Eugene O'Neill's Understanding Of Women

Eugene O'Neill is one of the greatest playwrights in the early (20)~th century of American history. His works inherit the essence of ancient Greek tragedy and have contemporary meaning at the same time. He could be said the father of American drama as he led the American drama out of the stage of mainly melodrama and began to gain attention from the world. The dramatic creations of Eugene Gladstone O'Neill's have the features shared by all the contemporary literature: the return to the inner world. Inner world is the field that all the contemporary writers are trying to explore, and Eugene O'Neill is no exception. But he is special in that he, more or less, experiences all the complex psychological activities of the various characters so that the expression of the characters combines perfectly with the spiritual exploration of the author himself. Most of his works are highly autobiographical. Play writing provides him with an outlet for his unconsciously repressed desires, which are clearly shown in his women characters. This thesis attempts to explore Eugene O'Neill's representation of female characters in his plays and elaborates his outlook on women. My purpose is to reveal that due to his biographical experience (his relations with his mother and wives especially his mother), he has an ambivalent opinion on women. His women characters are often double or multi-natured (destroyer and savor, victim and victimizer), and the most highlighted feature of women is their maternal abilities. This thesis is composed of three chapters. Chapter One is an examination of O'Neill's biographical background. It traces the development of his understanding of women reflected from his particular relations with different women, such as his mother, his three wives. His special background influences his creation and presentation of female characters and which, in turn, reflect his attitude towards women. Chapter Two is a general study of his presentation of dual-natured female images in his canon: women are represented as either destroyer and savior, or victim and victimizer, or earth mother. In Chapter Three, through the analysis of three different female characters: Abbie Putnam in Desire under the Elms, Mary Tyrone in Long Day's Journey into Night, and Josie Hogan in A Moon for the Misbegotten, we can draw a conclusion that the presentation of dual-natured female images reveals his basically ambivalent outlook on women. Though he mainly defines women through their relationships with man and he praises those women who sacrifice themselves, he sympathizes with and understands them at the same time. My conclusion is that O'Neill creates some complicated and diverse women images in his canon; due to his particular biographical background he has an ambivalent attitude toward women, which is shown, in his creation of women characters. However, O'Neill is not a writer, who holds a 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 destroyer and savior, or victim and victimizer, or earth mother. This is one of the reasons why O'Neill can win a lasting fame both in American and in the world literature.