Opposites And Unity In Human Arena

Eugene O'Neill,“the Father of Modern American Drama”,won the Pulitzer Prize four times.In 1936,he won the Nobel Prize,and earned a world glory for American drama.With more than fifty plays throughout his lifetime,and gifted at using expressionism to reveal the problems of underclass,O'Neill exerted a great influence on the drama creation in the 20 th century.At present,scholars at home and abroad have studied O'Neill from various aspects.As for cross-cultural research,many scholars have focused on the Taoist thoughts in his plays,but few studies are targeted to a specific theory of Taoist philosophy.From the perspective of the Yin and Yang Principles in Taoist philosophy,this thesis makes a study through six dramatic works of Eugene O' Neill in different periods,and analyzes the embodiment of Yin and Yang Principles in O' Neill's plays from three dramatic elements,namely,characters,stage directions and themes.The six works are Moon of the Caribbees,The Great God Brown,Marco Millions,The Fountain,Lazarus Laughed and Long Day's Journey into Night.Through the analysis of the typical figures' language and characteristics in the play,this paper reveals O'Neill's ingenuity in characterization,who can skillfully polarize the characters,either with Yin or Yang,or both,and show the opposition and unity and even mutual transformation through Yin and Yang Principles.At the same time,through the analysis and the display of many images from the stage directions,it can be seen that O'Neill has used many objects to express his deep understanding of the natural environment.In the natural world,there will not only be the opposition between Yin and Yang,but also exist a transforming from each other under certain conditions,and even achieve themutual storage eventually.Through the exploration of the themes in his drama,namely the common things in the world: life and death,love and hatred,we can learn that O'Neill pays much attention on the constantly changing emotions and destinies of the human arena: some people are dead,but they are still alive to some extent,because their great spirits remain alive in the world.By contrast,some people cannot play any positive role in their surrounding environment or society even though their bodies are alive.Love and hatred are two different extremes as well as life and death.Under O'Neill's pen they can freely change themselves towards the other and eventually come to unification.By analyzing the six dramas from the Taoist philosophy of Yin and Yang Principles,we can clearly comprehend O'Neill's Taoist philosophy.Everything in the world has two sides between Yin and Yang,although the two opposites are incompatible with each other on the surface,in certain cases they can reach mutual transformation,even achieve unity.Therefore,people should adapt to the change of Yin and Yang,let nature take its course,and pursue a peaceful and beautiful life.O'Neill calls on everyone to cherish this kind of mind,build up their own inner harmony and unity,so as to get purification of the role of society,and ultimately to achieve peace between man and nature.The development and transformation between Yin and Yang are not only the major melody throughout O' Neill's plays,but also the refraction and miniature of the whole society as well as human arena.