O’Neill’s Female Viewpoint In Strange Interlude

Eugene O’Neill (1888—1953) is hailed as "the father of modern American drama" Female characters always occupy very important positions in his plays, but because of the complexity of these female characters, many critics have divergent attitudes for O’Neill’s female viewpoint. Strange Interlude is one of O’Neill’s medium-term masterpieces, also called as "my female drama" by writer. In this paper, I choose the classic text as research object, on the basis of learning the achievement of research from domestic and foreign scholars, with research methods of text reading and biography criticism, try to restore O’Neill’s viewpoint of women objectively, and try to investigate the cause of his female viewpoint.This paper is composed by three sections:In the first section of sympathy and understandings—Nina’s resistance:O’Neill shown more sympathy and understanding for the female characters, which is reflected in the Nina’s challenge to traditional morality and patriarchal order and the power of strong and weak contrast between Nina and the male roles in the play. O’Neill affirmed the rationality of Nina’s struggle and the courage of her persistent pursuit of a happy life.In the second section of conservatism and helplessness—Nina’s return:O’Neill was not a feminist and he would inevitably be affected by the traditional concept of the patriarchal society. He had a conservative and helpless attitude towards his female characters and their fate. Nina is still a traditional woman in the family; at the same time, O’Neill could not point out a viable road for women at that time.In the third section of the cause of O’Neill’s female viewpoint:Through the analysis of text, we will find that O’Neill’s viewpoint of women is a very complex phenomenon, which is not covered by the definition of feminism or anti—feminism. His cognition and experience of mother’s emotion helped him to create real and complex female characters. The influence of modern Western social thoughts and the tragedy tradition made him confirm the resistance and pursuit of female characters, but also have pessimistic attitude towards their fate.