An Analysis Of The Relationship Between Characters And Characterization In Desire Under The Elms From The Perspective Of Conversational Analysis

Conversational analysis is a discipline which developed in America in the 1960 s and the 1970 s,aiming to reveal the inherent conversational structure pattern in daily communications.As the center of conversational analysis,the turn-taking theory is usually used to study daily conversations.As a carrier of dramas,drama dialogues also follow the general rules of daily conversations.This research intends to explore the relationship between the characters and their characterization in dramas based on the turn-taking system.Desire under the Elms is a masterpiece of Eugene O'Neill and it is also hailed as“the first great tragedy of America.” Nowadays,many researches on the play focus on its tragic theme,feminism,symbolism and so on.In this study,four extracts in this play which can best reflect the relationship between the characters and their characterization are selected as research corpus and be analyzed from the perspective of the turn-taking.The findings of the study are as following:Firstly,the father-son relationship between Cabot and his youngest son Eben is indifferent and lack affection.In their conversations,Cabot repeatedly initiates turns to attract Eben's attention and employs the strategy of long turns to control the right of speaking,but Eben mostly responds him with dispreferred pairs.In the meantime,Eben allocates turns to satirize Cabot for the purpose of controlling the topic.They even had physical conflicts due to disagree with each other.Cabot's cold and selfish and Eben's stubborn are also revealed in their interaction.Secondly,the marriage of old husband Cabot and his younger wife Abbie is sustained by material desire rather than true love,which leads to their morbid relationship.In the second extract,Abbie responds to Cabot with short words andaccompanied by irony and ridicule first,while Cabot turned a deaf ear to Abbie's uncooperative behavior.In order to occupy the farm,Abbie participates proactively in conversations to master the right to speak and control the topic.So she not only provokes the relationship between Eben and Cabot,but also induces Cabot to give a promise that leaving the farm to her and her baby.It can be seen that the cold relationship between the spouses is accompanied by Cabot's selfishness and Abbie's crafty.Thirdly,the mother-child relationship between stepmother Abbie and stepson Eben is morbid and their relationship has also changed dramatically with the development of the plot.In the beginning,Abbie and Eben were in a state of hostility when they met for the first time,since they both aim to scramble for the farm.Abbie initiates turn several times to show her kindness but Eben responds her with rough abuse.When Abbie bluntly told Eben her true purpose of marrying Cabot,they had intense verbal conflicts and parted in discord.But in this struggle,they fall in love with each other which results in their abnormal incestuous relationship.In the fourth extract,Abbie and Eben's turn distribution is equal,and there is no phenomenon of fighting for the right to speak between them,indicating that their relation has changed from conflict to harmony.This research affirms that it is feasible to apply the system of turn-taking to analyze dramatic dialogues.In this way,the interpretation of the relationship between characters and their characterization is relatively scientific and objective.It also provides a new perspective to do the research on dramas.