On The Poetic Characteristics Of Eugene O'Neill's Late Plays

Eugene O'Neill was the leading playwright in America in the first half of the 20thcentury. In his entire artistic career, He completed nearly 50 plays, which deal with awide variety of subjects, concerning issues in religion, society, family and humanity.As a pioneer of modern American theatre, he made a great contribution to Americandrama, American culture and American ideas.Eugene O'Neill's achievements in drama have made him world famous. Fourtimes he won the American Pulitzer Prize, the highest honor of Drama. Because of hisvital energy, sincerity, and intensity of feeling, stamped with an original conception oftragedy that are conveyed by his plays, Eugene O'Neill was awarded the Nobel Prizefor Literature in 1936.The critical studies of Eugene O'Neill have long since focused on hisexpressionistic techniques, his tragic tensions, his thinking property, his tragicconsciousness, his life philosophy, the influence of Taoism on his plays, and thetreatment of women in his plays.The study of Eugene O'Neill from the angle of poetry is a comparatively lessexplored area.In fact, Eugene O'Neill is a playwright who has the touch of a poet. He possessesabundant emotional life experience, acute social observation and high artisticexpressive force.As a modern dramatist, instead of creating dramatic works in the traditionalverse style, (although Eugene O'Neill has always written with prosaic language), hehas been in pursuit of infusing his plays with intensive poetry and trying to present aunique poetic style. Poetic effects and characteristics are remarkable and outstandingin many aspects even in Eugene O'Neill's late realistic works.Unfortunately, few monographs at home and abroad have specifically discussedthis artistic feature of Eugene O'Neill's works. In order to compensate for thisdeficiency, this thesis sets out to provide a relatively thorough study of the poeticcharacteristics in Eugene O'Neill's late plays. The author focuses on the four playsO'Neill created in the last, but the greatest stage of his writing career — The IcemanCometh, Long Days Journey into Night, Hughie and The Moon for the Misbegotten —to examine the poetic characteristics of these plays, with the expectation of arousingpeople's interest in the appreciation of and study on O'Neill, and their interest oflearning and exploring the abundant values of O'Neill's works.This paper is composed of six chapters.The introduction offers a brief retrospect of the critical studies of Eugene O'Neillboth in the west countries and in China, the significance of writing this paper, and themajor concerns of it.Chapter One discusses the relationship between poetry and drama with theemphasis on the features of poetry. First, the author points out that poetry is the matrixof all kinds of texts. For a long time, drama took on the form of poetry. The authorwill then list and analyze some typical features of poetry, namely, the device ofrepetition, the concreteness created by symbols and sound effects which frequentlyappear in O'Neill's works, especially in his late realistic plays.Chapter Two deals with Eugene O'Neill's gift of poetry, his abundant lifeexperience and his poetic viewpoint of theatre.Chapter three analyzes the repetitive illusion in Eugene O'Neill's late plays, ofwhich The Iceman Cometh and Hughie are the typical examples. The repetitive themeof illusion in his late plays is human's spiritual support and the way to escape from thepainful world. Humankind needs illusion and the search for illusion endows life witha poetic light.Chapter four is an analysis of the use of repetition in Eugene O'Neill's late plays.As a poetic playwright, Eugene O'Neill emphasizes the function of repetition. In hisautobiographical masterpiece Long Days Journey into Night, he creativelymanipulates the repetitive pattern of emotion to reveal the love and hate relationshipamong the four Tyrones. Verbal repetition is salient in The Iceman Cometh. At thesame time, he also uses the form of repetition to describe the drinking behavior of thecharacters in Long Days Journey into Night, The Iceman Cometh, and The Moon forthe Misbegotten. Not only does the use of repetition deepen the meaning of his plays,but it also infuses O'Neill's plays with a musical beauty.Chapter five studies the function of symbols in Eugene O'Neill's late plays. Thefog, the sea, the moon and the sunrise are the symbols frequently used by O'Neill inhis late plays. By using these symbols, O'Neill reveals the social reality of his timeand expresses his attitude towards it. The use of symbols makes O'Neill's plays morepregnant with meaning and adds an emotional quality to his realism. The use ofsymbols has also lent a poetic quality to O'Neill's plays.Chapter six gives a detailed analysis of the sound effects in Eugene O'Neill's lateplays. O'Neill has made a notable advance in the use of street noises, silence, foghornand laughter. These sounds produce strong auditory effects on the audience, bringthem into communion with the stage, and create a poetic atmosphere for the plays.The conclusion summarizes the major points of this thesis. O'Neill uses poeticdevice to intensify and give scope to the theme of his plays. As a means of literarycreation, poetic device is used in O'Neill's plays not only to universalize the theme,but also to enrich and deepen the meaning of his plays. The use of poetic deviceenables O'Neill to be concerned with the internal world of the modern men and toexternalize their deep feelings and desires. By using poetic devices, O'Neill givesAmerican plays vitality and originality.