely that he wouldhaverealized theimportant acprofessional of in and like-minded Provceptance encouragement experimentalists Provincetowners incetown.The "embraced and O'Neill,encouraged him, him to articulate his and (Gelb 315).Temhelped crystallize philosophy" itis notfar to Provincetown andideologically, from thePaterson porally andso another involves the bythis Pageant, supported analysis conjecture Reed'sPaterson as an artistic influintriguing centrality ofJohn Pageant ence.Cosgrove hasnoted that the"association ofworker andintellectual" first formed "became a at Paterson traditional and crucial influence (265) inAmerica."This onWorkers Theatre influence hasbeenunderestimated, the into canonical drama ofEugeneO'Neill and undeniably extending thebeginnings ofAmerican theater atProvincetown,justifying therecognition ofthepageant as a meaningful event inAmerican literary history. Itis to O'Neill'scredit that hisdrama a internalizabespeaks growing hisacceptance tionofthelessons ofPaterson, andthat after atProvincehe went on to question thevery class that that town facilitated philosophy it be Pfister While as has O'Neill's that true, asserted, acceptance. may oftheworking class us lessabouttheactual work"tells representation for ing class... thanaboutwhatO'Neill wantedthisclassto signify him"(114),there is a qualitative difference theact ofescorting between a middle-class audienceintotheforecastle to experience thepathos of a common in"BoundEastforCardiff" seaman's death and escorting an audience intothestokehole fortheharrowing encounter between Mildred and the ape." Douglas "hairy of O'Neill's early The Lookingat the development playsthrough it easier to understand father Hairy Apemakes whyEdmund's James Tyronegetsthecondemnatory lastwordon hisson'sslumming adventures in Long doesnotsimply a indicate Tyrone's Day'sJourney. persuasiveness in O'Neill'sattitude toward "vital contact" oran acknowledgment change oftheimpermeable nature It is also a ringing ofclassbarriers. recognithe"gameof romance and adventure" tionthat involves consequences moreharmful eventhan Edmund's on bothsides oftheclass tuberculosis,
divide.

539

Patrick Chura J.

Notes
1. Lendley Blackhasdated thephotograph from before O'Neill arrived 1911, in Provincetown the locates however, Pfister, (n.pag.).Joel photoin Provincetownandoffers the"late1910s" as itsdate(9).The exactlocation ofthephoto class identifiis notcrucial, butitsemphatic indication ofO'Neill'sbifurcated cation is central to myessay. 2. Harry that thePlayers identified O'Neill as middle class. easily Kemprecalls was at first O'Neill "had been a it said" the were sailor, (96), Players Though newmember's ofhisfuture worth to "dubious oftheir anddoubtful ability the a book of one-act but them" O'Neill showed (95).When group plays also that he had them this "did not forfor himself, materially acknowledged paid a while O'Neill have looked like claims that wardhiscase." vagaKemp may he wasactually still thegroup wasaware that bondworker, supported byhis and shelter who senthima small father, allowance, "enoughto keephimunder alive"(97). "The wascalled 3.The first to theProvincetown playO'Neill offered group finances an American filmmaker who a MovieMan,"a one-act about play itsbattles. remembers the Mexicanrevolution for thesakeoffilming Kemp andfull ofpreposterous hokum" bad,trite (96).See also playas"frightfully Loftus Ranald 506. Margaret as an unskilled and 4. From1888to 1894,NellieBlydisguised herself worker andfactories, numerous madewell-publicized intosweatshops forays inspiring excurIn themid-1890s, imitators. Cranemadecelebrated Stephen incognito numerous sketches" sionsintotheNewYork slums, "city including producing of in Misery," whichdetailed thetemporary transformation "An Experiment In a or "hobo" of the a middle-class into "bum" 1899, Josiah Bowery. youth ofstudies andsketches of with a collection Flynt published Tramping Tramps, Hutchins in and the United States. life" Russia,Western Europe, "vagabond into madefrequent a Harvard and Globe forays reporter, graduate Hapgood, in 1902 The the Ghetto and thelower and"criminal" classes, of publishing Spirit a in 1903. in contributed The Also London 1903,Jack of Thief Autobiography field of"down-and-outer" chronicles. to thecrowded ofthe Abyss People Lee Simonson is widely to 5. Harvard andradical socialist believed student in 1908, usein print sobutitsrepeated havecoinedtheterm byPrinceton entitled The in an 1896nonfiction narrative Walter Wyckoff ciology professor the inReality contradicts this Workers:An notion.Wyckoff explained Experiment into himself as a laborer andvoluntarily for motivation descending disguising I hadthought, me intovital conlife: wouldat once bring lowerclass "Poverty,

