Ambivalent Nature:A Carnival Study Of Strange Interlude

This thesis reveals the ambivalent nature in Strange Interlude based on Bakhtin’s carnival theory from three aspects: the ambivalent nature of carnival characters, the ambivalent nature of carnival rituals and the ambivalent nature of carnival spirits.Besides the introduction and the conclusion, this thesis contains three parts. The first chapter focuses on the ambivalent nature of the carnival characters from the contrastive coexistence in the same character, such as the combination of the angel and the whore, the combination of the masculine and the feminine and the combination of the idealistic and the realistic; focus is also laid on the positivenegative coexistence in pair characters, such as the contrast between the successful businessman Evans and the failed scientist Darrell, the contrast between the sports hero Gordon and the timid school boy Evans, and the similarity of the father Professor Henry Leeds and Charles Marsden of parental quality. The second chapter illustrates that the ambivalent nature penetrates into the carnival rituals of the crowning and the decrowning of Nina’s love and marriage. Her love has been crowned as the king of purity, but decrowned as the sensual desire and later the desire of dominance. Her marriage has also been crowned as the king of omnipotent antidote for her nerve breakdown, but decrowned as a confined prison, and later cooperation relationship without passion. The third chapter highlights the ambivalent nature at the level of the carnival spirits due to the subversion and renewal of the death and the God. Death no longer means the end and sadness, but a rebirth of the dead and a comfort for the alive. Meanwhile, God is no longer the traditionally merciless God the Father, but God the Mother with tenderness. The study of the carnival characters, carnival rituals and carnival spirits is of vital significance to reveal the ambivalent nature in Strange Interlude and also displays the contradictory and complex inner world of the characters and to some degree benefits a lot in understanding Eugene O’Neill’s other dramatic works.