Themes and technique in the plays of Eugene O'Neill during the period 1921-1931

Abstract

No one who reads O'Neill can fail to see how his mental conflicts shaped his art. Most of his strength and weaknesses as a dramatist can be traced to the divisions in his mind, and this strong autobiographical element is perhaps most prominent in his work from 1921 to 1931.The First Section of this study is introductory. Chapter 1 sketches some significant early influences on O'Neill, mainly those of his father and mother and men he knew as a sailor. Chapter 2 surveys the dominant characters and themes of the plays written before 1921. The Second Section examines the development of O'Neill' social, religious and psychological ideas up to 1931 and shews how they led to pessimism. The chapters of the Third Section discuss the more important aspects of his technique. They shew how he uses the Chorus to interpret his themes to the audience, structure to give force to the expression of his ideas, irony to attack materialistic society and human nature, and masks to illustrate the duality of personality that life forces on us. The last chapter of this Section tries to evaluate the contribution that O'Neill's dialogue makes to the effectiveness of his plays. In 1931 O'Neill had not yet come to terms with himself. His statement on life as expressed by his themes was still erratic and his technique still sometimes clumsy and unsuitable. After 1931 O'Neill came to a kind of serenity, and the Conclusion shews how this new outlook helped him to make a balanced and more compassionate comment on life through his themes and at the same time to achieve a more effective dramatic technique.