Eugene O'neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night: A Pragmastylistic Perspective

Eugene O'Neill,known as “Father of Modern American Drama”,is one of the most important American dramatists of the 20 th century.His later work,Long Day's Journey into Night,is among the greatest American plays in history.It is about the story of one Irish immigrant family from day into night,and becomes an artistic representation of O'Neill's tragic outlook on family life.In the play,love and hate among the four family members are vividly depicted through their conversations,in which they blame,quarrel and reconcile all the time.Besides,the unique conversational patterns,the absurdity and irony in the dramatic language also make the play more impressive and attracting.Based on the unique features of dramatic conversations,this thesis tries to apply pragmastylistics to the conversations of Long Day's Journey into Night,by adopting Conversation Analysis and Cooperative Principle.The qualitative and quantitative analyses are combined in this research.In Conversation Analysis,turn-taking system is adopted to make a thorough quantitative analysis of four excerpts of conversations between husband and wife,the father and the son,the mother and the sons,and among all four family members.In the analysis of breaking Cooperative Principle,the frequent flouting of the four maxims are concerned,in which a qualitative method is used to make a complement to the above quantitative analysis.Based on the above analysis,the stylistic significance of characterization and theme construction is discussed.Through the CA analysis,the distinctive personalities of the characters and their complicated interpersonal relationships are revealed;through the CP analysis,the implied meanings are disclosed and the theme of the play becomes clearer.Conversations in plays not only push the development of the plot but also shape the personalities of characters and reveal interpersonal relationships.With different analytical tools of pragmastylistics combined,this thesis focuses on the conversations in this play,which can provide the readers a new and more objective way to explore the literary value of this play.It deepens our understanding of the characters as well as the conflicts in the play and may help improve our ability in daily communication.