A Study Of Eugene O'Neill's Ecological Awareness In His Plays

Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953), winner of four Pulitzer Prizes and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936, has captured the eyes of literary critics for a long time. He has made great contributions to American drama and even world drama. It is asserted that there were only opera houses in America before Eugene O'Neill and drama emerges after him. His significance and unique status make the study of Eugene O'Neill a worldwide subject. Current O'Neill research has covered such aspects as his work's themes, characterization, language and techniques as well as the study of his writing background and the sources of his ideology. Although O'Neill is not an ecologist in the strict sense, his ecological awareness penetrates throughout his plays, which has not been adequately studied yet. This dissertation attempts to analyze and evaluate O'Neill's ecological awareness through a systematic argumentation of his plays. The author of this dissertation holds that a profound ecological awareness pervades in O'Neill's drama, and this awareness displays a hybrid nature of historicity, continuity, foresightedness and transcendence.The historicity of O'Neill's ecological awareness manifests itself firstly in his reflection on industrialization that penetrates into almost every area of human lives. His criticism of commercial values, consumption culture and wars all give expression to the historicity of his ecological awareness. It is evident that O'Neill's ecological awareness marks distinct characteristics of the epoch. Having experienced two World Wars in person, O'Neill ruthlessly attacks war and its aftermath. This indicates an evident feature of historicity of his ecological awareness. The continuity of O'Neill's ecological awareness is reflected in the fact that the well-read playwright borrows and assimilates the ecological ideology and wisdom of his predecessors, displaying a distinct inheritance of modern Western naturalism and romanticism. As a humanistic and serious playwright full of ecological awareness and social responsibility, O'Neill creates a large number of plays with serious themes. In an era when ecological problems have not yet become extremely severe, and the conflict between man and nature is not yet very striking, O'Neill's reflection on the man-nature conflict and imbalance indicates the foresightedness of his ecological awareness. That O'Neill's reflection on the dualistic opposition between man and nature, his portrayal of the human aspiration for harmony with nature and his interpretation of the possibility of cultural integration of the East and the West demonstrates the transcendence of his ecological awareness. This transcendence comes from the combined influence of Eastern and Western cultures, the most decisive impact on the dramatist being possibly that of Taoism.The main body of this dissertation is composed of five chapters. Chapter One focuses on O'Neill's reflection on the man-nature relationship in the context of industrialization, especially the influence of industrialization on the man-nature relationship and the problems brought about by it. The ecological awareness of O'Neill is demonstrated by the criticism of man's instrumental plundering of nature and the serious pollution of nature, such as in Ile and The Hairy Ape. Since Industrial Revolution, the relocation of the man-nature relationship resulted in the exteriorization of nature by human beings who have launched instrumental exploration of nature. Furthermore, the unbounded plundering of natural resources has caused the pollution of nature, aggravating natural crises and the crisis of human existence. In Ile, Captain Kenny persists stubbornly in staying on until the ice melts and they get sufficient whale oil, just because he has been acclaimed as the most successful whaler for thirty years in his whaling career. The notion of realizing self-value through the plundering of natural resources and the greediness of human beings displayed in this play are severely animadverted on by O'Neill. On conquering nature, man has aggravated the pollution of nature. Paddy in The Hairy Ape speaks out the pollution of industrialized sailing to sailors' working environment, to the sky and to the sea. The chanty man in Mourning Becomes Electra also laments on the sea and the sky polluted by the steamers.The unprecedented exploitation of nature by human beings has destroyed the ecological balance and the self-renovating ability of nature and has resulted in a world of destruction and pollution. The loss of a natural home highlights the problem of human end-result. The environmental pollution by machines, the pollution of nature by human productive modes, and the disastrous impact and disruption on nature's self-purifying ability by man's unbounded plundering all add to the pollution of nature. O'Neill depicts with ruthfulness the consequent impacts of industrializing course in the play.In an era of industrial civilization, man's control over nature is mainly realized through the application of the scientific technology, especially machines to loot