A Study On Eugene O'Neill's Plays From Bakhtin's Carnival Theory

Eugene O'Neill is known as the "father of modern drama",and his works have been welcomed by scholars both at home and abroad.In the new century,with the study of O'Neill's works,we find the characteristics of carnivalization in them.Carnival theory is put forward by the famous Russian literary theorist Bakhtin,including carnival connotation and spirit,the ambivalence,the subversion,and the reconstruction.Bakhtin's theories are mostly used to analyze novels,while less in drama analysis.This thesis takes Bakhtin's carnival theory to analyze Eugene O'Neill's plays The Emperor Jones,Lazarus Laughed and The Iceman Cometh.These three plays belong to,respectively Eugene O'Neill's early,middle and late works,which are the very representatives of O'Neill's creative life,and also further prove the feasibility of applying Bakhtin's theories in analyzing plays.Eugene O'Neill's plots,dramas and characters embody the carnival's core spirit,reflecting the development of O'Neill in the process of carnival creation.In this thesis,we try to analyze the mock crowning and subsequent decrowning of the carnival king,the dual personality of the characters and the "laughter" of various forms.It analyzes the subversion and construction of O'Neill in the drama,and expresses its inheritance and innovation to the traditional drama in the drama techniques.Through studying the textual speech,the underlying language and the common language used in O'Neill's dramas,we have found the "multi-voiced" phenomenon.By exploring a series of carnival characters carriers like"clowns","liars" and "grotesque images",the playwright has revealed the sad life of those people at the bottom of the world.The comedy elements implied in tragedy are ridiculous,making all laugh in tears and lament for a long time.It is indeed "the full paper absurd word,a bitter tear".It is in the light of Bakhtin's carnival theory that we can draw such a conclusion:Analyzing Eugene O'Neill's works based on Bakhtin's carnival theory is more novel,which has provided a new angle of analysis and has deepened the understanding of Eugene O'Neill.O'Neill succeeds in combining the comedies and the tragedies,the front and the back,contributing to the brilliant charm of his drams.