Trauma And Eugene O'neill's Playwriting

Trauma is the remarkable mark in O'Neill's life.His own individual,parental and familial trauma leaves indelible marks in his heart.Writing is a popular way for a writer to express and release his inner thoughts.Trauma theory holds that the traumatized subject is left with trauma after he gets a psychic or physical blow in a short time that he cannot accept.O'Neill's memory of the traumatic events is the inexhaustible sources for his writing.O'Neill's trauma is composed of his individual frustrating love affairs,his parents' inharmonious relationship and the family members' ambivalence to one another.O'Neill yearned for love and a nurturing wife;O'Neill had been longing for a warm and cozy family where the parents loved each other and he and his brother could find a warm shelter since his childhood;O'Neill hoped all the more that the family members could love,understand and respect each other.However,the cruel reality made all these simple hopes impossible.His own love affairs were frustrating,his parents were not on good terms,and his family members were skeptical of and hurt each other.All that happened against his wish puzzled and bored him.In the mean time,he was also reflecting.He was in dire need to get rid of trauma,break free from the entanglement of life,which becomes his moving words and impressive plays.This thesis consists of three chapters besides the introduction and the conclusion.The introduction briefly introduces O'Neill and Beyond the Horizon,All God's Chillun Got Wings and Long Day's Journey into Night,the literature review on these three plays at home and abroad,and then the questions to be discussed in this thesis.Besides,this chapter also traces the origin,development,influence of trauma and its possible solutions as well.At the same time,the great influence of trauma on O'Neill is highlighted.Chapter One explores O'Neill's individual trauma and its representation in his works.The fruitless triangle love among O'Neill,Louise and Reed left O'Neillincurable psychic trauma.O'Neill's early play Beyond the Horizon is his memory of this trauma and his efforts to dissolve the trauma.The deep influence of Louise upon O'Neill is presented in many of O'Neill's works tingled with the trace of Louise.Chapter Two studies the trauma left by O'Neill's parents,and the representation of such inharmonious relationship in his works.O'Neill's parents' mutual love,hatred and harm were O'Neill's deep trauma.The representative masterpiece in his middle period,All God's Chillun Got Wings,is his traumatic memory of his parents' marriage.This trauma makes O'Neill's Oedipus complex more obvious,leading to his portrayal of male characters with such a complex in many of his works.Chapter Three explores the trauma left on O'Neill by the disharmonious relationship of the family,and his musings on this problem.The four members in O'Neill's family both loved,hated and harmed one another deeply.His late work Long Day's Journey into Night is his record of and ponders over the problematic relationship of his family members,especially his relationship with his brother,Jamie.Jamie affected O'Neill's writing and his life.Jamie's Oedipus complex and competition for maternal love between the two brothers traumatized O'Neill deeply.This complicated brotherhood becomes the major thematic concern in his many works.In the last part,the thesis draws a conclusion that Beyond the Horizon,All God's Chillun Got Wings and Long Day's Journey into Night are all O'Neill's traumatic expression.These works show the influence of his individual,parental and familial trauma on his psychology and writing.In fact,these traumas will happen not only to O'Neill,but to everybody,every couple,the relationship of all the family members.O'Neill's representation of the trauma is his deep reflection on the nature of life and human nature.