The celebrated novel Tree Without Roots by Syed Waliullah depicts the sorrow and happiness, thoughts and dreams, struggle and urge for life of the people in a society hopelessly and helplessly fallen prey to religious fraud. The novel is set in a village called Mahabbatpur in northern part of the present Bangladesh. This village represents the rural life of the ignorant millions made to accept the feudalistic systems imposed upon them by the chieftains or religious leaders.

This novel is set in a time just around the Second World War when the genre ‘novel’ has become essentially urban. Syed Waliullah has directed his readers to a hitherto unknown village of northern Bengal and made them ‘encounter an existentialist character Majeed, hailing from a barren but populous area of Bengal.

This man, like an uprooted tree, enters Mahabbatpur along the road of Motiganj and finds the weapons of his struggle for food and livelihood in an old and broken grave of some yet unknown person, which he identifies as the tomb of some saint and covers it with a piece of red cloth.

The villagers become simultaneously alarmed and ashamed that they did not pay proper homage to the tomb of a great person of spiritual power. To compensate this shameful ignorance, the villagers begin to rush to the tomb with their heartfelt pleas and pledges.

The tomb covered with a red cotton cloth looks like the back of a dead fish and begins to flicker the light of candles and to spread the fragrant smoke from incense sticks. People from the villages around begin to follow with their tales of hope and dismay, success and failure, and gratitude to the tomb and with the shines and tinkers of coins.

A Harsh Mirror to Superstition and Rural Life

Tree Without Roots depicts the decadent state of the superstitious Muslim Bengal. Majeed struggles existentially, but he uses fraud as a tool for his fight against poverty and by the time he gains victory over poverty, he destroys the serenity in the social life of the village and injects dread into it.

Majeed’s exploitation of the villagers, his marrying twice, evoking a sense of religious passion in villagers’ mind, himself being not that committed—all these events are delineated by Waliullah with unfailing realistic touch.

Tree Without Roots by Syed Waliullah: A Stark Portrayal of Religious Exploitation in Rural Bengal

Green Land | July 12, 2025 | 0 comments

The celebrated novel Tree Without Roots by Syed Waliullah depicts the sorrow and happiness, thoughts and dreams, struggle and urge for life of the people in a society hopelessly and helplessly fallen prey to religious fraud. The novel is set in a village called Mahabbatpur in northern part of the present Bangladesh. This village represents the rural life of the ignorant millions made to accept the feudalistic systems imposed upon them by the chieftains or religious leaders.

This novel is set in a time just around the Second World War when the genre ‘novel’ has become essentially urban. Syed Waliullah has directed his readers to a hitherto unknown village of northern Bengal and made them ‘encounter an existentialist character Majeed, hailing from a barren but populous area of Bengal.

This man, like an uprooted tree, enters Mahabbatpur along the road of Motiganj and finds the weapons of his struggle for food and livelihood in an old and broken grave of some yet unknown person, which he identifies as the tomb of some saint and covers it with a piece of red cloth.

The villagers become simultaneously alarmed and ashamed that they did not pay proper homage to the tomb of a great person of spiritual power. To compensate this shameful ignorance, the villagers begin to rush to the tomb with their heartfelt pleas and pledges.

The tomb covered with a red cotton cloth looks like the back of a dead fish and begins to flicker the light of candles and to spread the fragrant smoke from incense sticks. People from the villages around begin to follow with their tales of hope and dismay, success and failure, and gratitude to the tomb and with the shines and tinkers of coins.

A Harsh Mirror to Superstition and Rural Life

Tree Without Roots depicts the decadent state of the superstitious Muslim Bengal. Majeed struggles existentially, but he uses fraud as a tool for his fight against poverty and by the time he gains victory over poverty, he destroys the serenity in the social life of the village and injects dread into it.

Majeed’s exploitation of the villagers, his marrying twice, evoking a sense of religious passion in villagers’ mind, himself being not that committed—all these events are delineated by Waliullah with unfailing realistic touch.

Tree Without Roots

Majeed is the pivotal character in Syed Waliullah’s novel Tree Without Roots. Hailing from a barren land called Noakhali, Majeed with a meagre knowledge of Koran and Hadith leaves his native land finds an occupation of an Imam somewhere at the foot of Garo Hills just to earn the day’s bread.