natural resources to satisfy his own material needs. Besides, industrialization has resulted in the ideological changes of human beings. And therefore the conspicuousness of human power and the inflation of human desires have emerged in an industrialized historical context. The industrial progress has aggravated human plundering of nature, under the background of which man liberates himself from paying awe to nature, but steps to an opposing standpoint against it. O'Neill believes that it is deeply rooted in man that by the possession of materials, man aims for a comfortable life on the one hand and for the realization of self-value and self-identification on the other. Having detected the inevitability and wretchedness of this kind of plundering, the playwright points out the conformity of human plundering of nature and human oppression of peers that takes on an eco-metaphorical note.O'Neill makes it clear that the change of nature worship to machinery worship on the part of human beings has deep historical reasons. In the days of nature worship, the man-nature relationship is in a harmonious state. For example, in The Hairy Ape, in the youth memory of Paddy when industrial civilization is in its cradle, man and nature shares harmony. While bathing in industrial civilization, the man-nature relationship gradually breaks away, nature losing its holiness and mystery and degenerating into a plundering source of man. Man turns from nature worship to machinery worship, regarding machines as the new god, which results in the bankruptcy of human belief. With the progress of the Industrial Revolution, man, stretching himself from nature and stepping into the opposite position against nature, has lost his standing base. The criticism of man's machinery worship constitutes an important part of O'Neill's ecological awareness.O'Neill's ecological awareness is also embodied in his criticism and reflection on technology. Since the nineteenth century, scientific technology gets a speedy expansion. Not all the developments of technology, however, add to human material wealth within the nature capacity with man's correct understanding and rational use of nature. In many cases, natural progression is disturbed, natural rules breached, natural beauty and ecological balance destroyed and natural resources overdrawn or even exhausted. Technological advancements have brought in both prosperity, welfare, happiness and various practical or potential threats or even disasters resulting in over-exploitation of nature. Technological thinking incurs the separation of man and nature. Moreover, technological developments have accelerated the progression of industrialization and have ushered in machinery worship on the part of man. The mechanization and homogenization of human actions all embody the negative values of industrialization, which constructs O'Neill's criticism. These effects include man's change of attitude towards nature, man's spiritual crises, the loss of belonging on the part of man and the consequent existential crises. The Hairy Ape, Strange Interlude and Marco Millions are all embodiments of this aspect of O'Neill's ecological awareness.In Chapter Two, the author demonstrates O'Neill's ecological awareness via a discussion about the influence of commercialist values on the man-nature relationship. O'Neill holds that, under the direction of commercialist values, the separation of man and nature is pushed further and the conflict between material pursuits and spiritual self-realization, i.e. the conflict between material things and poetic life aggravates. Man's unilateral pursuit for material interest has stimulated his exploitation of nature while aggravating the opposition and conflict between man and nature. Furthermore, when man commercializes everything and neglects communication and intimacy with nature, man will inevitably come across spiritual crises. For instance, the changes of Simon Harford in A Touch of Poet and More Stately Mansions are the outcomes of commercialist values. Simon, having abandoned his pursuit for a poetic life and turned to materialism, or to the pursuit for the American Dream, will have to be confronted with his split personality and spiritual exile.O'Neill believes that material pursuits corrupt human nature and drive man on exile. Besides, the man-nature dislocation has pushed man onto an opposing position against nature instead of man's integration into nature. O'Neill's depiction of the contradiction between human pursuit of material wealth and spiritual self-realization metaphorically points out the man-nature conflicts. Marco Millions is the illustration of O'Neill's criticism on commercialist values. Marco being a representative of material worshipper while Kuchachin being the symbol of nature, the play, in which dualistic oppositions and Taoist ideas pervade, conveys O'Neill's ecological awareness. Besides, money worship and the poetic mode of living represent material pursuits and adoration of nature respectively. Kukachin's tragedy is the tragedy under commercial values, symbolizing the tragedy of man's destruction of nature. The modern implication of this play is certainly closely connected