A Carnival Approach To Strange Interlude

Eugene O’Neill, being called the "Father of Modern American Drama", is the greatest playwright in America. His works and contribution to American and the world theatre won him great honors. He is the winner of four Pulitzer Prizes and won Nobel Prize in1936. Strange Interlude, one of his representative works, won him the third Pulitzer Prize and further established his reputation in American theatre.Most literary critics at home and abroad are mainly interested in analyzing its thematic significance from the angles of Feminism, Puritanism and the gender relationships. But there are few papers or books that interpret this play in the light of Bakhtin’s carnival theory. Actually, the play is full of carnival characteristics like the carnival rituals of crowning and decrowning on carnival squares; carnival senses of the world, carnival spirits of subversion and renewal, and dualism. Consequently, the viewpoint of this thesis is a new one of the studies of Strange Interlude, offering new significance for the study of the play and O’Neill’s other works.This thesis falls into six parts.The part of introduction is about the playwright, the plot of the play and the literature review on Strange Interlude at home and abroad, followed by the objective and significance of this thesis.Chapter One briefly introduces Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin, a folklorist, linguist, esthetician, symbologist, great thinker, ethicist, philosopher, expert on history and culture, anthropologist in Russia and his carnival theory. Compared with the classic criticism, Bakhtin’s carnival theory provides new thought on Strange Interlude.Chapter Two concentrates on the analysis of the carnival squares in Strange Interlude that demonstrate the carnival features of the play as well as the carnival senses of the world.Chapter Three is about the most important carnival rituals—crowning and decrowning of the carnival. Nina is both crowned and decrowned at the same time by the men around her in the carnival square. She is not only a crowned clown but also a decrowned queen. Chapter Four analyzes the characters of Strange Interlude in the view of the carnival spirits. Through analyzing the protagonists’ carnivalistic characteristics and behaviors, the thesis confirms that the play is filled with the carnival spirits of subversion and renewal, and dualism as well.The last part sums up the previous chapters and concludes that Strange Interlude is a play with the carnival characteristics. Although the carnivalistic happy life is the interlude of the real life, the life hope aroused by the carnival is still worth human’s pursuit.