Somehow, he does not find things quite manageable there and he enters the affluent Mahabbatpur village dramatically. He meets a congregation of villagers near the house of Merchant Khaleque and tells them that he had been well in the Garo Hills but the ascetic Modasser Pir has visited him in his dream and has asked him to come to Mahabbatpur and to look after his tomb.

He then identifies an old and broken grave of some yet unknown person as the tomb of Modasser Pir and covers it with a piece of red cloth. Thus he begins his business around the tomb. In almost no time he acquires landed property and honour.

He then marries a strongly built widow about the village called Rahima. He gained immense power over the people of the area with the help of Merchant Khaleque. He controls the religious affairs of the life of all the villagers by virtue of the tomb which he turns into a shrine.

Majeed: The Pivotal Character in Tree Without Roots by Syed Waliullah

Green Land | July 12, 2025 | 1comments

Majeed is the pivotal character in Syed Waliullah’s novel Tree Without Roots. Hailing from a barren land called Noakhali, Majeed with a meagre knowledge of Koran and Hadith leaves his native land finds an occupation of an Imam somewhere at the foot of Garo Hills just to earn the day’s bread.

Somehow, he does not find things quite manageable there and he enters the affluent Mahabbatpur village dramatically. He meets a congregation of villagers near the house of Merchant Khaleque and tells them that he had been well in the Garo Hills but the ascetic Modasser Pir has visited him in his dream and has asked him to come to Mahabbatpur and to look after his tomb.

He then identifies an old and broken grave of some yet unknown person as the tomb of Modasser Pir and covers it with a piece of red cloth. Thus he begins his business around the tomb. In almost no time he acquires landed property and honour.

He then marries a strongly built widow about the village called Rahima. He gained immense power over the people of the area with the help of Merchant Khaleque. He controls the religious affairs of the life of all the villagers by virtue of the tomb which he turns into a shrine.

Tree Without Roots

Introduction: High-Seriousness in Modern Poetry

'High-seriousness’ in poetry, to quote Matthew Arnold’s favourite phrase, is well pronounced in Wilfred Owen and T.S. Eliot, two great names in modern English poetry, in their powerful treatment of the social reality of the modern world. Of course, their subject-matters are not identical. While Owen exposes sharply the grim, poignant, dreadful reality of war, Eliot delineates the dreary, passive, emotionally empty urban civilization of the modern age. But poetry is found to change as civilization advances. This is true in respect of modern English poetry, too. A new kind of social reality, however, is found treated by a new group of English poets in the thirties of the last century.

The Poets of the Thirties: A New Literary Movement

These new English poets, popularly called the poets of the thirties, have a new poetic treat, with a new point of view, for their readers. Though inspired by Owen and Eliot, along with Hopkins, as admitted by their pioneers, the plane of the social reality of their poetry is altogether different and, perhaps, more immediate to the changing problems of their age and society. This new poetry is found animated with an intense social consciousness and imbued with a new political idealism, under the impact of the existing social and political environment of Europe.

The Historical Context: Post-War Crisis and Political Upheaval

The new poets started their literary career in a crucial period. War was over, but peace was not ensured, despite the function of the League of Nations. Distrust, hatred and grievance were freely generated, and Europe seemed to have been staked by political opportunism and sinister manoeuvre to preserve authority and domination.

But more threatening was the state of affairs on the economic front. Europe was almost engulfed by the post-war economic depression that hit England severely in particular. Privation, unemployment, economic insecurity and consequent social perversity disturbed the structure of the existing society and exposed the hollowness of the capitalistic order.

The social picture was, indeed, a dismal one. At the same time, there was a new ideological stimulation from the establishment of the socialistic society in Russia and the emergence of communism as a principle of social living. The Russian political experiment, with the principle of communism, was favoured by liberal intelligentsia, overlooking its atrocities and regimentations. Moreover, the growing threat of Nazism began to take dimensions to affect the political affiliation.

Political Poetry and Left-Wing Ideals

The poets of the thirties came in such a situation and were affected strongly both by the desperation of the post-war economic situation and by the inspiration of the socialistic revolution in Russia. They appeared, to some extent, akin to the early Romantic poets of the nineteenth century.

