The Iceman Cometh：a host of complementary conflicts

Abstract：With O’Neill one can always go to The Iceman Cometh，because it is both his culmination and his demise，it sums up all life. In this play，one encounters all types of dualistic conflicts in life，like life and death，reality and dream，past and tomorrow，yet these conflicts are not polar and unreconciled opposites，as some of the critics claim. This paper is to show that these conflicts，different as they are，complement each other，interchanging between themselves at all.

Key Words：dualistic；unreconciled；pipe dream

1Introduction

Written in 1939，the iceman Cometh mirrors a world shattered by all kinds of social changes. The loss of religious faith，the development of science and the forming of a universe indifferent to the individual，the disintegrations of the social hierarchy and of the family unit formulate an overwhelming force to impair the modern mam’s identity. Disillusionment，anxiety and chaos haunt the western world.

The play is set in a cheap ginmill of the five-cent whisky，last-resort variety situated on the downtown west side of New York called Harry Hope’s. This shabby place has made a home to seventeen derelicts，each of them having a story to tell and having a self to reveal. All of the residents at the Hope’s live in pasts or in hopes not really trusted，failing to break out，finding relief in quarrel，cutthroat candor. As the plot develops，their dreams are gradually revealed as merely lies，which purports to their reality to have nothing to lie on.

In this play，more than in any other play of his，O’Neill views reality as a series of conflicts，the conflicts between night and day，life and death，man and woman，land and sea，past and present，that doom man to perpetual and futile struggle. Yet he presents these dualistic oppositions as complementary ones，in which the two alternate and interpenetrate.

2Thematic oppositions

2.1Reality vs. dream

O’Neill’s inmates are dependent on pipe dreams，more deficient in vitality，fewer of them move in the outer world，the disaster of personality is not attributed to social cause at all. Once this state of intoxication induced by the pipe dream begins to alternate into sobriety，tragedy becomes inevitable. A dreamer suffers little unless he knows he is dreaming. Knowledge acts as an evil agent to hasten the destruction of the person，all of the dreamers in the play become tragic heroes because they have the knowledge that they are deceiving themselves in dreams.

Hickey，the Iceman in the title，relentlessly drives each man to test his illusions in action and thus to find they are illusions； his program is to create peace by eliminating all pipe dreams. Hickey，the destroyer of illusion，is a pipe dreamer himself. He presents himself as a man who can bring peace because he found peace by freeing himself from pipe dreams. His pipe dream was that he could break away from a lifelong career of alcoholic and sexual beings. This pipe dream was sustained by the constant forgiving of his wife，and he freed himself from it by killing her. But at the same time this dream –breaker tries to hold on to another pipe dream：he loves his wife and he wants to give her peace. When he finds out what he was really thinking when he killed the wife：he hated her，he broke out. He got no pipe dream to cling to. He desperately claimed he was insane when killing his wife，trying to recover an illusion.

Knowledge of self is a disaster，for it leads to enmity，cynicism suicide，murder； and peace，fellowship and life depend on dreams and illusions at all.

2.2Past vs.tomorrow

In a sentimental monologue halfway through act one，Harry remembers the life of politician he once had，and vows to renew his political involvement； moments later，Jimmy，in counterpoint，dreams about regaining his former position in public relations.For both，however，pipe dreams for the future rest on self-deceit about the past. With no chance of winning，Harry used his wife’s death as an excuse to withdraw from the race and the world； Jimmy conveniently forgot his being fired because of drunkenness. The close proximity of their speeches allows Larry to speak out their symbolic connection. Harry’s reminiscences about his wife prompts Larry’s remark，“isn’t a pipe dream of yesterday a touching thing？” and when Jimmy vows to go for a future interview，Larry says，“the tomorrow movement is a sad and beautiful thing，too.” While Hope focuses in illusions about the past and Jimmy leads the tomorrow，the two represent the interdependence of 1 memories and empty ambitions. As Larry crows to Jimmy，“worst is best here，and East and West，and tomorrow is yesterday. What more do you want” past and future interpenetrate at Harry Hope’s saloon.

