The Thinker is a sculpture by the artist Auguste Rodin. It features
a physically fit man sitting somewhat hunched over, perched upon a stone, with
his hand supporting the weight of his chin. As the title suggests, the figure
is supposed to be captured in a moment of deep thought.
Eugene O'Neill references this sculpture in The Hairy Ape by
mentioning it in his stage directions. Setting the scene and providing
directions for the actor playing Yank, he writes:
He stands out in contrast to them, a blackened, brooding figure. He is seated forward on a bench in the exact attitude of Rodin’s “The Thinker.” The others, most of them smoking pipes, are staring at YANK half-apprehensively, as if fearing an outburst; half-amusedly, as if they saw a joke somewhere that tickled them (O'Neill, Scene IV).
This is significant within the context of the play because Yank, a character who...
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is certainly more brawn than brains, has been lost in uncharacteristic thought over the way in which Mildred, an upper-class young woman touring the underbelly of the ship, reacts to seeing him. To Mildred, Yank is animalistic, wild, and monstrous. Encountering him, she is clearly overwhelmed and exclaims, "Take me away! Oh, the filthy beast!" (O'Neill, Scene III). Yank reacts intensely to the slight, at first pondering its meaning, then growing deeply angry. Yank's struggle to uncover the meaning of Mildred's accusation reflects the larger struggle he experiences throughout the play; that is, Yank has enormous difficulty finding his place in society. He cannot understand the way in which the world operates, and he feels that many people depend on his labor for their comfort and/or success. He is remarkably confrontational and argumentative, wishing violence upon others and desiring the destruction of the wealthy upper-class, but ultimately realizing he (as a laborer) cannot connect with members of hisown class. In the world of The Hairy Ape,
it appears Yank has no spot to fill.
Like Rodin's Thinker, he is a figure of physical strength who seems to
be caught in a process of pondering. Yank strives desperately in the second
half of the play to impact the world around him, whether verbally or
physically, and finds that he is largely ineffectual. He lacks the reasoning
skills necessary to see the larger social and economic forces at play in a
heavily stratified society, and so lashes out at anything and anyone around
him. Much like Rodin's sculpture is trapped in place, Yank is similarly trapped
in his inability to understand himself or his place in the world.
References