Like them, they were filled with disgust at the state of their society and drawn to the political revolution that had promised a happy future for mankind. The Romantic poets had before them the French Revolution and Rousseauism, as social ideals, while the poets of the thirties set before them the stimulus of the Russian Revolution and the gospel Marxism and Leninism.

They were thoroughly annoyed with the whole trend of their capitalistic civilization, sought a remedy for the existing social ills and inequalities and found it in the principle of communism, no doubt then in an experimental stage in Russia. They missed the brutal business of war, witnessed the economic ills of the Post-War time, had no social security to lose, felt guilty of the privileges enjoyed even by themselves and were invariably drawn to the ideal of equality and even of the revolution to attain the same.

They believed, as stated by one of their protagonists, that ‘only a revolution’ could ‘save’ the English standards of living from the present degeneration. They believed, too, ‘that the full development of the individual’ could be ‘possible in a state of social communism’ and detected ‘the vibration of new life’ in it.

Cultural Unity and Literary Objectives of the Poets

The poets of the thirties had some commonness in their cultural associations and literary objectives. They were young, upper, or at best, middle class intellectuals, with good education at renowned institutions and at the University of Oxford or Cambridge.

They were responsible thinkers, conscious of the prevalent frustration of their society, and humanitarian idealists, with visions for a new kind of society. They had contempt for the bourgeois outlook and for the capitalistic standard of living.

They were all imbued with the new missions to employ art to the service of the community for the welfare of the exploited masses. They shared in common the belief that poetry must be revolutionary, aiming to have a new world of human happiness and fraternity.

They worked together, under the inspiration of the red banner, developed a mutual understanding of the social objective of poetry and took the Russian poet, Maykovesky, as their very literary idol. Their poetry had a political background and a left-wing swing. In the Spanish war, they supported the Republican against the menace of expanding Fascism under General Franco.

They were political poets — left-wingers, so to say, with social consciousness and humanitarian conscience.

The Key Figures of the 1930s Poetry Movement

Those young poets of the thirties, who, thus, thought and acted together, were not many. The protagonists of them included:

• W. H. Auden
• Stephen Spender
• Cecil Day Lewis
• Louis MacNeice

Other, though less notable, poetical personalities of the group were:

• Michael Roberts
• Charles Madge
• John Lehmann
• George Barker

Two South African born poets — Roy Campbell (1901–57) and William Plomer (1903–73) — are also anthologized with the Auden group for their political affiliation.

The Rise of Social Realism in Modern English Poetry: A Study of the Poets of the 1930s

Green Land | July 12, 2025 | 0 comments

Introduction: High-Seriousness in Modern Poetry

'High-seriousness’ in poetry, to quote Matthew Arnold’s favourite phrase, is well pronounced in Wilfred Owen and T.S. Eliot, two great names in modern English poetry, in their powerful treatment of the social reality of the modern world. Of course, their subject-matters are not identical. While Owen exposes sharply the grim, poignant, dreadful reality of war, Eliot delineates the dreary, passive, emotionally empty urban civilization of the modern age. But poetry is found to change as civilization advances. This is true in respect of modern English poetry, too. A new kind of social reality, however, is found treated by a new group of English poets in the thirties of the last century.

The Poets of the Thirties: A New Literary Movement

These new English poets, popularly called the poets of the thirties, have a new poetic treat, with a new point of view, for their readers. Though inspired by Owen and Eliot, along with Hopkins, as admitted by their pioneers, the plane of the social reality of their poetry is altogether different and, perhaps, more immediate to the changing problems of their age and society. This new poetry is found animated with an intense social consciousness and imbued with a new political idealism, under the impact of the existing social and political environment of Europe.

The Historical Context: Post-War Crisis and Political Upheaval

The new poets started their literary career in a crucial period. War was over, but peace was not ensured, despite the function of the League of Nations. Distrust, hatred and grievance were freely generated, and Europe seemed to have been staked by political opportunism and sinister manoeuvre to preserve authority and domination.

But more threatening was the state of affairs on the economic front. Europe was almost engulfed by the post-war economic depression that hit England severely in particular. Privation, unemployment, economic insecurity and consequent social perversity disturbed the structure of the existing society and exposed the hollowness of the capitalistic order.

