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Category: Film | Posted By: Josue Rodriguez | Rating: 
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'The Ice Man Cometh,' written by Eugene O'Neill in 1939 and published in 1946, revolves around alcoholics who all share 'pipe dreams,' dreams that they know will never come true. Despite their hopeless outlooks they provide one another with support, though it is in the form of excuses, endless reasons to postpone moving toward achieving their dreams. The character Theodore Hickman, or 'Hickey' to his companions, is a man enlightened. He has broken free from the endless laziness and excuses and begins to help his peers by making them fulfill their hopes. What they do not see are the personal struggles that Hickey deals with as he helps those around him.
The character was played by Jason Robards, whose acting and mannerisms fit Hickey's 'easy flow of glib' and 'persuasive convincingness' well. Hickey is a round character due to the complex ideology he has in his mind about letting go of guilt and of clinging to empty dreams. Hickey concentrates on his quest to help his friends and fellow bar patrons, though in the back of his mind he fears that they will fail despite his encouragement. Even with his good intentions, he cannot prevent the thoughts of their past records of postponement and procrastination from creeping into his mind. Hickey's epiphany of realization comes when he determines that he needs to change, and by doing so will be able to help those around him who are in worse shape than himself. He concludes that by forgetting their hopeless dreams and aiming for something achievable their lives will become more fulfilling. Before this enlightening thought he constantly relied on alcohol to keep him afloat. Much of his motivation for drinking was the weight and pressure of his wife, Evelyn.
With Hickey's actions we see that he has a pipe dream of his own, to be free of female compassion and have no constraints. He murders his own wife to achieve this, shooting her in the head to gain freedom. This act releases him of the guilt he should have felt from lying to her with empty promises of cleaning up his act. Though he loved his wife, he seemed to love alcohol and losing his inhibitions more. Spending his evenings at the bar and his nights in a prostitute's bed, his wife was put on the backburner. She continued to take him with open arms, slowly driving Hickey to the drastic decision of killing her. Eventually Hickey believed that his wife was actually encouraging his actions indirectly by continuing to love him and stay by him despite his lack of change. She obviously knew about his drinking and infidelity, but she did nothing to stop it. Evelyn knew Hickey could not handle his temptations; those temptations including drowning himself in alcohol and sleeping around with other women. Hickey eventually contracted a STI (sexually transmitted infection), which he lies to her about, saying he must have gotten it from drinking out of the same cup as someone else. Hickey later sees that his wife has a pipe dream as well, hers being that Hickey would stop his negative behavior.
Hickey's solution to the 'problem' of Evelyn is a rather violent one, his happiness achieved by the bullet that stops her life short. With her death comes his freedom, all of the weight she had placed on him is immediately lifted from his shoulders, including any guilt a person should feeling after murdering his or her spouse. Now that he is liberated his life is open to possibility, though ironically the path he chooses is one that does not involve alcohol. In the past Hickey had spent the majority of his time having a good time with his friends at the bar, buying rounds of drinks to drown their sorrows and dreams. After the death of his wife, Hickey is a changed man. At first he keeps the reason for this ' his wife's death ' a secret from his fellow bar mates, but eventually the truth is revealed. He makes such an effort to get people to like him, paying for drinks at the bar, buying presents and entertaining those around him, that no one would have ever expected such a thing from him. Hickey wanted people to have a good time, to enjoy themselves, and to like him. He brought presents and often put on a performance, and his arrival was looked forward to by everyone at the bar.
In the final scene, Hickey tells the story about how he came to murderer his wife. Hickey felt what he was doing was right; though he was not completely certain. He questioned himself, asking how he could do it, but quickly reaffirmed that it was 'the only way out.' Hickey truly believed that this action would set both Evelyn and his own mind free. Even after admitting the truth to his friends at the bar, their view of him remains the same. Hickey's insanity was not taken to heart by his fellow comrades, their only concern being where the next drink was coming from.
With the play's conclusion, Hickey has become a man who faces his actions. He sees that there are things in his life that need to change, and he takes the necessary steps to correct them. He frees himself from the grip and pressure of his wife by killing her, now leaving him free too live his life the way he chooses, and becomes a better person for it. He stops drinking and instead turns his attention not to himself but to those around him, with goals of helping his friends at the bar give up their hopeless dreams and get out and do something with their lives.
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