An Analogical Study Of The Protagonists’ Tragedies In The Hairy Ape And One Out Of Many From The Perspective Of Existentialist Theory

The Hairy Ape, finished in1922, is one of Eugene O’Neill’s best-known plays. Ittells a tragic story with eight scenes. The main character “Yank” has a life full oftragedy. One out of Many by V. S. Naipaul, an Indian-British writer, was a Novellapublished in1971in a book called in a Free State, which won the2001Nobel Prizein Literature. In the novel, the protagonist Santosh also goes through a tragic life. Thetwo literary works depict stories happening at different times in different settings, butboth of them show the writers’ deep concerns about people’s existence in their times.After reading the two works, people will get similar emotional experience. This thesiswill try to find the deep causes of the tragedies of the protagonists and people of theirkind. These causes are also profound lessons for modern people. Sartre’sexistentialism believes that existence precedes essence, and people have to identifythemselves through action. This thesis will try to analyze the lives of the twoprotagonists from the perspective of existentialism theory.This thesis consists of five parts.The introduction mainly introduces the background information about the twoauthors and their works, the content of the two works, the basic existentialist concepts,the methodology employed and the literary review of the two works.Chapter one analyzes the protagonists’ behavior through employing the conceptof “Bad Faith” in Sartre’s existentialism. Although Yank exists like a thing andSantosh forever plays a role, the similarity between them is that both of them do notface their true self, and are forever content with things as they are. They both escapethe condemned task of free choice and creating their own lives continuously. FromSartre’s point of view, they are in “Bad Faith”.Chapter two has a probe into the protagonists’ relations with other people in thetwo works. In existentialism, through “The Look”, a relationship between “I” and theother people arise. Both of the two protagonists realize their true situation under the“Look” of others, but they do not acquire rebirth since then. Yank does not face his past directly, pursue his own life freely, instead, he sinks into the hatred and endlessrevenge. After awakening, Santosh still cannot overcome the obstacles in his heart.He cannot break through others’“Look” and choose his own life freely. The similaritybetween them is that they get too deep in others’“Look”, so they become the victimof others, and for them, hell is other people.Chapter three mainly deals with man’s responsibility for what he is. People makethemselves to be like that and they should be responsible for their cowardice. This iswhere the meaning of “responsibility” in Sartre’s existentialism lies.The last chapter is the conclusion. Through serious analysis and research of thecharacters’ behavior in the two works, this thesis shows that their “Bad Faith” andtheir overly concern with “The Look” of others are the main causes of their tragedies,and they pay the price for their behavior at last. The behavior of the protagonists inthe two literary works may be influenced by external conditions like environment,society, and history, but people’s inner strength, his subjectivity and his courage tochoose and define his own life also cannot be neglected. This thesis, throughemploying Sartre’s philosophy of existentialism, mainly focuses on the internalfactors that lead to their tragedies.Few theses do researches on the two rather different literary works from theperspective of existentialism. This thesis finds a new path, that is, by employingSartre’s existentialism, probes into the common causes of the two protagonists’tragedies from inner elements of people. This makes a little contribution to the twoworks and the tragedies of the protagonists in the two works are also profoundlessons for our modern people.