The social picture was, indeed, a dismal one. At the same time, there was a new ideological stimulation from the establishment of the socialistic society in Russia and the emergence of communism as a principle of social living. The Russian political experiment, with the principle of communism, was favoured by liberal intelligentsia, overlooking its atrocities and regimentations. Moreover, the growing threat of Nazism began to take dimensions to affect the political affiliation.

Political Poetry and Left-Wing Ideals

The poets of the thirties came in such a situation and were affected strongly both by the desperation of the post-war economic situation and by the inspiration of the socialistic revolution in Russia. They appeared, to some extent, akin to the early Romantic poets of the nineteenth century.

Like them, they were filled with disgust at the state of their society and drawn to the political revolution that had promised a happy future for mankind. The Romantic poets had before them the French Revolution and Rousseauism, as social ideals, while the poets of the thirties set before them the stimulus of the Russian Revolution and the gospel Marxism and Leninism.

They were thoroughly annoyed with the whole trend of their capitalistic civilization, sought a remedy for the existing social ills and inequalities and found it in the principle of communism, no doubt then in an experimental stage in Russia. They missed the brutal business of war, witnessed the economic ills of the Post-War time, had no social security to lose, felt guilty of the privileges enjoyed even by themselves and were invariably drawn to the ideal of equality and even of the revolution to attain the same.

They believed, as stated by one of their protagonists, that ‘only a revolution’ could ‘save’ the English standards of living from the present degeneration. They believed, too, ‘that the full development of the individual’ could be ‘possible in a state of social communism’ and detected ‘the vibration of new life’ in it.

Cultural Unity and Literary Objectives of the Poets

The poets of the thirties had some commonness in their cultural associations and literary objectives. They were young, upper, or at best, middle class intellectuals, with good education at renowned institutions and at the University of Oxford or Cambridge.

They were responsible thinkers, conscious of the prevalent frustration of their society, and humanitarian idealists, with visions for a new kind of society. They had contempt for the bourgeois outlook and for the capitalistic standard of living.

They were all imbued with the new missions to employ art to the service of the community for the welfare of the exploited masses. They shared in common the belief that poetry must be revolutionary, aiming to have a new world of human happiness and fraternity.

They worked together, under the inspiration of the red banner, developed a mutual understanding of the social objective of poetry and took the Russian poet, Maykovesky, as their very literary idol. Their poetry had a political background and a left-wing swing. In the Spanish war, they supported the Republican against the menace of expanding Fascism under General Franco.

They were political poets — left-wingers, so to say, with social consciousness and humanitarian conscience.

The Key Figures of the 1930s Poetry Movement

Those young poets of the thirties, who, thus, thought and acted together, were not many. The protagonists of them included:

• W. H. Auden
• Stephen Spender
• Cecil Day Lewis
• Louis MacNeice

Other, though less notable, poetical personalities of the group were:

• Michael Roberts
• Charles Madge
• John Lehmann
• George Barker

Two South African born poets — Roy Campbell (1901–57) and William Plomer (1903–73) — are also anthologized with the Auden group for their political affiliation.

Modern Period

Romanticism in English Literature : An Overview

Romanticism, a literary movement, generally believed to begin in 1798 with the publication of Lyrical Ballads. This book was a collection of a new kind of 23 poems composed by Wordsworth and Coleridge. It was a successful joint venture by Wordsworth and Coleridge to establish a new trend in English poetry. It was a successful attempt to break away from the Neo-classical tradition of the previous age. Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley and Byron were the main exponents of this movement. The main features of Romantic poetry are: return to nature, spontaneity, dependence on imagination, love of beauty, mysticism, subjectivity, love of rural common people, use of Greek and Roman myths and use of simple language. This new kind of literary tradition is first seen in the Elizabethan age to some extent, but it revived with much vigour after 1798 as a direct consequence of the French Revolution

Return to Nature: The Core of Romanticism

Return to nature is the most dominant feature of Romantic literature. Nature here means the world of vegetation and the natural qualities of human beings. Wordsworth established a close kinship with Nature. His pantheism forms a wonder in the romantic appreciation of Nature. To him Nature is a mighty and majestic spirit that animates and mobilises every object of the visible world. Similarly Keats idealizes and glorifies Nature in his poetry. One remembers his famous images of natural phenomena in his odes showing his love of Nature.

