The Misbegotten In The New World

Eugene O'Neill's plays have been researched from numerous perspectives. Among all the criticism, the influence of his ethnicity on his life and writing is often ignored or less explored. In the first half of the twentieth century when O'Neill matured and became renowned, Irish-Americans have already established themselves in America, far from the situation one hundred years ago when their ancestors fled from Ireland to escape hunger and death. Therefore, in the danger that most Irish-Americans may forget where they come from, O'Neill tries to seek his root and the memories of first-generation Irish-Americans in his late plays, namely A Touch of the Poet, Long Day's Journey into Night and A Moon for the Misbegotten. This thesis intends to analyze the cause and effect of identity crisis of these Irish immigrants, who came to America during the Great Famine in the mid-19th century, through their plaintive experiences in the New World.Under a background of famine and hunger, some Irish traits become more distinct in these Irish immigrants. Poverty complex, which the old world printed on them, develops into a craze for land acquirement. Another trait that these Irish immigrants hold is religious piety. In the old world, mercy from God is the only comfort these Catholics depend on; while in the New World, the belief becomes their only straw. Last but not least, these Irish immigrants are embedded with poetic quality that starts from the bardic tradition. The three traits run completely against the disposition of the New England rich Protestants who value pragmatism since self-made Benjamin Franklin. Discrimination and prejudice are the major treats the Irish immigrants receive in their new abodes. They long to merge into the Yankee sphere, but only to find that they could either live isolated from or run into tete-a-tete conflicts with the Yankees. They are forced to stay at the bottom of the society with the African-Americans, doing manual labor that other whites detest to do. Therefore, the issue of self-value puzzles these sensitive Irish-Americans and incites identity crisis. The firm collectivity, which unites them together in the old world, collapses and is replaced by mutual interrogations and bitterness. Personal identity crisis also emerges, mainly in two aspects: performativity of self and loss of self. James Tyrone, representing the first type, rejoices in the performance of a successful actor who befriends the Yankees, but at the same time disacquaints himself with religious practice and real poetic spirit. His wife Mary Tyrone, representing the second type, completely loses inner balance under the pressure of reality and slides to the brink of mental breakdown.To conclude, urged by an ethnic responsibility, O'Neill reproduces in his late plays the identity crisis of the first-generation Irish-Americans, whose suffering and struggle lays foundation for the success of their descendants.