A Comparative Study Of The Tragic Views Of Long Day's Journey Into Night And Thunderstorm

Eugene O'Neill and Cao Yu are both distinguished figures in the history of plays, and their relationship has also caused much attention among critics. Similar growing experience and unfortunate family make the two playwrights prefer family tragedies, among which Long Day's Journey Into Night and Thunderstorm can be called masterpieces. The two tragedies are quite similar in characterization, artistic techniques and the usage of symbols, especially the tragic views of the two playwrights; meanwhile there also exist some differences. Both O'Neill and Cao Yu are greatly influenced by the ancient Greek tragic view; however, they infuse into it their own creative ideas and separate cultural connotations, so their tragic views are native and original. This paper intends to employ parallel study and influence study to make a comparative study of the two family tragedies in order to interpret them more deeply and to obtain a better understanding of their playwrights'creative thoughts as well as the Chinese and American social backgrounds. At the beginning, this paper briefly introduces the two family tragedies—Long Day's Journey Into Night and Thunderstorm. Next, by referring to the ancient Greek tragedies, this paper explores the similarities and differences of the two playwrights'tragic views and the ones reflected in the two tragedies. When inherit the tradition, both playwrights infuse into it their separate social and age characteristics and develop it. In the third part, this paper chooses three pairs of characters to do the parallel research, and through the tragic fates of these characters, the tragic views of the two playwrights are more deeply understood. At last, both O'Neill and Cao Yu carefully design symbolic images in their plays which not only intensify the tragic atmosphere, but also play up the tragic fates of characters and deepen the themes of the two plays. This paper makes comparisons of two groups of symbolic images, namely the sea which represents the common positive image and tragic images---- fogs and thunderstorm, so that the tragic views of the two playwrights are further understood.