The Iceman Cometh

What an introspective play.It will make you analyze your life. Hickey the nihilist. People who are to afraid to face life and the consequences from their own decisions. I've enjoyed all of O'Neill plays that I have read so far.

"By rights you should be contented now, without a single damned hope or lying dream left to torment you!" an exasperated Theodore Hickman says to the band of washed up alcoholics Hickey calls his friends. Do our 'pipe dreams' actually prevent us from being happy? I don't know. But since reading "Iceman" I can't help but think about the big things I'll get to tomorrow; writing that book, climbing that mountain. Would it just be easier to accept the fear and laziness for what it is? Taoists would say that pipe dreams are phantoms that take us away from the present moment. But in America our hopes and dreams define us. They are the fuel that powers our effort for a better tomorrow. I also wonder about the band of alcoholics O'Neill chose to create. I get the feeling that all of the characters have received the short-end of life's stick, and I don't blame them for their phantoms. These are people who have been totally abandoned by their families and the organizations that are supposed to provide support and structures. Are the educated and wealthy really any better? Wouldn't "Iceman" have been equally as moving if set in a classy bar of lawyers and financiers? How about a prayer circle of sinners? I don't know. But "The Iceman Cometh" is haunting and bound to stay with you for a very long time.

This play makes you think....think about your own life. The action centers around a group of 'down and out'ers in a dive bar for career drunks, located in 1920s New York. The plot develops when Hickey, a long-time occasional visitor, returns, and tries to encourage these ne'er do wells to improve their lives.A great play, with fantastic speeches and vivid imagery. The characters are colorful, and use a lot of language, and the subject matter of the play may offend more sensitive readers. This play is thought-provoking, and made me think about the direction of my own life, and the lies I tell myself about why I can't/won't do some things to make my life better...and where I may end up if I don't change my own direction....which seems to be the author's intent.This play is definitely worth the read, with few weaknesses, if any, to list. Entertaining, thought-provoking, colorful, and serious. Occasionally funny, but very interesting.If this review was helpful to you, I'd appreciate your indication below. Thanks!

Taking place in a bar in New York City, O'Neill brings together a colorful collection of down and outers whose only thrill in life is waiting for the yearly visit of Hickey, a hard-drinking traveling salesman with wild tales of the road and jokes about wives running off with the iceman. The big day arrives to find that Hickey has cleaned up his act, and he has come on a mission to show his fellows how to get out from under the burden of their self-imposed fantasies of fairy tale endings. Just as a wife running off with the iceman represents cold hard reality crushing false dreams, Hickey is the iceman of the bar, crushing the "pipe dreams" of the patrons and jarring them from their lethargy. Intriguingly written, with realistic relatable characters and dialog.

I rarely read plays, as I naturally enjoy them more when they are actually performed. And O'Neill's Iceman Cometh is particularly difficult to read. While certainly not as long as some of his other masterpieces, the language is heavily tilted toward slang, and the scene settings at the beginning of each act are unusually long and detailed (and not that interesting for a reader, as opposed to a stage director - skip 'em). Still, the story of quite despair shared by all characters, the attempt at redemption suddenly fostered on them by one of their own buddies, their resistance to change, and the slow realization of exactly what had happened to him and why he suddenly wished to change everyone's life are incredibly powerful. The play is slow, so it takes some commitment to make it through the early part, but it is well worth the effort. And so it is to take some time after you read the book to reflect on how you feel about the characters, their predicament, and their inability to give up their "pipe dreams" while steadily drowning themselves in alcohol.

One of the greatest plays ever written. As good as anything by Sam Beckett.I'd seen the play decades ago, the version with Lee Marvin as Hickey and Fredric March as Harry Hope. Robert Ryan stole that show. Excellent version, almost as good as the one with Jason Robards. Laid out here in written format is very good as well.There are all kinds of critics that branded this play as pessimistic..... Illusions, delusions, loss of courage, guilt and insanity and the rest of the human condition are covered pretty well by O'Neill. He had compassion for his characters in this play because he knew these types and he was one......Conversation and dialogue by misfits and losers in a seedy bar in New York in 1912 may not appeal to people today but if you are the type of person looking for the truth in art...you'll find it here....

Really enjoyed this story, it is unpredictable and speaks on human nature in an unusual/original way. I love less than dashing characters and this story is chock full. It really gets to the dark parts of the human psyche. How we dilute ourselves, use each other and succumb to the worst part of ourselves more often than we all would like to admit. I'm in my late 30s now and could relate to the idea of just 'giving up' moreso than when I was younger. I probably would like this less if I read this as a teenager or in my early 20s. You need to have lived a bit and been truly disappointed in life before you can relate to the material fully.

Eugene is Eugene.Eugene delves into the pipe dreams of drunk. I think if you read this then you'll end up relating to maybe a few of the characters.Good read and i believe Robert Falls did a good job in directing this play in Chicago.

Not bad, but I. L. Caragiale was a better play writer, in my opinion.

Yeah gezzer

great thanks

Une oeuvre puissante , désillusionnée , désespérée . Une vision sans concessions de la vie et de ses aléas . Importance du langage et des accents des personnages , pour qui aime les mots , un régal .