| Eugene O’Neill is acknowledged as the pioneer of the modern American drama forhis remarkably innovative ideas, as well as his theatrical techniques. In his writing, heheavily relies on Greek literature for the source of writing and develops within himselfthe style of mythical creation. Noticeable in his theatrical writing is the motif of revengewhich he takes as one of the principal plotlines. In his masterpieces Desire under theElms and Mourning Becomes Electra, he uses the Greek archetypes of Medea andOrestes, and resets them in the backgrounds of modern Western society in20thcentury. Inthem he remodels the fates of protagonists and the texture of text, endowing the motif ofrevenge with multi-dimensional aesthetic values.This thesis commences with the traditional motif of revenge, discussing its originand the aesthetics involved in the tragedy of revenge. Then it moves to the analysis of therealistic background against which revenge theme in literature is often used by writers inthe modern Western society in20thcentury. After that, the thesis proceeds to elaborate onthe use of the motif of revenge in Greek myths by Eugene O’Neill in his Desire under theElms and Mourning Becomes Electra, with the focus on the existential predicament andpsychological state in the revenge subjects.It is argued that the revenge motif in O’Neill’s plays presents the sense ofdeterminism of the protagonists who fail to escape the dominance of fate, as well as theirunyielding will and psychological triumph during the process of violent revenge. Alsothe subjects of revenge would experience the process of "releasing desire, becomingdesireless, being harmonious with nature", and eventually achieve the self-discovery andself-salvation through the revenge. Eugene O’Neill uses the motif of revenge in an effortto deter the materialistic and chaotic society from degenerating further, and to build amorally healthy homeland for the disillusioned people and their society. |
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