| Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953) is the greatest playwright of outstanding achievements in American theatre. In the modernization of the American theatre, as a key man, he is irreplaceable. The time Eugene O'Neill lived and the school and family education he received connect him with religion tightly. Religion plays an important role in his plays. His religious thought is full of contradictions. The struggle of "to believe or not to believe" lies in his heart and the God and Fate becomes the subject of his plays, and the crime and punishment turns into the prime motor of dramatic conflict. His religious thought has the clear but different formal expressions in his works, and expresses mainly in his severe attack on the Puritanism and his contradictory attitude on Catholicism religious doctrine. To some degree, Eugene O'Neill's plays can be thought as his religious autobiography, and to some deeper degree, through drama, O'Neill is discussing the meaning of life and the important use of religion in life.
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