An Eco-feminist Interpretation Of Beyond The Horizon

Eugene O’Neill is the greatest playwright in American history. He is regardedas “Father of Modern American Drama” and “the American Shakespeare”. He is theonly American playwright ever to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and thePulitzer Prize for four times.His early successful drama, Beyond the Horizon, is well-acclaimed and winshim the first Pulitzer Prize since it was performed in1920. As a famous Americanplaywright in the twentieth century, O’Neill expresses his concern about nature andwomen’s destiny in Beyond the Horizon. Women and nature are the very subjectsthat the ecofeminists care about. The thesis studies the play from the ecofeministperspective and discloses the oppression suffered by women and nature andexpresses the playwright’s wishes for the harmonious relationship between the twosexes, and a harmonious society as well.The thesis consists of three main parts, including the introduction, the mainbody and the conclusion. The introduction is a brief overview of Eugene O’Neill andhis playwriting, the literature review, the originality and the significance of the study.The main body is divided into four chapters. Chapter One provides the theoreticframework by outlining the development of ecofeminism, its different branches andintroduces the main ideas of the ecofeminism.Chapter Two studies the representatives of the women and nature in the play:Kate, Ruth, and the farms, who are dominated by the patriarchal society. Women andthe land (the farms) are the victims of the patriarchal society. Kate, like the EarthMother, is dependent and tolerant towards men; and is also oppressed by men at thesame time; Ruth, though, tries to challenge the authority of men, she finds she is stillthe vassal of men. Finally she becomes a victim and loses her independentindividuality. The farms are deteriorating on the verge of bankruptcy in the hands ofRobert who is unskillful at farming.Chapter Three switches its focus to the two Mayo men—Andrew and Robert, the representatives of the patriarchal society, who are the oppressors of andalienating from women and the land. Andrew, a born farmer, deserts the farm, goeson the voyage with his uncle, and plunges himself into speculation of the grainbusiness influenced by the trends of that time and spurred by greed. On the otherhand, Robert has always been cherishing the unrealistic fantasy about the beautybeyond the horizon and shows no interest in taking care of his family and the farms.Chapter Four analyzes the tragedies of three protagonists. Ruth has degeneratedfrom an imaginative brave young girl who dares to pursue her love to a whining wifewith a dead soul and has no hope for life; Andrew betrays the farm and speculates inthe grain business, but he fails and loses everything; Robert, who is ignorant of thefarm work, brings the family into the decline. He not only loses the love of Ruth butalso dies with his fantasy unfulfilled in the end.The last part is the conclusion of the thesis. On the basis of summing up thewhole thesis, the conclusion points out that the tragedies in the play are caused bythe patriarchal thought. Women and nature should never be considered to bedependent on men, under the manipulation of men. Otherwise, similar tragedies willfollow.