2.3Life vs. death

Life and death is another pair of opposites that is mingled in the play. Hickey，the iceman in the title，is the clearest representative of death in the play. But Hickey has been awaited as a bringer of life，and in act one the men recall happily the parties he has thrown. Moreover，after they dismiss his behavior as insane in act four，life erupts in the bar. This representation of life and death is not just limited to Hickey，it occurs to others，both miner and major characters. Wetjoen and Lewis engage in a happy dispute over the brave days in South Africa when they tried to murder each other. References to RisaPatrritt betray a similar ambivalence. “She will get life in prison，knowing it will resemble death，for spiritually，she is dead and yet has to live. The equation of life and death also applies to the “end of the line” saloon itself，“Dis dump is like a morgue wid all dese bums passed out”. But the setting at the same time represents elemental life：adequate shelter and food，companionship，and sufficient drink to maintain illusions. When Hickey exposes their pipe dreams and “takes the life out” of their alcohol，the men in the bar shift towards death and only return to life after Hickey’s departure. Larry sagely informs Parritt that the pipe dream gives life to everyone in the bar； his own pipe dreams，of course，include a yearning for death.

2.4Being vs. nonbeing

Hickey’s nihilist gospel preaches killing pipe dreams and confronting the void at the center of existence. At the beginning of the play，a totally silent stage finds all sleep but Larry and Rocky. Even after various derelicts awake，converse，and pass out again，Larry can point to the “beautiful calm in the atmosphere”，the room therefore resembles the stillness of nonbeing. But Parritt soon makes Larry anxious about Rosa’s betrayal，and the agitation becomes general after Hickey enters and soberly attacks everyone’s pipe dreams. The nonbeing-stillness gives way to motion and violence，to being as friends turn on each other，and Harry bitterly denounces the hangers-on during his birthday speech. After all have lost their pipe dreams，however，the stillness returns，but with a difference：the men’s despair in facing the void. At the beginning of act four，“there is an atmosphere of oppressive stagnation in the room，and a quality of insensibility” with all the derelicts sunk in a numb stupor. Their stillness punctuates Hickey’s confession，containing four intervals of dead silence. Only after Hickey pleads insanity does the room little by little return to life，singing，shouting and laughing at the conclusion. Illusion，the foundation of being，has returned and nonbeing ebbs into the background.

3Conclusion

According to Bogard，the world crisis made O’Neill retreat to indulge himself in introspection：

In his way，he began to explore the sickness of his world； at the same time he explored himself，as if he knew that his answer to the larger social question was to be found only through self-analysis. The two problems of society and the self had a single answer，for they were the same sickness.

Each of the roomers in the play has a past that produced the dreadful present. The self- respect of each is based on the belief that tomorrow will change today and their pipe dreams will come true. When they are forced by hickey to look at the truth of their lives，they become hostile and despairing. Only when they are finally restored to their pipe dreams do they become a family again. They end as they bagin，whiskey-soaked，talking about tomorrow.

As for the two sides of the pairs，as one expands，the other diminishes，until the point is reached where the process is reversed- a cycle that continues throughout eternity. Past and present，life and death，being and nonbeing alternate as O’Neill strives to discover the truth behind life’s oppositions.

Bibliography：

[1] John Henry Raleigh，the plays of Eugene O’Neill，Southern Illinois University press，965.

[2] Travis Bogard，the late plays of Eugene O’Neill，New York：Modern Library，

[3] Barret Clark，Eugene O’Neill：the man and his plays，New York：Dover

[4] Edwin Engel，the haunted Heros of Eugene O’Neill，Cambridge，Mass.：Harvard Univ. Press.

作者簡介：陳向普（1975—），女，河南洛陽人，講師，碩士，現就職于大連外國語學院，研究方向：英語語言文學。