What is the theme in The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O'Neill?

Death is a theme in the play. Harry Hope's saloon, Larry notes at the beginning of the play, is "harmless as a graveyard." In a sense, however, Hope's saloon is a graveyard— "The End of the Line Café," as Larry calls it. The saloon's inhabitants cling to their pipe dreams, but their lives are essentially over. Death is the next stop. Larry claims to hope for death. He welcomes it as "a fine long sleep, and I'm damned tired, and it can't come too soon for me."