In this 9-12 lesson, students will examine the impact of living in an early 20th century industrialized society through Eugene O’Neill’s play, The Hairy Ape. Students will analyze O’Neill’s portrayal of a world in which spiritual, communal, and behavioral values of the past have been displaced by the lure of technology, materialism, and patterns of cultural barbarism.
Students will:
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Teachers should familiarize themselves with O’Neill’s work: Anna Christie, The Hairy Ape, The Emperor Jones, and Beyond the Horizon. Teachers can optionally read The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams to introduce ideas and themes about industrialized society in the early 20th century.
Students should be familiar with Eugene O’Neill’s plays.
Modify text as needed and allow extra time for task completion.
Have students read the Eugene O’Neill Biography. Arrange students into collaborative groups and have them make a choice from the list of Research Topics: Uncivil Civilization.
Distribute the Vocabulary: Uncivil Civilization The Hairy Ape to students before they conduct research.
Have students read The Hairy Ape aloud in class. If time does not allow for a complete read-through of the play, read at least the first several scenes, as well as the final scene. Assign the additional material as homework.
Explain to the class that reading the role of Yank, the protagonist, requires regional dialect. Audition students for the role of Yank, keeping in mind that Yank’s dialect is essential to the role. Consider having the “Voices” section be read by impromptu one-line responses coming from different parts of the room. Allow for one or two rehearsals of the first “Voices” speech, so that students can develop a rhythm. As the play progresses, ask students to pay attention not only to the movement of the narrative but also to the expressionistic devices used in the play.
After reading the play, have students explore one or more of the Study Topics: Uncivil Civilizations in The Hairy Ape. These topics can also be the basis for quizzes, brief in-class writing assignments, oral discussion and/or testing, or formal essay assignments.
Have students work in small groups to create a diagram that represents the basic structural movement of the play. See the Diagram Options resource for ideas. Ask each group to clarify the rationale behind their graphic representation. Model this activity for students. (Note: there is no right or wrong answer, and each student’s diagram and explanation will likely vary.)
Discuss the patterns that emerge from the diagrams. Ask students: What structural or thematic impact of the play did you illuminate? Have the students compare the line diagrams of The Hairy Ape with the traditional Shakespearean pattern: rising action in the first three acts; climax at the end of Act 3; the beginning of denouement in Act 4; and denouement in Act 5. What differences emerge?
Share the site Darwin’s Theory of Evolution with students. Have students use their diagram activity to discuss the Darwinian theory of evolution. Ask students: What parallels did you notice between this theory and the themes and forms of O’Neill’s drama?
Assess students with one following Essay Questions as a culminating assignment.
Original Writer
Jayne Karsten
Adaptation
Jen Westmoreland Bouchard
Editor
JoDee Scissors
Updated
November 20, 2021
In this 9-12 lesson, students will conduct a comparative analysis of Eugene O'Neill's Hairy Ape and Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire. Students will debate the themes between scripts and culminate their understanding by integrating visual and aural expressionistic devices into a script.
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