Women's Inescapable Tragic Fates In Patriarchal Society

Eugene O'Neill, the distinctive American playwright, has a tremendous impact on the development of American drama. His family background and special experience contribute a lot to his achievement in literature. Since the publication of O'Neill's works, scholars in China and abroad have been doing plenty of researches from different perspectives, thus there appear many papers in this field.This thesis analyzes the female characters, Christine and Lavinia, and their living experience in O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra from patriarchal aspect based on Beauvoir's feminist theory to expose the unfair treatment and suppressions which women suffer in the patriarchal society.This thesis develops its arguments from six parts. The introduction serves as a brief review of the whole thesis which includes the achievements of the dramatist, the literary criticisms of some previous scholars, the research perspectives and aims of this thesis.The first chapter reviews the development of religion in America, its relationship with American Literature and the religious influence on men and women in Mourning Becomes Electra. Christianity endows men with the right of domination over women in Genesis from the Holy Bible. In New England, where Puritanism prevails, suppressions appear more serious. Normal family relationships become sick and twisted, and characters in the drama are haunted by doomed fatalism.The second chapter analyzes the islands'vital role in Lavinia's awakening of female consciousness, and explains why the male could not get free and achieve liberation there. However, on the islands, Lavinia draws strength and changes into a woman yearning for a free and happy life.The third chapter discusses the reasons for Lavinia's transformation from a defender of patriarchy to an independent woman who pursues her freedom and happiness with efforts. The voyage to the South Sea Islands liberate Lavinia's physical and physiological frustrations and her internal woman's desire revives, so she understands her mother and chooses the road to freedom that her mother has not finished.The fourth chapter is the analysis of the efforts that women make for freedom and the causes of their misfortune. The relationship between mother and daughter changes from hostility to mutual understanding, and the daughter's struggle is a prolonged one of the mother's unfinished pursuit of freedom. Their fates reflect the women's living condition and their inescapable tragic endings under the control of patriarchy. Lavinia imprisons herself in the haunted Mannon mansion until the curse is paid out and the last Mannon dies. Meanwhile, Lavinia's unbending will and her choice of being severely punished instead of suicide even in face of a desperate situation move O'Neill and the present author. Although Christine and Lavinia have to commit crimes on their way for freedom and happiness, their fighting spirits and Lavinia's courage of self-imposed imprisonment shine and move lots of readers.The last part is the conclusion. As a male writer, O'Neill unavoidably reveals his prejudice against women. That is why when one first reads O'Neill's women, one will cultivate hatred to them. However, as a writer who concerns much about human's living conditions, O'Neill shows his sympathy to women through his depiction of Christine and Lavinia. The two women's experiences are not individual cases, and they reflect the lives of all women under the suppression of patriarchy.