540

Eugene O'Neill and theWorkingClass

A. Rosenstone attributes the Robert tact withthevery poor"(1: 16). Historian as Stansell: "The of the to does Christine term Simonson, phrase origcoinage Lee Simonson" inated dissident withtheHarvard (Stansell 355).Bothscholars in in an article in the 1908 Harvard locatetheterm's Advocate, January origin their whichSimonson "excoriated bothstudents andfaculty for indifference to themodern andthevital forces to change theproblems world striving racking it"(Rosenstone Simonson usedtheterm 43).Actually onlyonce in thearticle, innovative intotheuniversity's dramatic to refer to theneedto introduce plays thus theschool "intovital contact withallthat is significant repertory, bringing ifonlyby in modern drama." Reed gavethephrase a wider John significance, in hisunpublished 1912essay "Harvard RenaisSimsonson, directly quoting theterm sance." Reed applied as part ofa broadpolitical discussion that called in socialism for a morerelevant curriculum that wouldinclude courses and theschoolinto"vital contact" withtheclass struggle. bring 6.Whilenotreferring to"vital A. Robinsonnotes contact" that byname,James whenO'Neill "repudiated ... thevalues hisparents ofthemiddle-class lifestyle ... he unwittingly a latenineteenth-century strove to maintain followed parabehavior" (96). digmofmasculine 7. IWW leader Elizabeth described thepageant as"themost Gurley Flynn in thelasthalf beautiful andrealistic of art that has been on example put stage in Nochlin the "a event the ofradicalls pageant major (215). century" history cal theater ... stunningly effective as drama, andpolitical spectacle propaganda" hassuggested that the"mammoth LouisSheaffer (67).Morerecently, pageant" was"perhaps in theGarden" themost event ever (435).Stuart stirring staged cites the7 June1913 dateofthePaterson as"thefirst Pageant Cosgrove significant datein thehistory oftwentieth American Workers Theatre" century Stansell "an attraction observes that thepageant to (265).Christine epitomized and'political' art" that "wouldhenceforth runthrough modern, 'revolutionary' American audiences andartists their to advertise culture, leading enlightened with solidarities 'thepeople'"(150). 8. Reed hasbeencalledthe"Byronic hero"(Kazin216) ofpre-World WarI in Mosradicalism. From hisparticipation at Paterson in 1913until hisdeath cow in 1920,Reed "sincerely an imaginative desired withworkers intimacy and peasants ... a passionate identification withtheoppressed" (Leach33). AsWalter BatesRideoutargues, Reed was"theprototype oftheadventurous young who refused American intellectual a vagabond, to be simply who for withtheworking class, gaveup all hismiddle-class solidarity advantages who evensacrificed hislifeto theRevolution" Reed'sactions (127).Praising in laborconflicts at Paterson andLudlowandin later revolutions in political

