Eugene O'Neill And Cao Yu Plays' Comparative Study

This paper tries to start from the perspective of tragic aesthetics to study the relationship between Eugene O'Neill and Cao Yu's plays by the means of impact study. By analyzes the common links and different characteristics between O'Neill and Cao Yu's plays, this paper illustrates that the play created by playwright carries deep imprint of their own culture due to the invasion of different cultural background and social history.This paper also discusses Cao Yu's acceptance of O'Neill's play art and his attempt of the play's nationalization. Cao Yu's selection of O'Neill's play art reflects playwrights'reference of external factors and their personal creation.This paper tries to deepen and extend the study of O'Neill and Cao Yu's play by the above way.This paper is composed by five parts, counting introduction and conclusion. And the main contents focus on chapter one to three. The introduction presents Eugene O'Neill and Cao Yu's comparability, the playwright and the play's research situation in our country, and the point of view, research methods and research significance used in this paper. Chapter one mainly discusses the tradition of Chinese and Western plays and the characteristics of modern tragedy. This chapter outlines the development of Chinese and Western plays by three parts: the development and tradition of western tragedy, western modern tragedy plays, and the development of Chinese tragedy. And this chapter summarizes the development of Chinese and Western tragedy as a whole. Chapter two mainly discusses the common link of O'Neill and Cao Yu's play. This chapter mainly interpreted by three parts: the convergence of tragic aesthetics, similar tragic expression and consistent tragic presentation .The third chapter mainly analyzes the different feature in plays of O'Neill and Cao Yu. This chapter mainly interpreted by three parts: the obvious dividing line between the creative approaching and the different options of technical skills .Conclusion illustrates that both O'Neill and Cao Yu's play has inherited and development contact with Chinese and Western tragic tradition. They reflect the spiritual resonance of tragic aesthetics way of thinking. They also present convergence characteristics on the play's expression and connotation. But different features of O'Neill and Cao Yu's plays represent social history condition and national culture awareness of different eras and countries. The artistic innovation based on national tradition and national identity makes Cao Yu developed a unique artistic style.