Pipe Dreams: The Lifeblood of Ruin and Despair in "The Iceman Cometh".

"The Iceman Cometh" by Eugene O'Neill centers on drunks in a skid row bar in 1912. The bar dwellers spend their time drinking rotgut whiskey and reminiscing about yesterdays and idolizing tomorrows, the fantasies of the future, which are shattered by the reformed salesman, Hickey. In the play, these pipe dreams keep the bar's populace alive. All of the residents of Harry Hope's bar thrive on pipe dreams, except Larry and Parritt, but the effects still …

…problem going out and gallivanting about and there would be no play. Larry and Parritt have no real definable pipe dream; nevertheless, the effects of the pipe dreams and Hickey's arrival affect them both. The other drunks are attached to the booze as well as their pipe dreams. Without those comfort objects they would be nothing. Despite Hickey's wholehearted, though bizarre, persuasions, the pipe dreams stayed, along with its lingering stench of ruin and despair.