Eugene O'neill's Three Female Characters

This thesis attempts to explore Eugene O'Neill's representation of three female characters in his plays and elaborate his outlook on women. The purpose of the thesis is to reveal that Eugene O'Neill's perception of gender identities and gender roles becomes mature with his writing period progressing when he begins with depicting a victimizer in Beyond the Horizon and ends up with portraying a rebel against the patriarchal society in Long Day's Journey into Night.This thesis consists of three chapters.Chapter One surveys his representative works in his early writing period, Beyond the Horizon. An examination of O'Neill's personal background and his particular relations with different women is valuable to understand his portraying the protagonist Ruth as a victimizer and perceive his attitude towards women. Because of Ruth's illusion, the two brothers betray their dreams and live unhappily. O'Neill here presents some of his characteristic themes about female image in his early writing period as victimizer, which reflects his limitations of the stereotype of gender identity in patriarchal society.Chapter Two analyses Desire Under the Elms, the representative works in his second writing period. Abbie is shown as the trapper and savior, an Earth Mother who combines sensual nature and maternal nature into oneness, and who is the combination of destroying wife and protective mother. Obviously at his mid writing period, the author's perception of women becomes more realistic and his female characterization more complex, which is an extraordinary growth for O'Neill.