On The Eugene O' Neill's " Maternal Instinct " Complex

O'Neill's apotheosizing of the maternal female character is a dominant motif throughout his canon. His maternal women are as likely to be virgins, prostitutes, or childless wives as they are to be biological parents, while those they mother are usually adult men.Great efforts are made in this thesis to explain and understand O'Neill's motive and value of the Motherhood complex. Thus, it is assumed by seeing the motive was as much a part of the psychological and philosophical air he breathed as it was of the troubled family into which he was born that O'Neill attempted to create God the Mother as the alternative to the patriarchal God of the Christian tradition. O'Neill by introducing the Sea Mother and Virgin Mary brought light on modern human mind.This thesis can be divided into three chapters.The first chapter shows O'Neill's Motherhood complex without departing from the close reading of his works.The second deals with the motive of O'Neill's such complex, including the lack of maternal love in a troubled family, the influence of Freudian and Taoist ideas, and the spiritual need in the twenties century.Last but not the least, by introducing the Sea Mother and Virgin Mary, O'Neill designated new faith for modern society, i.e. harmony between man and nature, and love and forgiveness between man and man.