Return to Nature also refers to the Romantic poets  love for natural qualities of man. It is akin to spontaneity. Wordsworth talked about it time and again in reaction to the artificiality of the Neoclassical age. To him poetry means, Spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. His The Solitary Reaper, Michael and Lucy Poems glorify the feelings of the downtrodden people.

Romanticism and the Common People

Love for common people found in the Romantic age is, in fact, glorification of humanism which is a very important aspect of the Revival of Romanticism. Rousseau was the philosopher who popularized it during those years. The Romantic poets temperament was shaped by their love for humanity.

Beauty and Hellenism in Romantic Poetry

Love for beauty or Hellenism is another salient feature of Romanticism. Keats sings in Endymion a "Thing of beauty is joy forever". His belief in the power of beauty has been resounded in many of his poems. In The Eve of St Agnes he has glorified female beauty. In Ode on a Grecian Urn he equalled beauty with truth. Shelley and Byron also wrote poems which show their interest in the appreciation of beauty.

Subjectivity in Romantic Expression

Subjective expression is one more feature of Romanticism. Poets in this period preferred to present their own feelings without hiding themselves. Wordsworth, for example, in Tintern Abbey and Ode on Intimation of Immortality presents his personal belief in the soothing power of Nature and prenatal existence of human soul. Similar personal experiences and beliefs are also found in the poetry of Keats.

Mysticism and Supernaturalism in Romantic Literature

Mysticism is inherent in the literature of Romantic period. In Wordsworth's poems mysticism is seen profusely. His pantheism pervading many of his famous poems is actually a reflection of his mystic bent of mind. Similarly Coleridge's supernaturalism bears the testimony of the mystical novels of romantic poetry. His famous poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is based on his mystic belief. The Mariner's alienation from the forces of Nature after killing the Albatross is indeed mystic because the bird's association with other natural phenomena is a matter of unusual belief. Further, the polar spirit, the Hermit and the Mariner's love for the ugly snakes are all mystical. Shelley's myths are also mystical in nature. The wonder of mysticism is also evident in the fictional and non-fictional prose writings of this period.

Classical Myths and the Romantic Imagination

The Romantic poets often went back to ancient Greek and Roman myths. Their use of Greek and Roman myths shows their love for ancient truths and culture. Keats poems are replete with these mythical elements. For example, his well-known poem, Ode on a Grecian Urn is based on an ancient Greek urn. The images on the body of the urn reflect Keats love for the Greek concept of aesthetic beauty, natural beauty and spiritual beauty ” which are eternal truths of life. Keats other odes are also replete with references to Greek and Roman myths. This nostalgia for the past is also found in the poems of other Romantic poets. 

Conclusion: The Essence of the Romantic Movement

Romanticism, therefore, is a literary movement that includes several trends in literature. The age had very powerful enthusiasm-a unique spirit that drove the poets soar in the higher sphere of reality. It was, for some poets, a revolution against the existing social and literary tradition; for others it was an age of idealising life and society.

Romanticism in English Literature: Origin, Features, and Key Poets

Green Land | June 25, 2025 | 0 comments

Romanticism in English Literature : An Overview

Romanticism, a literary movement, generally believed to begin in 1798 with the publication of Lyrical Ballads. This book was a collection of a new kind of 23 poems composed by Wordsworth and Coleridge. It was a successful joint venture by Wordsworth and Coleridge to establish a new trend in English poetry. It was a successful attempt to break away from the Neo-classical tradition of the previous age. Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley and Byron were the main exponents of this movement. The main features of Romantic poetry are: return to nature, spontaneity, dependence on imagination, love of beauty, mysticism, subjectivity, love of rural common people, use of Greek and Roman myths and use of simple language. This new kind of literary tradition is first seen in the Elizabethan age to some extent, but it revived with much vigour after 1798 as a direct consequence of the French Revolution

Return to Nature: The Core of Romanticism

Return to nature is the most dominant feature of Romantic literature. Nature here means the world of vegetation and the natural qualities of human beings. Wordsworth established a close kinship with Nature. His pantheism forms a wonder in the romantic appreciation of Nature. To him Nature is a mighty and majestic spirit that animates and mobilises every object of the visible world. Similarly Keats idealizes and glorifies Nature in his poetry. One remembers his famous images of natural phenomena in his odes showing his love of Nature.

