Eugene O'Neill With Ethnic Backgrounds And Religious Beliefs

Eugene O'Neill(1888-1953) was the famous dramatist of America. Before he became famous in drama, drama in America had been, for the most part, an undistinguished affair .After he received wide acknowledge, the phrase"American drama"began to take on significance. During his lifetime, O'Neill won four Pulitzer Prizes and was awarded the Nobel Prize. He is acclaimed as a theatrical innovator and experimenter, a writer whose impact upon American theater has been profound., extensive and permanent .Most of his plays involve religion, society ,human nature ,which make great contributions to American drama. Many critics are concerned with the religious elements in O'Neill's plays, which resulted in a host of comments. To understand his spiritual world exploration is very important for critics to interpret his works.He devoted himself searching a path towards his own spiritual residence after abandoning Catholic creed in his early years,he never give up his religion ,nor had he ever attempted to get away from the western cultural system on which his religious belief was based. Some critics argue that O'Neill's productive career consists of four phases: the vacillation of his religious faith, search for spiritual alternatives, depression resulted from the religious exploration, and rethinking of his exploration in religion, which fully proves that his religious exploration is the primary concern of his play. To answer this question, we have to concern his autobiographical plays Days Without the End. At the same time, we also have to concern his another most important autobiographical plays Long Day's Journey into Night, this play is based on O'Neill, his father ,his mother his elder brother and he to describe, four individuals based on the complex relationship between love and hate the psychological drama. Not a happy family life has left on his juvenile heart. This play had opened O'Neill's innermost feelings world to us.The paper also relates to O'Neill's childhood home life and his growing-up life time , the subject brought into prominence ,of course ,with the appearance of Days Without the End and Long Day's Journey into Night. The paper attempts to be comprehensive with using more specialized approaches to the playwright. From these two plays , we can know : O'Neill doubted and had been groping for insights, which actually reflects his denial of the power of a God who cannot solve people's spiritual problem in modern times. At the same time, his writing confirmed his belief in the good side of a God who can bring peace to modern men. These functions of the greatly add to the readability and profundity of the plays and further enrich its connotations...