An Analysis Of The Tragic Sense In Marco Millions

Eugenie O’Neill is, undoubtedly, the founder of American modern drama. As an outstanding playwright of tragic plays, he concerns about human sufferings and misfortunes in the modern society. As a keen observer, he perceives the human mental emptiness and the individuals’ existential dilemma caused by the belief crisis. The tragic sense manifested in his works is stressed in such special atmosphere. As a playwright who attaches much importance to human’s fate, Eugene O’Neill advocates the ideal of ancient Greece and revives the tragic spirit implied in the Greek tragedy. The sublime showed in the Greek tragedy has permeated deeply into O’Neill’s tragic thoughts. At the same time, as a modern man who is influenced by the social reality of modern environment and the advanced modern thoughts, O’Neill fuses his tragic thoughts with modern tragic elements. Therefore, O’Neill’s tragic thoughts come into shape on the basis of Greek tragedy and absorb the essence from modern philosophy and psychology, which makes his tragic thoughts more profound in the process of inheritance and innovation.Marco Millions is among O’Neill’s excellent tragic plays, which almost contains O’Neill’s entire tragic thoughts from many aspects. The play not only presents the factors of O’Neill’s tragic thoughts that are influenced by the Greek tragedy but also shows the modern elements of O’Neill’s tragic thoughts which contribute to make the play an excellent modern one of criticizing social reality. This thesis intends to analyze the play from the perspective of O’Neill’s tragic thoughts to present O’Neill’s combination of inheritance and innovation, and more importantly, to present the tragic sense in the play, which breaks the previous researches stressed more on orientalism, and to lead the readers have a better understanding of the play. The analysis of the tragic sense in Marco Millions helps to improve the understanding of not merely O’Neill’s tragic thoughts but also the play’s theme. The main characters in the play are ended with tragic results, but the tragic spirit implied in the play functions as the encouragement to people, which guides them to improve their spiritual pursuit and realize their life value. In an age of materialism, O’Neill’s tragic spirit is also the antidote to those trapped in bewilderment and existential dilemma, which guides them to gain a pure land of soul and to struggle for an honorable and regretless life. Therefore, this thesis not only holds the theoretical meaning but also possesses the meaning of directing life.This thesis consists of an introduction, the main body and a conclusion, and its main contents are as follows:The first part is introduction, which introduces the playwright Eugene O’Neill, the play Marco Millions, and the literature review of Marco Millions. The main contents include O’Neill’s life experiences and his main works, the brief introduction of Marco Millions, and the situation and results of the review of Marco Millions from abroad and home.The second part is the main body, which is composed of three chapters:Chapter One mainly presents O’Neill’s tragic thoughts and the creation of Marco Millions. O’Neill’s tragic thoughts are mainly manifested in his tragic plays of three phases. Different themes are involved in different plays of different phases, and the three phases, altogether, present the development process of O’Neill’s tragic thoughts. In the meantime, this part also introduces the creation background and purpose of Marco Millions, and the detailed information and the creation meaning of the play. Through the introduction of this part, it helps to offer the subsequent analysis with theoretical basis.Chapter Two mainly presents the manifestations of the tragic sense in Marco Millions. The analysis in this chapter is based on the tragic thoughts narrated in chapter one, and the tragic sense in Marco Millions is analyzed in detail from the perspective of O’Neill’s tragic thoughts. This part is showed in three aspects: the tragic sublime affected by Greek tragedy, the alienation brought by belief crisis and the existential dilemma caused by social reality. In the play, Kukachin’s tragic spirit of dying for love shows O’Neill’s inheritance of fate concept and tragic spirit from Greek tragedy. In addition, the elements of tragic error, chorus, etc. enhance the tragic effect to a higher level which sublimates the tragic spirit and enlightens audience. On the contrary, Marco Polo is the counter-example of Kukachin, whose tragedy lies in his excessive pursuit of material wealth while shows sever ignorance of spiritual pursuit which makes him the victim of the material world and a machine of making money. Such problem caused by belief crisis exists among almost all the modern people. They lead a kind of mechanical and meaningless life in the pursuit of material wealth, and the alienation and existential dilemma shows the tragic life of the whole generation. The analysis of the modern people shows the modern factors of O’Neill’s tragic thoughts, and O’Neill takes full advantage of the modern thoughts to make the tragic sense more profound in the play.Chapter Three mainly shows the reasons that form the tragic sense in Marco Millions from the perspectives of external environment and internal personal factor. The external causes include the natural environment and social environment. The unique natural environment helps the Americans to shape the spirit of conquering nature and pioneering, which sets a good beginning for its later development. Whereas as the development of science and technology, the Americans attach much more importance to economic profit rather than the spiritual pursuit which imbalances the development between material and spirit. These elements in reality almost resemble the tragic elements in the play, which offers the tragedy with real basis. Besides, O’Neill’s family experience relates closely to the creation of his tragic plays, and due to the suffering family life, the tragic sense permeates deeply into O’Neill’s play writings. Therefore, the external and internal factors together contribute to shaping Marco Millions a tragic play.The last part is the conclusion which makes a summary of the whole thesis: Marco Millions is an important play of O’Neill’s middle works; it shows O’Neill’s intention of inheriting fine traditions and the courage to bring forth new ideas, which improves the tragic meaning and profoundness of the play. Through Marco Millions, O’Neill criticizes the greed and corruption in the society and guides the modern people in the spiritual field with enlightenment on the existential purpose.