Quest For Living Truth Through Arts An Interpretation Of Expressionistic Techniques In O'Neill's Plays

Eugene O'Neill(1888-1953) is a great American dramatist,Nobel Prize winner for literature,and a restless and bold experimenter.He does not confine himself to any single style.Being regarded as "the founder of the American Drama" and the "American Shakespeare",O'Neill's is very much a man of his time.He emphasizes the importance of spiritual relief to human's existence and seeks for a way to solve the social problems in people's inner world.He has been trying to clear up social problems,and to relieve the sufferings of people in Modern society.His drama displays people's inner world and shows his untiring quest for the true meaning of life and identity.O'Neill is universally acknowledged for his skillful dramaturgy and everlasting exploration of social problems and individual's living truth presented in his plays.He brings passion and art to the American stage.Besides his lifelong search for truth of living,O'Neill has kept on making experiments and explorations in his writing and creates various styles.His works well illustrate his quest and his exploration.O'Neill keeps exploring the truth of living and identifies with what Nietzsche found "pessimism of strength".He suggests that surface reality exists as a manifestation of inner forces.These forces O'Neill terms "behind life" or "supernaturalism," which he defines as something really real in the sense of being spiritually true.His works is an interpretation of actuality by a distillation,an elimination of most realistic trappings,an intensification of human lives into clear symbols of truth.Affected by his contemporary expressionism, O'Neill nonetheless demonstrates living truth in expressionistic terms.His interest is beneath the surface of reality where a more intense life-force exists.For the purpose of revealing O'Neill's viewpoint of living truth,this thesis focuses on his anti-realistic stage techniques,seeing O'Neill's language as one of a range of device such as scenery,lighting, stage directions and character appearance which function symbolically in O'Neill's plays.All along,many critics home and abroad regard him as a representative of expressionism.They focus on the three works The Emperor Jones,The Hairy Ape and The Great God Brown.This thesis is trying to analyze O'Neill's plays and display his unique features from the perspective of expressionism.Through a general study of his works and criticism by critics home and abroad,we have got to know that O'Neill's expressionistic techniques are greatly influenced by European Expressionism.Therefore,I have examined O'Neill in the context of his life and time:studying about his contemporaries,the history of the period,the art and literature of the age.Modern art movement,especially European expressionism,influences his creation a lot.Presenting the concepts and principles of expressionism becomes necessary in order to elicit O'Neill's expressionistic techniques and his specialties in his works.What's more,I tried to make further analysis of the meaning and function in presenting theme of works especially its value in characterization and social meaning.Then we may be assured why O'Neill is regarded as the milestone in the American drama history.My thesis mainly falls into four chapters.In Chapter one I will briefly trace the origins of expressionism and its general features from its history,its main features,expressionism and modernism as the introduction of the following detailed study of O'Neill's expressionistic plays.I am trying to trace origins and sources of O'Neill's acceptance of expressionism,especially from the influence of modern philosophy and psychology;the influence of German expressionism;also the influence of Ibsen and Strindberg,etc.Chapter two is intended to analyze symbolic settings,the use of music and lighting in O'Neill's representative expressionist plays like The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape. O'Neill's expressionism relies heavily upon atmosphere and stage effect.The stage design or setting which can produce strong physiological dramatic effects is a vital accompaniment to the overall effect of the play.Expressionism's atmosphere is often vividly dreamlike and nightmarish.The décor was often made up of bizarre shapes and sensational colors.The subjective manifestations of past events terrify and torture the characters in the play.There exist many scenes in O'Neill's plays which are set in darkness, occurring either at night or during the evening.The darkness,the lack of light creates a horrible atmosphere.As to music,it can pretty thoroughly transmute objective experience into subjective experience.It tends to give lyrical qualities to expressionistic drama and joins with moments of ecstasy.Music was part of the unique quality of Expressionism because music was considered most able to be truly expressionistic. Chapter three focuses on O'Neill's linguistic features,like repetition,stream of consciousness monologue,stage directions of O'Neill's representative expressionistic plays,which reveal theatrical effects in intensifying the dramatic effect and reveal theme of the plays especially truth of spiritual changes.The repetition of the simple words and simple sentence constructions produce an intense effect in the play.The characters' interior monologue often touches their deep sub-consciousness.Interior monologue is both an expression of his characters' inner feelings and an externalization of their mental process, also,the mental process is usually unconsciousness,illogical,and discontinuous.His stage directions are expressive,symbolic and play a crucial role in molding the personality of his characters and exploring the inner world of him.Chapter Four tries to analyze O'Neill's use of masks from the aspects of the function of masks,O'Neill's attitudes towards it,most importantly,his usage of masks in The Great God Brown.The masks both disguise and reveal the various characters who use them. Masks provide an efficient way to display the inner-self on the stage.It is a technique that O'Neill uses,varies and experiments with for years,a technique on which he could never give up.Masks play a central role in many of Eugene O'Neill's plays.Partly,his lifelong love of masks originates in his passion for the ancient Greek theatre and his consistent quest for living truth.Last but not least,in analyzing his representative expressionistic plays,I argue that O'Neill's view truth especially living truth as an individual tragedy,vice versa a social tragedy under guided by something "Behind life".It contributes to better understand his expressionistic plays.O'Neill makes great contributions to the American expressionist drama from both dramatic techniques and his theme.His works reflect his exploration of the tragic existence of human being which values much and influence later American playwrights like Elmer Rice and Arthur Miller.