A Study On The Gothic Style Of Strange Interlude

Eugene O’Neill is one of the most distinguished playwrights in America.In his whole life,O’Neill won the Pulitzer Prize four times,and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936.In his creative works,O’Neill devotes himself to exploring various social problems and the spiritual crisis of modern human beings,which arouse our considerations about history and reality,life and death,and good and evil.Strange Interlude is one of O’Neill’s masterpieces,and earns him the third Pulitzer Prize.In this play,O’Neill obviously applies the writing features of Gothic literature,and it is full of supernatural darkness and horror in environment construction,plot arrangement,character portrayal,theme depiction and so on,which reflects their tortured souls.Therefore,based on the writing features of Gothic literature,this thesis tries to interpret the Gothic style of this play on the above aspects,probing into O’Neill’s deep concerns about man’s inner hearts.This thesis contains six parts.The Introduction mainly concentrates on Eugene O’Neill and his play Strange Interlude,then it gives the literature review of this play,and finally points out the significance of the study.Chapter One mainly introduces the features of Gothic literature,as well as the origin of O’Neill’s Gothic complex,laying the foundation for the following analyses.Chapter Two analyzes Gothic environment in this play.Horrifying and mysterious atmosphere is the indispensable element of Gothic literature.Professor Leeds’ room and Evans’ mansion are all filled with strong atmosphere of terror.Living in such kind of environment,people’s hearts are greatly depressed;their souls are extremely distorted,and their spirit become more and more strained,causing the tragedies.Chapter Three expounds Gothic plots in this play.The protagonist Nina resorts to ridiculous way to atone for her sins for the dead Gordon;there are many secrets hidden in her heart,leaving us great suspense.Her way to atonement also causes many death events.By employing the plot features in Gothic literature,this play presents to us a series of grotesque scenes,mysterious suspense,and horrible death events vividly,touching every nerve of us.Chapter Four analyzes several typical Gothic characters in this play.The protagonist Nina--a villain-hero,is obsessed by the ghost of Gordon,and the dead Gordon,a young man representing the mysterious force in life,touches the heart of every character in the story.Marsden,an eccentric man of ambiguous gender,has the male body but with a delicate heart of female.Those grotesque characters endow this play with unique Gothic color.Chapter Five studies Gothic themes in this play.Nina spends her whole life in taking revenge,and the faint love between her and other men also becomes deformed.Her revengeful life reveals women’s conflicts with men and patriarchy,which are also the main embodiment of the conflicts between individuals and society.The Conclusion summarizes the previous chapters and points out that O’Neill makes profound moral exploration by using Gothic style as a tool;he criticizes the social reality effectively and reveals the social problems,conveying women’s crying for independent personality and conducting moral restoration and development.