541

Chura Patrick J. MexicoandMoscow, leftist leader MichaelGold hadreverently proclaimed that "there wasno gapbetween Reed andtheworkers (154). Jack anylonger" thePaterson that vowed "wouldnever images pass Among UptonSinclair from "with his Reed as pageant director, (263) wasthat [his] memory" ofJohn rolled a those who were shirt sleeves up,shouting through megaphone, drilling as captains ofthemass." to serve 9.AlongwithReed andGeorgeCram"Jig" listincludes Robert Cook,this the and several who the sets for Paterson of Edmund designed Jones, Pageant The O'Neill'sProvincetown HeatonVorse, plays, including Hairy Ape.Mary MabelDodge,Floyd Ida Rauh,Hutchins SusanGlaspell, Dell,Max Eastman, in were at Paterson andinvolved and also Kemp present Hapgood, Harry Provincetown. ofthefriendship Reed and O'Neill, 10.The mostdetailed account between in 1914,is provided andBarbara whichbeganin Greenwich Village byArthur that O'Neill mayactually haveaccompanied Reed Gelb.TheGelbsspeculate abouttheMexicanRevoluto Mexicoin 1914whileReed wasreporting in fact, O'Neill evergotto tionfortheMetropolitan, "Whether, concluding, In Reed and admired each Mexico ... is a riddle" O'Neill case, (263). any first in 1914: was with from their "Reed enchanted other [O'Neill's] meeting hisadventures at sea,andhismoodycharm. O'Neill stories ofhiswildyouth, withReed" (262). wasequally taken in the that O'Neill hadwitnessed or shared 11.Thisis notto suggest directly thepageant tookplaceon 7 June1913,O'Neill had Paterson Pageant.When earlier from the a playandhadbeendischarged onlyfour days yetto write in where Farm he had Sanatorium Connecticut, spent Gaylord Wallingford, treatment for five months under tuberculosis. from thepageant 12.As several historians haveasserted,"the publicity gained Gurwaspurchased at thecostoftheworkers' (Tripp156).Elizabeth unity" created "much claimed that leyFlynn jealousiesoverrolesin thepageant attention from .. . in theranks" thepageant diverted discord (217) andthat "The first scabsgotintothePaterson moreimportant workofthestrike: mills for thepageant." whileworkers weretraining in thePaterson strike intervention 13.As well-intentioned as histemporary have that Reed's actions have there were several been, may ways John may that followed strike. thedisappointment thecauseofthePaterson hurt First, all historical accounts that thepageant hadlostmoney, whenitwasrevealed the after almost wasdisastrous to striker Second, immediately solidarity. agree, and Fifth millionaire as strike to Reed the crumble, began pageant, apparatus

542

Eugene O'Neill and theWorkingClass Avenue salon hostessMabel Dodge leftNewYork on a luxuriousfirst-class who had come to withouttellingthe strikers, passageforEurope,apparently at the moment Reed's Reed's uplifting cheerleading. departure appreciate failure had an when it became clear thatthe pageanthad been a financial "immensepsychologicalimpact"(Rosenstone 124) in deepeningthe strikers' disillusionment. focusof his dramain a 1924 14. Asked about the protracted working-class O'Neill acknowledgedthathe wrote oftenabout Theatre Magazineinterview, about what he referred to as "our brothers fardown on the the lower classes, the social scale" (Bird 53). In explaininghis rationalefordoing so, however, in starkly terms. In the first expressedhimself contradictory playwright partof O'Neill stresses a "wish to arouse compassion"in his dramato the interview, If after for"the unfortunate. The suffering." createsympathy viewing the drama his audience is "inspiredto help those unhappybrothers," O'Neill explains, the is worthwhile." "tragicplay Laterin the same interview, O'Neill's description of the workingclass not the endured stressing changesdrastically, suffering by exploitedlaborers and freedomfromsocial pretense: but theirguilelessness "They have not been in the evasions and which come with social lifeand steeped superficialities are more direct. In action and utterance" (52). His charintercourse....They ... theycannotwrite acterslack a voice-"in manywaystheyare inarticulate of theirown problems," O'Neill explains-and so the playwright mustbe their "I like to for them." spokesman: interpret A third on the workingclassappearsin the interview as perspective O'Neill waxes nostalgicforhis daysas a seaman,the timewhen he was "one "Life on the sea is ideal.The ship fora home. Meals provided. of" the workers: A resting like O'Neill, however, could place" (53). Only fora classinterloper the ship be so described-as a site of respite and disengagement, an escape frombourgeoisartificiality, a place thatcomprised"no economic pressure." If O'Neill had discernedan inconsistency between his views of the workingclass as embodyingthis"ideal" and his first-hand experienceof the"tragic"conditionsof workingclasslife-between a desireto "help" the workingclassesand a view of theirlivesas freeof economic pressures-he does not so indicatein the interview.Yet it seems,could be more paralyzing to the impulse nothing, forsocial reform with which O'Neill begins his discussionof the laboringclass thanthe attitude, laterin the interview, thatthereis a kind of freeexpressed dom and manlyvirtuein enduringpoor food and low pay. As I will argue,it was leftto O'Neill's dramato confront thesetheoretical contradictions. 15. Maya Koreneva asserts thatthe performance of"Bound East forCardiff"

