Desire Under The Elms A Universal American Tragedy

Eugene O'Neill, the first and only American Nobel Prize winning playwright, has been regarded as founder of American modern drama. As a productive writer, he left the world more than fifty plays, most of which are great tragedies. His whole life was devoted to reforming the convention of melodrama, experimenting various theatrical skills, and digging out the root of American tragedy through his vivid portrayal of people from all walks of life, and exploring the relationship between man and man. His concern about human beings and the society has won him world-wide fame and recognition, and his life, his works as well as his tragic vision have been the critical focus of scholars within and without American. During his life time, O'Neill engaged himself to synthesize individual tragedy with universal tragedy, Desire Under the Elms is such an attempt in his early time. This thesis aims to analyze that Eugene O'Neill successfully portrayed a universal American tragedy in this play, thus to expose the universal tragic sense in American society.The introduction gives a brief review of O'Neill's significant position in American modern drama, his contribution in reforming the convention of melodrama by his innovative theatrical experiments, and the increasing studies of his life and works in and after his life. And then it clarifies the thesis of this paper as well as the reason why the author of this paper chooses Desire Under the Elms as the object of her research.Chapter One analyzes the shaping forces of O'Neill's tragic vision, that is, the time of turbulence and confusion he lived in, his own tragic life experience, and some literary and ideological influences on him. Chapter Two reveals the universal symptoms of the American disease– the coldness among people, the decay of their morality, and the self-destruction physically and spiritually.Chapter Three further digs at the root of such a universal American disease. There are three causes: the poison of materialism, the repression of Puritanism, and the loss of the religious belief.