with the influence of Taoism.O'Neill also indicates that man, under the influence of commercialist values, commercializes every entity, including the man-nature relationship. A Tale of Possessors Self Dispossessed, which O'Neill has a mind to paint as a typical American tragedy, reveals the century long material, psychological and spiritual history of a family, with destructive greediness and spiritual erosion as its thematic concern. The plays entitled A Tale of Possessors Self Dispossessed are the extraordinary examples and embodiments of Americans' greediness and money worship.Similarly, O'Neill holds that human consumption degenerates as the product of tokenization, symbolization and culturalization under the commercial values, marching towards alienation. Reflections on consumption culture make up another important part of O'Neill's ecological awareness. O'Neill has noted down in his plays the influence of consumption on the man-nature relationship in modern society, and is concerned with the influence of consumption on the spiritual dimension at the same time. O'Neill points out that consumption presupposes the consumption of power and raw materials and over-consumption aggravates human exploitation and possession of nature, while the dissimilation and tokenization of consumption triggers off ecological crises and loss of human spirit. Together with the criticism of luxury consumption, O'Neill makes it clear that the material pursuits of man will inevitably bring pertinent social problems and spiritual crises, endangering the man-nature harmony. Plays, such as The Hairy Ape, More Stately Mansions and Marco Millions, have portrayed the influence of consumption on the man-nature relationship, particularly the criticism of the severe outcomes of luxury consumption, dissimilating and tokenizing consumption. For example, in The Hairy Ape, magnificent decorations are displayed and labeled with ghastly prices in the jeweler's and in leather shops along Fifth Avenue. In More Stately Mansions, Sara yearns for a mansion of her own and the mansion becomes a token of luxury consumption. Deborah has indulged herself in the illusive world of flirting with an eighteenth century French King, with abundant luxuries to signify the tokenizing and dissimilating traits of consumption. The money worship and luxury consumption worship in Marco Millions embody consumption dissimilation, too.Chapter Three serves as an analysis of O'Neill's ecological awareness from the perspective of his criticism of war. O'Neill lives in the interim of a laissez-faire capitalist Western society which is transforming into a monopoly capitalist one. The expansion of capital and exploitation of resources result in high frequency of wars. O'Neill, having lived through the two World Wars, has a deep concern about the ecological destruction and ecological disasters brought about by wars. The destructive impact of wars on natural ecology is self-evident. To O'Neill, the nature of war is human exploitation of natural resources, and wars are the contests for economic interest instead of a gallant cause of peace and justice as declared by those in power. The destructive impact of war on nature, and more importantly, on the spiritual ecology of man, is not lost in O'Neill, since man and nature exist not only materially, but also spiritually. War wrecks ecological nature and plasters the spiritual existence of man, lashing human values and inducing existential and spiritual crises. O'Neill, like his contemporaneous writers, keeps his eyes on "the Lost Generation," and feels restless to the infinite destructions of nature and the wounds incurred by war.The plays such as Mourning Becomes Electra, Strange Interlude and Diff'rent demonstrate in details the destruction of war on the man-nature relationship. The natural resources contest of man triggered by war, the trampling of life and dignity, and the destruction of humanity all get a full expression in these plays. In Mourning Becomes Electra, deaths from war become worthless with corpses piled high, and war has made human heart hard as nails. Peter and Orin talk in a mocking way about the wars they themselves have just lived through. Orin takes wars as ridiculous, viewing wars as the plundering of one man against the other. Killing one's rivals is just like killing oneself time and again, which reflects the cruelty and insanity of war. In Strange Interlude, contextualized in the WWI, the overriding effects of war on life has amounted to such a degree that the government dares not to publicize war deaths. Furthermore, all the beautiful things are gone forever with war. O'Neill has accused war of smashing the dreams of a generation, driving man to an empty and worthless way of living. Set in the WWI, Nina, a product of the Lost Generation, has gone through rises and falls, agonies and sufferings of life, with her spiritual ecology mauled heavily. Diff'rent concerns the influence of war on the man-nature relationship, especially the destruction of war to human spiritual ecology. It describes the dual suppression of war and Puritanism. Contextualized in the puritan New England, this play discloses that under severe