Autobiographical Features in O'Neill's Plays
Autobiographical Features in O’ Neill’s Plays
Modern Drama INTRODUCTION
In the framework of the course Modern Drama I have assumed to make an assignment about the autobiographical features in O’Neill’s plays. I have chosen two of them: the Desire Under the Elms and the Long Day’s Journey into Night. In the pages that follow you can read my study of these two plays that were written from an increasingly personal point of view, deriving directly from the scarring effects of his family’s tragic relationships. O’Neill’s life and plays offer a source of abundant material about the relation of autobiographical features and his writings. Dramatizing the family unit is the heart of his writings. The mothers and fathers of his plays are a choice originating from his own needs made to explain his mother’s and father’s behavior. Sons’ relationships are variations based on the structure of his own relationship with his parents as well as his children’s relationship with him. Moreover, the feminine figure plays a principal role. Most characters of his plays are similar or even identical to his family members.
In November 1924, after a short period of sorrow, O’Neill made the production of his play Desire Under the Elms. More powerful than Anna Kristie and Beyond the Horizon, it included all the typical features of O’Neill’s talent reflecting his anxiety about the human passionate nature and his inevitable fate. The play was O’Neill’s personal mourning for the loss of his family depicting the love and hate relations between father and son, couple and brothers. In this play, the son is in constant conflict with the father while the mother is the lovable and caring ally of the son. O’Neill, in this play, while making the portrait of Abbie’s feminine character, presented the opposing powers reflecting his mother’s character. Gelb characterizes the play Desire Under the Elms as “a non-conscious autobiography” while the play Long Day’s Journey into Night is
Modern Drama INTRODUCTION
In the framework of the course Modern Drama I have assumed to make an assignment about the autobiographical features in O’Neill’s plays. I have chosen two of them: the Desire Under the Elms and the Long Day’s Journey into Night. In the pages that follow you can read my study of these two plays that were written from an increasingly personal point of view, deriving directly from the scarring effects of his family’s tragic relationships. O’Neill’s life and plays offer a source of abundant material about the relation of autobiographical features and his writings. Dramatizing the family unit is the heart of his writings. The mothers and fathers of his plays are a choice originating from his own needs made to explain his mother’s and father’s behavior. Sons’ relationships are variations based on the structure of his own relationship with his parents as well as his children’s relationship with him. Moreover, the feminine figure plays a principal role. Most characters of his plays are similar or even identical to his family members.
In November 1924, after a short period of sorrow, O’Neill made the production of his play Desire Under the Elms. More powerful than Anna Kristie and Beyond the Horizon, it included all the typical features of O’Neill’s talent reflecting his anxiety about the human passionate nature and his inevitable fate. The play was O’Neill’s personal mourning for the loss of his family depicting the love and hate relations between father and son, couple and brothers. In this play, the son is in constant conflict with the father while the mother is the lovable and caring ally of the son. O’Neill, in this play, while making the portrait of Abbie’s feminine character, presented the opposing powers reflecting his mother’s character. Gelb characterizes the play Desire Under the Elms as “a non-conscious autobiography” while the play Long Day’s Journey into Night is
References: Gassner, John, O’Neill A Collection of Critical Essays, Prentice-Hall, Inc, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Gelb, Arthur and Barbara, O’Neill, 1962 Καραγκούνη, Κέλλυ, Ερμηνεύοντας το Θεατρικό Λόγο του Ο’Νιλ, Εκδοτικός Οργανισμός Λιβάνη, Αθήνα, 2007 Clark, Barrett, Ευγένιος Ο’Νιλ, Ο Άνθρωπος και το Έργο του, Μετάφραση: Νικολοπούλου, Β, Εκδόσεις Γκοβόστη