An Exploration Of Desire Under The Elms By Eugene O’neil From The Perspective Of Archetypal Criticism

Eugene O’Neil is one of the greatest playwrights in America and is also been considered as the founder of American drama. Much influenced by the Greek mythology and the Bible as he is, his works are often highlighted with traces of Greek myth and Christian ideas. O’Neil displaces and reconstructs the ancient myth and creates his modern plays. A majority of his plays are associated with conflicts between man and God with tragic elements. He devotes his whole life to digging out and scrutinizing the roots of modern tragedy.Based on the research and discoveries of Carl Jung, N. Frye and James Frazer, archetypes are representations of the human embodied experiences collected over thousands of years that we inherit from our ancestors generations by generations. They are the content of the collective unconscious, according to C. Jung and repeatedly occur in literary works as typical images and events.This thesis aims to study the archetypal characters, archetypal images and archetypal events in Desire Under the Elms of Eugene O’Neil, with a thorough exploration of the characters Eben, Abbie, and Cabot; the images of elms, sun and night; salvation of the main characters Eben and Abbie, and the U-shaped narrative structure, as it attempts to bridge the profound archetypal meanings of the play with the universal human experiences to know O’Neil and his plays in depth.The thesis falls into four chapters. The first part is an introduction to the author, his representative works, archetypal theories and studies home and abroad, which lay a foundation for the archetypal exploration of the play Desire Under the Elms. The second chapter explores the major archetypal characters and typical archetypal images in the play. The third chapter centers on the archetypal exploration of archetypal events, including a spiritual rebirth and resurrection. The last chapter is the conclusion, which covers the findings of the study, theoretical significance, practical significance and limitations of the study.