543

Patrick J.Chura as the birthofAmericandrama" on 28 July1916 "may be regarded literally (148). 16. As Floyd notes (97), Olga's appearancewithTom among the stokers in "The PersonalEquation" foreshadows scene 3 of The Hairy Ape--the stokeMildred Douglas. hole visitof the femalereformer to his engines-"I love those engines-all 17.The elderPerkins's commitment described so as to resemble the central engines"(27)-is psychologicaldevice in in his position the stokehole. Asked used byYank The Hairy Ape to justify ifhe sees himself as a "fleshand blood wheel of the engines,"Yank replies, "Dat's me" (127).Yank'sfully developed metaphor,"I'msteel" (129) suggests in the primalpsychicneeds identifications the originof such "environmental" of the workingclass. in what clinicalpsycholo18. Mildred'sintrusion causes a profoundalteration in refers to as the"selfobject Maria a discussion of the miMiliora, play, gist inhabitant. lieu" (415) of the working-class 19. Undertaking an analysis of the autobiographical sourcesof O'Neill's class also concludes thatin LongDay'sJourney "O'Neill can be read as views,Pfister both Edmund ... and as Tyrone"(106).

Workscited
Doris. "O'Neill as Social Critic."O'Neill and His Plays.Ed. Oscar Alexander, NewYork: NewYork Cargill,N. BryllionFagin,andWilliamJ.Fisher. UP, 1961. 390-407. -.TheTempering ofEugeneO'Neill. NewYork: Harcourt,1962. and The Hairy Robert J."O'Neill's Use of Dante in The Fountain Andreach, Drama 10.1 (1968): 48-56. Ape." Modern Bird,Carol. "Eugene O'Neill-The InnerMan." Estrin50-55. andTragedy. New Haven:Yale Black,Lendley. Mourning EugeneO'Neill: Beyond UP, 1999. "From Shock Troupe to GroupTheatre."Theatres oftheLeft Cosgrove,Stuart. 1880-1935. Ed. Raphael Samuel,Ewan MacColl, and StuartCosgrove.London: Routledge, 1985. 259-79. on Lonely Sand Dunes by Finds His Inspiration Downes, Olin. "Playwright the Sea." Estrin6-12. as a Stage.Orleans,MA: Parnassus, 1994. Egan, Leona Rust. Provincetown U of Mississippi MarkW., ed. Conversations with Estrin, EugeneO'Neill. Jackson: P, 1990.

