The Chinese affinity of Eugene O'Neill: A study of Taoist ideas in O'Neill's plays and his influence upon modern Chinese drama (Hong Shen, Cao Yu)

O'Neill's mysticism and quietism are reflected in his Oriental historical plays, which display a salient Chinese Taoist, philosophical dimension of his dramatic thought. In this thesis, the Oriental Taoist underlying yet ultimate principles, such as the incompatibility of dualism between man's materialism and spiritualism, the beginning and return of all divergent existence and the ideal of detachment and transcendence over life and death, are consistently explored in two of O'Neill's middle-period plays Marco Millions and Lazarus Laughed, which, serving as the basis for the first two chapters, are intended as a whole to demonstrate the playwright's identification with Chinese mystical Taoism.; O'Neill's affinity with ancient China extends his relation with modern China, which is manifested in his own decisive influence on the Chinese dramatic stage, as shown, by way of Expressionism, in The Yama Chao and The Wildness, the significant plays of the Chinese leading playwrights Hong Shen and Cao Yu, respectively. Cao Yu's other great play Thunderstorm is also discussed, by chiefly examining corresponding character relationships, with O'Neill's most powerful tragedy, Desire Under the Elms, to evince the "consanguine tie" between the greatest modern playwrights of the two countries. The final chapter is thus intended for a comparative study of reciprocal relations between Chinese drama and O'Neill's influence.