The Iceman Cometh： the tragedy of sober dreamers

【Abstract】 If Long day’s Journey into Night is about the life of the playwright O’Neill himself， it can be safely said that The Iceman Cometh is about the life of man. In it life is truthfully presented as an irreconcilable conflict between life in pipe dream and death in soberness. It is a challenge to Freud who believes that it is possible for man to live in reality without illusions.

【Key Words】Pipe Dream；Iceman

I. Introduction

The Iceman Cometh， recognized as the culmination of O’Neill， is seen as a parable of destiny of man. With the loss of moral orientation， they lost the sense of self. In the play， all the derelicts get themselves drunk in order to forget who they are.

O’Neill never gives up exploring the suffering caused by the conflict between dream and reality. A conflict of this kind does not necessarily develop into a tragedy if the dreamer remains in a state of intoxication. But as soon as this intoxication alternates into sobriety， tragedy is unavoidable.

II. Happy dreamers

The story takes place in Harry Hope’s saloon. Here 15 derelicts keep themselves alive on alcohol and the pipe dream that they have been or someday will be respectable. They all know， at least unconsciously， the truth about themselves and they are conscious even more the vital necessity of illusion.

Harry attributes his withdrawal from politics to the death of his wife and brags that he will renew his political life tomorrow. More than any other character， he， in his concern for others， represents this play’s hope. Every inhabitant at the Hope’s shares his pipe dream. Jimmy Tomorrow vows to regain his former occupation as a journalist； pat McGloin， who is dismissed from police for taking bribes， dreams of being proved innocent and returning to his post. Piet Wetjoen and Cecil Lewis used to recollect their past glory and to imagine their honorable return to their motherlands. The commentator of the play is Larry. He has an image of himself as the philosopher who observes life from the grandstand and waits for death. He looks at them with detachment and sympathy， understanding them even when he cannot fully understand himself. Each has lived through an experience where he emerges as a loser. Each character attempts to keep at bay the panic which might result from the acceptance of the loss， hence the drink and the pipe dream.

III. Tragic sobers

As O’Neill said about this play， “this play is one of the best things I have done， perhaps the best. There are moments in it that suddenly strip the secret of a man stark naked”. Hickey is the man who is sent to strip the soul of the derelicts stark naked， showing the truth in the existence of the modern man. They expect that his coming will bring them some kind of hope of salvation. Ironically when he appears at the Hope’s he does bring them something： the truth about life and the truth about the self. The derelicts， thus aroused， fall into uneasiness.

As it has always been O’Neill’s main concern， the modern man’s dilemma is the death of God and the resulting spiritual vacuum. When it is reflected in the moral domain， we see either people with too many and contradictory moral goods or people with no moral good to anchor their soul at all. The derelicts in the bar are no exceptions. The most striking one is the iceman Hickey himself. He is a man in whom restlessness collides with his sense of responsibility. The two co-existing yet conflicting moral demands， namely， the desire to seek boundless freedom and his wish to be a devoted husband lead him finally to commit murder. In effect， this murder is more like a suicide， intending to put an end to the torture of his conscience by ruining himself. In killing his wife， he claimed he was insane because insanity means total failure to perceive the reality.

IV. Conclusion

The impact of sobriety is fatal when the roomers became suffocated by the reality. Dreams are water to them， without which， they die. When the play ends Hickey leaves the stage， accompanied by the police， pleading insanity， not to escape punishment， but to persist in his pipe dream and the lodgers once again sink into the illusions where they are found at the beginning of the play.

【References】

[1]Cohn， Ruby. Dialogue in American Drama[M].Bloomington： Indiana Univ，1971

[2]Engel， Edward. The Haunted Heroes of Eugene O’Neill [M].Cambridge， Mass： Harvard Univ，1953