Incomplete And Self-redemption

O’Neill searches the human spirit as his goal in life. During his lifetime,he has completed more than fifty dramas. Among that, there are a dozen works related to family. Desir Under the Elms、Mourning Becomes Electra、Ah,Wilderness、A Touch of the Poet、More Stately Mansions and Long Day’s Journey into Night are the best illustrations of O’Neill’s family-themed dramas,because they reflect the family life and the subject of family spirit directly.The characters etched by O’Neill are unique and charming. The men who play as father or husband,usually have emotional hardness toward their families. The women are the embodiment of mother and wife. The children are full of literary tastes which shadow on O’Neill himself. O’Neill reveals the conflicts existing between family members by setting three core relationships that are parenthood、brotherhood and marital relationship. He also conveys the lonely、anxiety and fear that is fairly common in modern people. Moreover,O’Neill shapes three kinds of family images,which are divided family、threatened family and ideal family,to express his special feeling of family and his best wishes for a future family.In the process of modernization, the loss of human spiritual home and the growing of material desires forced O’Neill to feel helpless and disappointed. As the founder of modern drama in the United States, O’Neill keenly discovered the crisis and theme of the era, and revealed them in the perspective of family life.The underlying reasons for the features of O’Neill’s family-themed dramas are closely related to his personal growth. He was displaced during his childhood that led to a sense of security in family. After he became an adult,he was homeless and had a marriage ups and downs and lost himself in faith. All of these feeling about family is integrated into his works.O’Neill’s creation attitude is serious. His family-themed drama is not only a simple description of family life, but also a show of the crux of modern American family tragedy and the true value of a human being as an individual. His discussion about the true meaning of life, longing for beautiful spiritual home, carved out for people today a valuable and meaningful way to redeem itself in the spirit of wasteland.