Return to Nature also refers to the Romantic poets  love for natural qualities of man. It is akin to spontaneity. Wordsworth talked about it time and again in reaction to the artificiality of the Neoclassical age. To him poetry means, Spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. His The Solitary Reaper, Michael and Lucy Poems glorify the feelings of the downtrodden people.

Romanticism and the Common People

Love for common people found in the Romantic age is, in fact, glorification of humanism which is a very important aspect of the Revival of Romanticism. Rousseau was the philosopher who popularized it during those years. The Romantic poets temperament was shaped by their love for humanity.

Beauty and Hellenism in Romantic Poetry

Love for beauty or Hellenism is another salient feature of Romanticism. Keats sings in Endymion a "Thing of beauty is joy forever". His belief in the power of beauty has been resounded in many of his poems. In The Eve of St Agnes he has glorified female beauty. In Ode on a Grecian Urn he equalled beauty with truth. Shelley and Byron also wrote poems which show their interest in the appreciation of beauty.

Subjectivity in Romantic Expression

Subjective expression is one more feature of Romanticism. Poets in this period preferred to present their own feelings without hiding themselves. Wordsworth, for example, in Tintern Abbey and Ode on Intimation of Immortality presents his personal belief in the soothing power of Nature and prenatal existence of human soul. Similar personal experiences and beliefs are also found in the poetry of Keats.

Mysticism and Supernaturalism in Romantic Literature

Mysticism is inherent in the literature of Romantic period. In Wordsworth's poems mysticism is seen profusely. His pantheism pervading many of his famous poems is actually a reflection of his mystic bent of mind. Similarly Coleridge's supernaturalism bears the testimony of the mystical novels of romantic poetry. His famous poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is based on his mystic belief. The Mariner's alienation from the forces of Nature after killing the Albatross is indeed mystic because the bird's association with other natural phenomena is a matter of unusual belief. Further, the polar spirit, the Hermit and the Mariner's love for the ugly snakes are all mystical. Shelley's myths are also mystical in nature. The wonder of mysticism is also evident in the fictional and non-fictional prose writings of this period.

Classical Myths and the Romantic Imagination

The Romantic poets often went back to ancient Greek and Roman myths. Their use of Greek and Roman myths shows their love for ancient truths and culture. Keats poems are replete with these mythical elements. For example, his well-known poem, Ode on a Grecian Urn is based on an ancient Greek urn. The images on the body of the urn reflect Keats love for the Greek concept of aesthetic beauty, natural beauty and spiritual beauty ” which are eternal truths of life. Keats other odes are also replete with references to Greek and Roman myths. This nostalgia for the past is also found in the poems of other Romantic poets. 

Conclusion: The Essence of the Romantic Movement

Romanticism, therefore, is a literary movement that includes several trends in literature. The age had very powerful enthusiasm-a unique spirit that drove the poets soar in the higher sphere of reality. It was, for some poets, a revolution against the existing social and literary tradition; for others it was an age of idealising life and society.

The Romantic Period

The Thinker as a Symbol of Thought and Struggle 

The thinker, ape and steel are the major symbols of this play. Thinking is a favourite work of Yank. Now and then he tells his fellowmen to let him think. He says, “Lemmetink”. We the readers are introduced to this statue of Rodin several times when Yank needs to think. Yank’s impression of Rodin’s statue, “The Thinker” is symbolic of Yank’s need to think. 

While he physically embodies the cultural symbol of a “thinker” he cannot think himself. Every time O’Neill’s stage direction calls for the actor to take the position of “The Thinker” Yank has come up against an obstacle that cannot be tackled by any other means but thought—when Yank cannot process the realities before him. 

After Yank is thrown out of the I.W.W he immediately gets into “The Thinker” pose. He is desperate to make sense of his situation and understand why the union would throw him out. Yank’s inability to think not only reveals his regression to a lower animal form, but also renders him unable to adapt to or defend himself in the world beyond the ship.

The Ape - Symbol of Primitive Man 

The real ape in Scene Eight is the only other character that takes “The Thinker” position. The ape sharing this habitual body position reflects on Yank’s own animalistic state—his mode of thought is no more advanced than the ape’s. 

Apes are everywhere in The Hairy Ape: 

• Yank is called an ape, 
• Yank thinks he is an ape, 
• Mildred thinks she sees an ape, 
• Yank tells people he is an ape, 
• Senator Queen writes that the Wobblies wil degenerate American civilization “back to the ape” 
• And, most importantly, there is a real live ape in Scene 8. 

