Sea Imagery Research In O'Neill's Play

Eugene O'Neill (1988-1953) is a playwright in the history of American drama who found the modern American drama. Because of his great contribution to the development of the American drama, people call him "the father of American drama" and "America's Shakespeare". He won the 1936 Nobel Prize for Literature and the Pulitzer Prize four times. He is the only Nobel Prize for Literature playwrights in American history so far. O'Neill is a prolific playwright, who created 21 one-act plays and 28 full-length plays in his all life. Among them, "·Anna Christie," "Beyond the Horizon", "Yellow Emperor Jones," "The Hairy Ape", "Mourning Becomes Electra,' "The Iceman Cometh" and "long journey into Night" and other works are outstanding plays in the history of literature.This paper mainly analyzes the abundant meaning of the sea images and reveals the relationship between the images and the plays theme. From one side, we can experience the major theme of O'Neill's plays and think about life and concern about the human condition by reading and researching his plays. Throughout the text, the whole article can be divided into five chapters.In the first chapter, we will research the images origin and the images concepts which changes all the time in the history of literary criticism. On the other hand, we will explore the entire history of the sea images, how the images occur and develop in the history of literature.In the second chapter, after we understand the sea images in the history of literature, we can research how to accept the sea images from historical point of view. In addition, we can research how O'Neill experience mysterious sea from the synchronic point of view. All these research can provide a realistic basis for the study of the images of the sea in O'Neill's plays.In the third chapter, we will read O'Neill's plays in detail and research the abundant meaning of the sea images. Images of the sea are complex and prolific in O'Neill's plays. The sea is a stern judge, who represents God to judge the sin and greed people. The sea symbols the fate, which control the human life mercilessly. The sea is an ideal Utopia and a resting place where people are eager to live in. Otherwise, The sea is a unreality refuge, which provide false comfort.In the fourth chapter, we will reveal the theme of O'Nefll's plays through the images of the sea. O'Neill criticized modern society and reflected the modern civilization by creating the land and sea image. In addition, the sea is the symbol of mysterious force, from which people find the causes of the human tragedy and the modern tragic fate. The life is painful, O'Neill represents the ultimate value of the real life through the images of sea.In the fifth chapter, we will focus on the modern significance of the images of the sea in O'Neill's plays. It includes the enrichment and development of the images of the sea. Finally, we can summarize the inspiration of the images of the sea for the future generation.