Who Sees Ghosts? Metaphysical Blackness in <i>The Hairy Ape</i>

ABSTRACT In Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape (1922), ghosts persist as elusive specters amid a play entrenched in existential explorations of physical existence. This article argues that the presence of ghosts blurs the lines of being and extend the discourse of Blackness beyond mere physicalized racial boundaries. Through a lens that interweaves ghosts, whiteness, and Blackness, The Hairy Ape begins to emerge as a play that produces an exploration of the nature of being that radically resists normativity. This article aims to shed light on the interplay between ghosts and Blackness in this play and offer insights into the meaning of nonbeing and metaphysical Blackness, which are ubiquitous in this play. This article argues that despite O’Neill’s insistence that this is not a “black play,” it is still a play concerned with the ontology of Blackness.