The ape symbolizes man in a primitive state before technology, complex language structures, complex thought or money was necessary. The ape represents man that is not only behind in an evolutionary sense, but is free of class, technology and other elements of modern society. The ape is only concerned with survival. 

Steel - Symbol of Both Power and Oppression 

Steel is both a symbol of power and oppression in The Hairy Ape. While Yank exclaims in Scene One that he is steel, “the muscles and the punch behind it,” he is all the while penned in a virtual cage of steel created by the ship around him. 

Steel creates other cages in the play~Yank’s jail cell and the cell of the Ape. Steel is also oppressive because it creates jobs like Yank’s, it is symbolic of the technology that force Yank and the Firemen into slave-like jobs. 

We see Yank at the beginning of the play as an ugly, almost simian figure, the leader of all the firemen on board an unnamed steamship. He glories in his strength and identifies himself with the machinery he serves. He perceives himself as the prime mover of all machinery, the maker of steel. 

He “belongs,” a favourite word with him. He has found a place for himself, one which satisfied him, in the inferno of the stokehole. This dream is shattered when Mildred Douglas, a jaded young society woman, visits the stokehole in search of a new experience and sees Yank. Steel betrays him, so he starts his search for his identity. 

The Hairy Ape Symbolism : The Thinker, the Ape, and Steel Explained

Green Land | April 09, 2025 | 0 comments

The Thinker as a Symbol of Thought and Struggle 

The thinker, ape and steel are the major symbols of this play. Thinking is a favourite work of Yank. Now and then he tells his fellowmen to let him think. He says, “Lemmetink”. We the readers are introduced to this statue of Rodin several times when Yank needs to think. Yank’s impression of Rodin’s statue, “The Thinker” is symbolic of Yank’s need to think. 

While he physically embodies the cultural symbol of a “thinker” he cannot think himself. Every time O’Neill’s stage direction calls for the actor to take the position of “The Thinker” Yank has come up against an obstacle that cannot be tackled by any other means but thought—when Yank cannot process the realities before him. 

After Yank is thrown out of the I.W.W he immediately gets into “The Thinker” pose. He is desperate to make sense of his situation and understand why the union would throw him out. Yank’s inability to think not only reveals his regression to a lower animal form, but also renders him unable to adapt to or defend himself in the world beyond the ship.

The Ape - Symbol of Primitive Man 

The real ape in Scene Eight is the only other character that takes “The Thinker” position. The ape sharing this habitual body position reflects on Yank’s own animalistic state—his mode of thought is no more advanced than the ape’s. 

Apes are everywhere in The Hairy Ape: 

• Yank is called an ape, 
• Yank thinks he is an ape, 
• Mildred thinks she sees an ape, 
• Yank tells people he is an ape, 
• Senator Queen writes that the Wobblies wil degenerate American civilization “back to the ape” 
• And, most importantly, there is a real live ape in Scene 8. 

The ape symbolizes man in a primitive state before technology, complex language structures, complex thought or money was necessary. The ape represents man that is not only behind in an evolutionary sense, but is free of class, technology and other elements of modern society. The ape is only concerned with survival. 

Steel - Symbol of Both Power and Oppression 

Steel is both a symbol of power and oppression in The Hairy Ape. While Yank exclaims in Scene One that he is steel, “the muscles and the punch behind it,” he is all the while penned in a virtual cage of steel created by the ship around him. 

Steel creates other cages in the play~Yank’s jail cell and the cell of the Ape. Steel is also oppressive because it creates jobs like Yank’s, it is symbolic of the technology that force Yank and the Firemen into slave-like jobs. 

We see Yank at the beginning of the play as an ugly, almost simian figure, the leader of all the firemen on board an unnamed steamship. He glories in his strength and identifies himself with the machinery he serves. He perceives himself as the prime mover of all machinery, the maker of steel. 

He “belongs,” a favourite word with him. He has found a place for himself, one which satisfied him, in the inferno of the stokehole. This dream is shattered when Mildred Douglas, a jaded young society woman, visits the stokehole in search of a new experience and sees Yank. Steel betrays him, so he starts his search for his identity. 

The Hairy Ape