Illusion and reality in Eugene O’neill’s the iceman cometh

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Illusion and Reality in Eugene O’Neill’s The Icemann Cometh In “The Iceman Cometh”, O’Neill presents a group of characters who withdraw from society because of their failure to cope with its demands and find in Harry Hope’s inn a refuge which protects them from outer threats.

They spend their time in drinking alcohol and deceiving themselves that tomorrow they will prove that they are not failures.

Each of them dreams of going out, looking for a job or getting their old jobs back .

However, they do not put their promises to action but they go on dreaming.

Even Harry Hope, the owner of the inn who hasn’t set a foot outside his inn for twenty years dreams that one day he will walk out and take part in the social activities of his city as he used to do in the past.

The women characters are also building a world of dreams and illusions to compensate for the harsh life they lead.

These women are street walkers who have been manipulated and exploited badly by the bartender Rocky but they keep on saying that they are only ‘tarts” who like to pass a good time, while Cora dreams of getting married and settling in a farm.

Those characters are waiting for Hickey, a hardware businessman who usually comes to the inn and pays for their drinks .

But his sudden change leads to the collapse of their false world.

He tells them that he does not need alcohol anymore because he has been liberated from his pipe dream and he comes this time with the task of helping each one of them to free himself from his pipe dream.

They received his change with resentment and confusion, when he forces each character to go out and face the world , they come back horrified , and after their failure to put their promises to action, he declares his real intention which is to strip them of their dreams and illusions because this will give them the peace of mind which he gained, and he goes on to the revelation that he killed his wife because he loved her and he wanted to liberate her from the illusion that one day he will stop drinking and be a good husband , but suddenly, this leads him to the realization that he hated his wife and this was the real motive for killing her.

Startled by this revelation, the characters think that Hickey is insane and they finally regain their composure and their illusion.

Hickey’s argument has an effect on two characters, Parriitt, the young radical who realizes that he was motivated by hatred in betraying his mother and with Larry’s help, learns that only by killing himself he can ever become free of her.

In this play, O’Neill presents his viewpoint that getting rid of illusions and pipe dreams doesn’t bring contentment to man, on the contrary, without illusions life looks bleaker and the future fearful.

But living in this way will change man into a passive creature and it will strip him of his will to change things and to direct his life.

Therefore, facing reality with all its contradictions and disappointments is more constructive than to bask in dreams and illusions.