Humanities Homework Help

Eugene O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh” focuses on a group of alcoholics and misfits who endlessly discuss but never act on their dreams, and Hickey, the traveling salesman who is determined to strip them of their pipe dreams. In your essay, you will write a critical response to O’Neill’s dramatic work by responding to one of the three following essay prompts. 

Essay Prompt: Choose one of the following three prompts to respond to: 

In The Iceman Cometh, what does the imaginary “Iceman” represent? Is it something different for each character? How can you tell? Of all of the characters in the play, which character most resonates with you and why? 

Could The Iceman Cometh be set in modern times? If you directed the play and wanted to set it in contemporary America, how would you go about doing it? What would be different and what would stay the same?

What comments does the play (and O’Neill) seem to make on the nature of hope, hopelessness, and false hopes in our society? What is the antidote in our modern times to despair?