An Analysis Of Simon’s Ethical Tragedy In More Stately Mansions From The Perspective Of Ethical Literary Criticism

Eugene O’Neill(1888-1953) has captured the attentions of literary critics for his enormous contribution to the American drama and even the world drama. He has won four Pulitzer Prizes and the Nobel Prize for literature in 1936. Many critics believe that there were only theaters in America before Eugene O’Neill, and drama emerged after him. The study of Eugene O’Neill has become a worldwide subject because of his significant and unique status. The current O’Neill research has covered such aspects as his work’s themes, characterization, language and techniques as well as his writing initiative and the sources of his ideology. However, most literary critics focus their attention on a few famous plays, such as Beyond the Horizon, The Hairy Ape,Desire Under the Elms, Long Days Journey Into Night. More Stately Mansions,which touches the topic of ethical identities and ethical confusion of the playwright and the male-protagonist, however, fails to attract enough attention from the scholars.Originally intended to be part of an eleven-play cycle, More Stately Mansions is the second tragedy of A Tale of Possessors Self-Dispossessed. Taking the development and change of Harford family as a clue, this series reflect the development process of American capitalism after the Independence of America.More Stately Mansions lays particular emphasis on the story of how Simon changes from a naive daydreamer to a mercilessly bourgeois aristocrat and leads to his insanity in the ethical confusion at last. Eugene O’Neill is good at tragedy, his depiction of Simon’s tragedy in the play is reflective. The male-protagonist’s tragedy in the play triggers a series of moral deliberation: being Deborah’s little boy, why does Simon always confuse his mother with his wife? Living in a poetic life, why does Simon involve himself in the business world, and eventually erode his human warmth in the ruthless business competition? Being invincible in the business world,why can’t Simon insist on the dream of being a poet? In the final analysis, all these ethical problems are originated from his ethical confusions and ethical identities chaotic.This thesis employs the method of ethical literary criticism to analyze Simon’sethical tragedy through close reading. The thesis consists of six parts: introduction,four chapters and conclusion.Introduction is a succinct overview of the playwright’s life, his writing experience, the writing background of More Stately Mansions, as well as the present research on Eugene O’Neill and the selected play at home and abroad.Chapter One is the sketch of ethical literary criticism, especially the background of ethical literary criticism, some key terms of ethical literary criticism and the research method.Chapter Two mainly talks about Simon’s multiple ethical identities, which consist of his family ethical identities and professional ethical identities, and his ethical disorder caused by the multiple ethical identities. In the family, as a husband,he ignores the dignity of his wife and treats her as a whore; while, as a son, he treats his mother as a lover. As a businessman, during the process of being business Napoleon, he ignores the moral standard in human world and employs the “law of jungle” of animal world. These confusing ethical identities and ethical offside are not tolerant by the family and professional ethics.Chapter Three scrutinizes Simon’s ethical confusion. Fixation with mother and wife, as well as adherence to business success and Utopian dream, Simon can’t make a choice. On one hand, Simon loves his mother abnormally and overrides his wife’s dignity optionally; on the other hand, being hooked by the business success, he persists in his Utopian dream. As a man with ethical conscience, he realizes that it goes contrary to the common ethics. Thus, he suffers a lot.Chapter Four reveals that Simon’s ethical tragedy in nature is family ethical tragedy and professional ethical tragedy. In a word, it is a social ethical tragedy,which gives us a lot of the ethical thoughts in the modern society.The last part is the conclusion, which summarizes the former analysis, restates the significance of the study on More Stately Mansions from the perspective of ethical literary criticism. And then it points out that the importance of one’s correct ethical orientation, as well as reveals that the guidance of morality is the guarantee for a happy life.