The Pursuit Of Meaning Of Life In Despair

As a play presenting the universal predicament of human beings, The Iceman Comethcreated by American playwright Eugene O’Neill can be viewed as one representative work in hislate working period, which is regarded as one of his best works by himself.The play displays a collection of people who are stuck in the plight of life. They include themad proprietor, impoverished gambler, penniless prostitutes, broken-down Harward Universitygraduate, low bartender, depressed army men, cashiered policeman and cynical movementreformers. The play draws the outline of the picture which is consisted of the host Harry Hopeand the other fifteen boarders who drag through their lives on alcohol and daydreams, waitingfor the salesman Hickey.This thesis is assisted by three points of Sartrean Existentialism to explore those charactersin the play. These three views are the absurd outside, the depressing inner world and the free wayfor human beings to pursue in despair. Firstly, the absurdity of the outside leads to theimpossibility of being-for-itself which is the consciousness of human beings. Its uncertaintymakes the present as the denial and dissatisfaction of self, then it becomes nothingness. At thesame time, the absurdity results in the accidence of being-in-itself. As the origin and essence ofmatter and human, being-in-itself is accidental. Meanwhile, the relation between man and man ishellish, full of conflicts. When one is looked by others, he can not be an entire self and then losesthe right to choose and take action. Thus, the relation between man and man becomes alienatedand distorted. Secondly, living in the absurd world, man is suffering. As a man in the absurdworld, what the world offers human is endless unhappiness, despair and negativity. Thirdly, asthe center of Sartrean Existentialism, man is totally free when taking action. The fulfillment offreedom carries out the responsibility for oneself, for others and the society. In front of despair,the characters in the play choose freely to fulfill their meaning of existence respectively.First of all, the thesis analyzes the absurdity of the outside, which is specifically embodiedin the nothingness of “I” and the hellish relationship between man and man. Through discussingthe analyses of Harry, Parritt and three absent female characters, the thesis unfolds the dreadfulliving environment which presents the accidence of being-in-itself, the impossibility ofbeing-for-itself and the hellish relations among human.Next, the thesis combines the analyses related to the suffering life of those characters, suchas Larry’s dispirited world value, Parritt’s lonely heart and the struggle between positivity andnegativity of some characters.Finally, the thesis tries to uncover the pursuit of meaning in despair through the way ofexistence by those characters in the play, further exploring the philosophical features of those characters. By fulfilling the responsibility and freedom, those characters find their meaning ofexistence in this hopeless world.The thesis concludes that the characters in The Iceman Cometh embody the threecharacteristics of Sartrean Existentialism. The play fully presents a Sartrean existentialisticmeaning for people to pursue in the despairing life.