#63 The Hairy Ape

This is the fourth play by Eugene O'Neill, and I think the best I've read of him this summer.  It may be that nothing happy or optimistic happens in this play.  This play, more than the others I read, address the class system in America with the proletariat losing in a frustrated battle where the wealthy will not even take to the battlefield.  This is a short play where the frustration of the "hairy ape" climaxes near the end in an impotent rage that lands him in jail, where he is further ridiculed by the other inmates.  The ending is surreal in that the "hairy ape" meats a gorilla which crushes him and leaves him for dead.  Maybe I liked it because I can see its relevance today.  It was written in 1922, when class disparity was reaching an all-time high, and the play was an echo of the trials of millions of workers in America under an apparent plutocracy.  I'm not sure much has changed since then.