544

Eugene O'Neill and theWorkingClass

O'Neill:ANew Assessment. NewYork: UnThePlays ofEugene Floyd,Virginia. 1985. gar, "TheTruth I Speak aboutthePaterson Elizabeth Pageant." My Gurley. Flynn, OwnPeace. NewYork: Masses andMainstream, 1955. Gelb. O'Neill.NewYork: 1974. andArthur Gelb, Barbara, Harper, NewYork: 1941. Susan.TheRoadtothe Stokes, Temple. Glaspell, Reed andtheReal Thing." MikeGold:ALiterary AntholGold,Michael. "John 1972.152-56. Ed. MichaelFolsom. NewYork: International, ogy. 1902.Cambridge: Harvard TheVarieties Experience. ofReligious James,William. UP,1985. Alfred. On Native Grounds. NewYork: 1942. Harcourt, Kazin, A of Memoir of "Out Provincetown: EugeneO'Neill."Estrin. Kemp, Harry. 95-102. A Soviet "One Hundred Percent American View." Koreneva, Maya. Tragedy: World NewYork: O'Neill:A View. Ed.Virginia Floyd. Ungar, Eugene 1979.145-71. "The Radicalsof TheMasses." 1915:TheCultural Moment. Ed. Leach, Eugene. AdeleHellerandLois Rudnick. New Brunswick: 1991. UP, Rutgers 27-47. No Place andthe ofGrace:Antimodernism Transformation of Lears,T.J.Jackson. American Culture 1880-1920.NewYork: 1981. Pantheon, NewYork: ThePeople 1903. Macmillan, ofthe Abyss. London,Jack. Maria. "A SelfPsychological ofDehumanization in Eugene Miliora, Study O'Neill's TheHairy Social Work 24.4 (1996): Ape."Clinical Journal 415-27. "BehindtheScenes." Estrin 3-5. Mindil, Philip. Linda. "The Paterson Strike of 1913." ArtinAmerica 62 (May Nochlin, Pageant 1974):64-68. "BoundEastfor Cardiff." TheProvincetown 1stseries. O'Neill,Eugene. Plays. NewYork: 1916.5-25. Shay, TheHairy TheComplete Vol.2. NewYork: ofAmerApe. Plays. Library --. ica,1988.119-65. New Haven:Yale into UP,1956. Night. Day's]ourney -. A Long "The Personal The Unknown O'Neill. Ed.Travis Equation." Bogard. . New Haven:Yale UP,1988.3-75. O'Neillandthe Politics DisPfister, Depth: Staging Eugene ofPsychological Joel. course. Hill: of North U Carolina 1995. P, Chapel Mark. "A World ofDifference: in Prothe'Underclass' Pittenger, Constructing America." American 49.1 26-65. gressive Quarterly (1997): Loftus. O'NeillCompanion. GreenTheEugene Ranald, Margaret Westport: wood,1984.

545

Patrick J.Chura
Reed PaReed, John."HarvardRenaissance."1912. Unpublishedessay.John Harvard University. pers,Houghton Library, 1900-1954: Some Rideout,WalterBates. The RadicalNovelin theUnited States, Literature and Harvard Interrelations UP, 1956. Society. of Cambridge: A. "The Masculine Primitive and The HairyApe." Eugene Robinson,James O'Neill Review19.1-2 (1995): 95-109. Roosevelt,Theodore. "The StrenuousLife."The Strenuous Life.NewYork: Macmillan,1902. Reed. New Rosenstone,Robert A. Romantic Revolutionary:A Biography ofJohn York:Random, 1981. Schocket,Eric."UndercoverExplorationsof the'Other Half,'Or theWriteras 64 (Fall 1998): 109-33. Class Transvestite." Representations Boston: Little, 1973. Louis. O'Neill: Son andArtist. Sheaffer, PortWashington: Kennikat,1932. Sinclair, Outpost. Upton. American NewYork and theCreation Christine. Moderns: Bohemian American Stansell, ofa NewYork: Holt, 2000. New Century. Lionel. "Eugene O'Neill." EugeneO'Neill. Ed. Harold Bloom. New Trilling, York:Chelsea, 1987. 13-20. Silk Strike Anne Huber. The I. WW and thePaterson of 1913. Urbana: U Tripp, of IllinoisP, 1987. 2 vols.NewYork: Scribin Reality. TheWorkers:An Experiment Wyckoff,Walter. 1898. ner's,1897, Ape and the Reversal of Hegelian Dialectics." Zapf,Hubert."O'Neill's Hairy O'Neill and His Plays.Ed. Oscar Cargill,N. BryllionFagin,andWilNewYork: NewYork UP, 1961. 35-39. liamJ.Fisher.

546