Comparisons

Question 1

The Iceman Cometh

Eugene O’Neill

Answer 1

• Pipe dreams vs nostagic escapism: The characters in The Iceman Cometh are obsessed with the idea of a better future which usually encompases their wish to relive the glory of their past. Hickey demystifying their pipe dreams condemns the characters to a living death, yet his gospel of salvation is another pipe dream. similarly all the characters in LDJN also look forward to better days and reminisce their prime. Jamie like Hickey seems to understand that these are just ‘pipe dreams’ but we later find out that Jamies recovery is reliant on his mother. they both have an abstract goal of general self improvement. Jamie too tries to tell his family to wake up, he knows the ‘reality’ and tries to pushthem out of senseless hope although he is more nuanced than that.
• In Iceman Cometh the characters display violently ambivalent relations with their love objects. They blur the lines between love and hate. The clearest example is Hickey, who at some level preaches his gospel of salvation to keep his hatred of his wife Evelyn at bay. Parritt, Hickey’s double, similarly weaves a pipe dream to conceal his hatred for his mother, justifying his betrayal by appeals to patriotism. Similarly in LDJN, the characters blur the lines between love and hate. They very clearly love eachother but are driven by hate towards each other as well; for example jamie and edmund, jamie and tyrone, mary and herself (religion), mary and jamie.
• alcohol and drugs for escapism

Question 2

Ghosts

Henrik Ibsen

Answer 2

• the characters of ghosts are haunted “ghosts” of duty and public opinion which ruins generations of lives, similarly the ghosts of LDJN character’s vices haunt them cross-generationally. (alcohol, love in spite of hate, art)