| Eugene O'Neill won the Nobel Literature Prize in 1936 and thus had a significant position in the history of literature development. His deep insight about life enabled him to discover men's solitude and anxiety behind the booming prosperity that showed his care about the fate and the future of men.His career life as a dramatist can be briefly divided into three phases. The first lasted from 1913 to 1919, during which years he focused on the life on the ocean and the miserable experiences of sailors on the sea. The main theme is the contradiction and conflicts between destiny and men's wishes for a stable life. Bound East for Cardiff is a representative work for this period. The second phase is between 1920 and 1933, during this period, his subjects of writing seems comparatively wider and thus reveals the social problems from every angle and shows contradictive desires at the bottom of people's hearts. The rest years of his life serves as the last phase in which he wrote autobiographies such as Long Day's Journey into Night and Moon for the Misbegotten to commemorate his family and his elder brother. His writing in this period has a strong tragedy color , however, his skills of showing people's emotion becomes more proficient.There are many reasons contributing to his formation of tragedy writing. The history of America and its culture of various immigrants give him the personality of pursuing freedom and challenging reality. His unfortunate personal life makes him think deeply about the society. Besides, The influence of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Freud and Strindberg makes him not only inherit ancient Greek tragedy, but also makes his own creation in terms of drama writing. Most of the characters are living in dilemmas which include the conflicts between lust and materials, dream and reality, people and alienation of themselves. Not he reveals the true situation of their living but tries to find ways for them to get rid of the feeling of hopelessness through daydreaming and dionysiac spirit.The paper first give a brief introduction of Eugene O'Neill'life and through the analysis of characters in his dramas the thesis tries to find out the factors which contribute to the formation of his tragedy thoughts. What's more, through his using of masks, dialogue and sound effects and the specific dilemmas, the paper reveals his thinking about the sources of suffering. The last but not least, the thesis also digs the aesthetic values and artistic meanings of his works.
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