The Image And Role Of Women In Eugene O'neill's Plays

This thesis attempts to explore Fugene O'Neill's representation of female characters in his plays and elaborate his outlook on women. My purpose is to reveal the artist's capability to go beyond a narrow vision of women in the western metaphysics, to see and to depict in his plays female agony, frustration and difficulties associated with gender identities and gender roles. My use of feminist literary criticism, psychoanalysis as well as sociology will be illustrative rather than theoretical and it will he subordinate to the textual analysis. This thesis is composed of three chapters. Chapter One is an examination of O'Neill's biographical background, tracing the development of his understanding of women reflected froi-n his particular relations with different women, such as his mother, his three wives as well as his little daughter, etc. His creation and presentation of female characters are influenced by his special background and, in turn, reflect his attitude towards women. Chapter Two is a study of his presentation of dual-natured female images in his canon: women are represented as either trap and savior, or victim and victimizer, or earth mother. Through the aiialysis of three different female characters Ahbie Putnam in Desire under the elms, Mary Tyrone in Long Dayc .Journey into Night, and Josie I-logan in A Moon/lw the Misbegotten, we can make a conclusion that O'Neill's presentation of dual-natured female characters is a positive step towards an integration of female images and towards a better understanding of the complexities of female psyche. His presentation of dual-natured female images reveals his basicahl objective outlook on women, though, lie has a bit ambivalent outlook on women. Chapter Three is an observation of O'Neill's portraits of the female's responses to the male constructs in the gendered world. That women's difficult situation in the gendered ~vorld dominates his main theatrical theme and his presentation of his female's suppression, frustration as well as resistance in the responses of male constructs proves his capability of objective examination of the unnaturalness and unreasonableness of patriarchal tradition and gender prescription. My conclusion is that O'Neill is not a writer, who holds the negative and partial outlook on women and lacks the capability of portraying women as true human beings, as some critics have asserted. Rather, he is a writer who, in his portrait of female images, can sympathetically represent their fragmented psyche and frustrated feelings and reflect them as vulnerable victims in the patriarchal society. In his effort to depict men's different responses to the male's constructs, O扤eill creates sonie complicated and diverse womaii images in his canon. Therefore, as a male writer, Eugene ONeill is objective and unprejudiced in his description of women and, as a great dranialist, he is critical and perspective in his revelation of gender problems and social and family issues. This is one of the reasons O'Neill can win a lasting fame both in American and in the world literature.