The Iceman Cometh

Eugene O'Neill

4 ideas

1. Hickey's crusade and confession of murder

   Theodore Hickman, a hardware salesman, arrives at Harry Hope's saloon for Harry's birthday binge sober for the first time. He pushes each regular to act on his 'tomorrow' plan, such as Harry finally walking around the ward or Jimmy getting his old job back, and every one of them fails and comes back broken. Hickey then confesses that he shot his long-forgiving wife Evelyn in her sleep, and the men accept his plea that he must have been insane so they can return to drinking and their pipe dreams.

2. The pipe dream as survival mechanism

   A pipe dream is a deferred 'tomorrow' plan, like getting the old job back or going home, that is never meant to be tried. Its job is to keep self-respect alive by leaving the person's failure unconfirmed. Because the plan stays safely in the future, it can never be disproved, and that is what lets a derelict go on living.

3. Forced truth-telling kills rather than liberates

   Hickey promises that facing the truth about yourself will bring peace, but when the men test their dreams against reality they are left without the will to live, and even the liquor loses its kick. The play argues that exposing someone's sustaining illusion does not free them. It takes away the thing that was holding them up, and puts nothing in its place.

4. Reformer's zeal as displaced guilt

   Hickey's evangelism comes from his need to justify his own act, not from care for the men. He needs everyone else to give up their illusions so that his murder of Evelyn looks like a mercy that brought her peace. On this reading, a crusade to save other people can be the crusader's way of escaping his own guilt, and his insistence grows with the size of what he is hiding.

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