Oriental Circle

This thesis aims at studying the influence of Oriental thoughts upon Eugene O'Neill and the manifestation of such influence through the four women characters' circular progress of searching for belonging in O'Neill's plays, so as to reveal O'Neill's final acceptance of Oriental religions as his spiritual shelter after the restless attempts he had made to search for the meaning of life. Application of psychoanalysis and other literary thoughts would be illustrative rather than theoretical, and it would be subordinate to the textual analysis in the present study.This thesis is composed of five chapters. Chapter One contains a brief introduction of Eugene O'Neill and a literature review of the studies on his women characters. Chapter Two traces the brief development of the conception of tragedy and compares the main features of classical tragedy with that of modern tragedy which focuses more on ordinary people with common weakness as its heroes. Instead of the hero's own error or frailty as the cause of his misfortune in the classical tragedy, the indifferent circumstances over which the individual has no control is manifested as the main causeof individual's misfortune in modern tragedy. This chapter ends with the conclusion that Eugene O'Neill, with his characters from various social levels and the ethical and cultural themes manifested in his plays, is the representative of modern American tragic playwrights.Chapter Three studies the formation of O'Neill's unique tragic thoughts. As a Western man bom with Irish race, O'Neill's intellectual background is dominated by twq traditions — Christianity and American culture. Despite of his disillusion with the Church caused by his unfortunate childhood spent in Catholic boarding schools and his mother's addiction, the impacts of the Western religion penetrate his plays. The ideas of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Jung whose theories either paralleled or drew upon Oriental mystical theories also received his intense scrutiny and contributed to the formation of his tragic thoughts during his adult life. Abandoning western religion with the realization that nobody, even the God, can be forgiven, along with other external influence and internal desire of searching for the meaning of life, prompt O'Neill to turn to Oriental mysticism for answers. Oriental mystical approaches to time, personality and ultimate reality influenced O'Neill's vision in deep and subtle ways. From the early sea plays through the final tragedies, O'Neill's affinity to Eastern mysticism informs his dynamic vision of reality, influences the values and attitudes of his protagonists and shapes the symbolism and structure of entire plays. Particularly, the concept of spaceless and timeless of the phenomenal world, the circular rhythm of samsara is manifested and sometimes even dominant in O'Neill's plays. O'Neill mingled Oriental religion with Western intellectual tradition he inherited, thus formed his tragic thoughts with the impacts of Oriental circular concept.Chapter Four analyzes the application of O'Neill's circular tragic thoughts in the progress of searching for belonging in daydreams represented by four main women portraits. Eugene O'Neill, whose fascination with the Orient lay in its mystical speculations about man, God and reality, must be fully aware of the nearly identical conclusions the Buddhism and Taoism reached about the illusory phenomenal world, the unreal ego, the ensnarement of desire, the wandering soul, and the impersonal forces behind life. Throughout Eugene O'Neill's career, he created these characters as people...