In the Iceman Cometh, regulars at a Greenwich village bar await the return of Theodore "Hickey" Hickman, a salesman who always throws a party when he arrives. But, this time, Hickey has found salvation and is completely sober. The play examines the futility of pursuing the American Dream. Each of the patrons in the bar have given up on their dreams or somehow betrayed themselves, including Hickey, who reveals that he has killed his wife and ends up turning himself in.
The central contention of the play is the human need for self-deceptions or“pipe dreams" in order to get on with life; to abandon them or to see them for the lies that they are is to risk death. It is in this context that the story concludes with Larry Slade calling himself “the only real convert to death Hickey made here” as a response to witnessing Parritt’s suicidal leap from the roof. Having stopped lying to himself and come to terms with his real motivation behind informing on his mother and her west coast anarchist coterie, Parritt can no longer live with himself and dies, while Slade continues lying to himself and thereby lives.
The play contains many allusions to political topics, particularly anarchism and socialism.
Hugo, Larry and Don are former members of an anarchist movement. Larry, now a bitter man who claims to be waiting for death, is approached by his ex-girlfriend's son, Don, at the beginning of the play, and Don remains at the bar. Don admits that he informed the police of the illegal activities of his mother and other anarchists. He gives several reasons for this, but later admits that they are not the real ones. He first claims that he did it because of patriotism and then that he wanted the money, but finally admits he did it because he hated his mother, who was so obsessed with her own freedom that she became too self-centered and often either ignored or dominated him. The conversations between Don and Larry are among the most emotional in the play. Some of these conversations also often involve Hickey, whose actions somewhat parallel Don's.
Two other characters are veterans of the Second Boer War. One is British, and one is Afrikaans. They alternately defend and insult each other, and there are many allusions to events in South Africa. Both wish to return to their home countries, but their families do not want them there.
Joe is the only African American character, and makes several speeches about racial differences.
The Iceman Cometh is often compared to Maxim Gorky's The Lower Depths , which may have been O'Neill's inspiration for his play.
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