His Father: an Extremely Successful Actor

( 3 3 ) E u g e n e O ’ N e i l l : F o u n d e r o f M o d e r n A m e r i c a n D r a m a

E u g e n e O ’ N e i l l ( 1 8 8 8 – 1 9 5 3 )

L i f e :

-b. in an Ir. immigrant family

-his father: an extremely successful actor

-his mother: a morphine addict, hated backstage life, though loved her husband

-his older brother James: an actor and alcoholic

-toured each y., lived in hotels, and spent summers in their CT home

-suspended from a college for drinking and rebellious behaviour

-the next 5 y. ‘just drifted’, drank, and spent most time among the homeless, criminals, radicals, artists, and seamen > his early plays

-half a y. spent in a hospital with TBC, started serious reading of drama (H. Ibsen, Gr. tragedy, etc.), and enrolled as a special student at the Harvard drama workshop

-became the leading member of 2 avant-garde theatre groups, incl. the ‘Provincetown Players’ (1915), and laid foundations for the modern Little Theatre Movement

W o r k :

-despised the pop. Victorian theatre repres. by his father, decided to transform the Am. stage, and to create a new dramatic style

-produced a drama of voice and atmosphere rather than plot: an excellent ear for the vernacular, gift for evoking a powerful atmosphere, and ability to make each play an experience of extraordinary intensity

-the nation’s 1st major playwright, the 1st to explore serious themes, the 1st to experiment, and the only dramatist ever to win the Nobel Prize

O n e - a c t P l a y s ( 1 9 1 0 s ) :

-wrote one-act plays based on his experiences at sea

-followed an exaggerated realism, even naturalism

-used a natural, crude, and slangy dialogue

Thirst, and Other One-Act Plays (1914):

-his 1st publ. book

Bound East for Cardiff (1916):

-his 1st produced play

I n n e r E m o t i o n P l a y s ( 1 9 2 0 s ) :

-put the leading characters under experiences so intense that their ‘characters’ disintegrated

-experimented with the stage techniques conveying inner emotions, frequently used modernist elements:

(a)ignored the divisions of scenes, acts, and the expected length

(b)split one character btw 2 actors

(c)re-introd. ghosts, choruses, the Shakespearean monologue, and a direct address to audience

(d)used light and sound effects to enhance emotion

Beyond the Horizon (1920):

-his 1st full-length play winning him his 1st Pulitzer Prize

The Emperor Jones (1920):

-a mixture of reality x fantasy against an incessant beat of drums

-a seemingly civilised person gives way to a primitive fear when under stress

Anna Christie (1921):

-a step backward in technique x but: won him his 2nd Pulitzer Prize

The Hairy Ape (1922):

-a lower-class sailor realises how he is viewed by the upper class and degenerates into what he is perceived to be

Desire Under the Elms (1924):

-a family conflict and desire

The Great God Brown (1926):

-the inner life of a successful businessman

Strange Interlude (1928):

-a 9-act play winning him his 3rd Pulitzer Prize

-a new dramatic language: stresses breakdowns in communication, introd. the ‘interior dialogue’ [= actors speak seemingly to one another x but: actually think aloud for themselves in a stream of consciousness]

-the inner life of a beautiful woman

A u t o b i o g r a p h i c a l P l a y s ( 1 9 3 0 s ) :

Mourning Becomes Electra (1931):

-his most ambitious 9-hour long play, and one of his most played

-based on the Gr. drama of Sophocles

-the passions of an old New En. family at the end of the Civil War

Autobiographical Plays:

-the death of his father, mother, and brother in a close succession (1920s)

-an intention to dramatise his family life in 9 autobiog. plays featuring the Tyrones = the O’Neills

-< S. Freud: the subconscious, irrational drives, importance of sex, and the lifelong infl. of parents

Ah, Wilderness! (1933):

-a ‘comedy of recollection’ centred on himself: a rebellious adolescent’s growing up in a turn-of-the-c. CT family

-the only comedy of his well over 30 plays

A Touch of the Poet (posthum.):

-centred on his miserly father James senior

-made a fortune by playing the role of The Count of Monte Christo 5,000 times x but: betrayed his ideals and destroyed his family

A Moon for the Misbegotten (posthum.):

-centred on his alcoholic brother James junior

Long Day’s Journey into Night (posthum.):

-centred on all the 4 Tyrones x but: esp. on his drug-addicted mother

-an intense 4 and ½ hour long play of seemingly unabating raw emotions, haunted characters, and the ghosts dwelling within their psyches (the word ‘ghosts’ recurs throughout the play)

-a series of encounters btw the characters: each character placed together with one or more oth. until every combination is worked through

-the characters unaware of the motives of their behaviour, their behaviour not to be explained x but: seen as the inevitable human condition

-the title: ‘day’ = a literal day in the lives of the Tyrones, ‘journey’ = their journey through life twd death

L a st P l a y s ( 1 9 4 0 s ) :

The Iceman Cometh (1946):

-a 4 and ½ hour long play

-his own experience of drunk and hopeless individuals from his NY waterfront days

-climax: perhaps the longest monologue in Am. drama

Hughie (posthum.):

-a return to the spare claustrophobic setting of his early plays

More Stately Mansions (posthum.)