conditions, man, driven by war, behaves in extremeness. O'Neill holds that war and Puritanism are wars against human civilization, leading to the defiance and destruction of the harmonious man-nature relationship. Furthermore, the playwright makes it clear that war twists and dissimilates humanity, incurs spiritual and belief crises of man, and endangers the man-nature harmony. In a word, war casts tremendous and fatal destruction of the spiritual ecology of man.O'Neill's reflection on and criticism of man's ideological and cultural realms producing ecological crises and imbalance in the man-nature relationship is penetrated with ecological awareness. O'Neill's criticism embodies the social and historical commitments of a serious artist, and his adoration towards nature is also incorporated into his criticism. His adoration towards nature has been given a full display under his pen, and his ecological awareness is manifested especially in the highlighting of nature's subject status.Chapter Four demonstrates O'Neill's ecological awareness through a thorough discussion of the subject status of nature in the plays. Nature, in O'Neill's plays, takes an irreplaceable place, and the decisive power of nature is typically displayed in the plays such as Anna Christie and The Moon of the Caribbees. O'Neill indicates that nature is the base of human existence and the home of human spirit and that man is destined to be in close relation with nature no matter what fate nature will bestow to man. Furthermore, the playwright also makes it clear that nature is a way out for man, such as in Mourning Becomes Electra, in which the oppression of realities has forced the main characters to escape to the South Islands to locate the home. Besides, O'Neill depicts the ecological experiences of man in nature, such as in Chris Christophersen, the nostalgic and pastoral Ah, Wilderness!, the reminiscent Long Day's Journey Into Night and The Hairy Ape. The subject role of nature is fully displayed in these plays, which constitutes an important part of O'Neill's ecological awareness.Chapter Five probes the shaping roots of O'Neill's ecological awareness. The criticism and reflection on various factors affecting the man-nature relationship demonstrate the ecological awareness, the preparedness, the concern for human destiny and the meditation on the historical problems on the part of O'Neill. O'Neill's ecological awareness is the consequent product of his epoch with profound and complicated roots. The ideas of this playwright are complicated, for his life experience and the influence of philosophical ideology cast shaping impact on his ecological awareness. O'Neill's earlier sailing experiences help to explain the formation of his ecological awareness, the influence of which is reproduced and reverted in his earlier works. Adoration and admiration for nature pervade the plays, highlighting the subject status of nature and expressing man's reverence to the mystery of nature.The formation of O'Neill's ecological awareness shows continuity. O'Neill has inherited the destining relation between man and nature from ancient Greek tragedies. Furthermore, O'Neill follows the European dramatic tradition in the late nineteenth century and the earlier years of the twentieth century, especially the ecological ideology of Ibsen and Strindberg. The modern Western naturalism and romanticism exert similar effect on the formation of O'Neill's ecological awareness. The naturalistic and romantic features displayed in A Touch of the Poet and More Stately Mansions illustrate this aspect. Strong affection to Eastern ideology, particularly Taoism, directs the playwright to draw from Taoist ecological thoughts in his writing. His opposition to war and materialism, his advocacy for a simple life, his transcending dualistic opposition and his pursuit for the man-nature harmony all show consistency with Taoism, or are the outcomes of Taoist influence. Taoism exerts similar influence on O'Neill's way of living. Even the house of his late years is named as "Tao House."In the Conclusion, it is pointed out that the ecological awareness of O'Neill prevails in the criticism and reflections on the ideological and cultural roots of the ecological crises and the imbalance between man and nature. Under the collective influence of traditional Western ecological thoughts and Taoism, the ecological awareness of O'Neill displays an intricate feature of historicity and continuity, foresightedness and transcendence. The formation and development of O'Neill's ecological awareness is profoundly rooted and realistically meaningful, echoing many aspects of modern ecocriticism. This dissertation is innovative in its ideological contents, perspectives and research values. The exploration, analysis and criticism of O'Neill's ecological awareness are just a tentative study. The fact that there still exists much room for further research indicates in turn the research values of this dissertation. The author is convinced that the study of O'Neill from an ecological perspective will contribute to verifying and solidifying the significant standing of the playwright in the history of world literature.