| This thesis examines the patriarchal society's definition of femininity as it functions in three of Eugene O'Neill's greatest plays. Analysis of Long Day's Journey into Night and The Iceman Cometh demonstrates the disastrous consequences when the major female character actively reacts to the social ideal, while analysis of A Moon for the Misbegotten establishes that the wife/mother figure can be successfully fulfilled by a woman who is neither, if she has only little exposure to the paradigm. A text does not need to focus consciously on an issue to explore it successfully. Because these three plays do not deal directly with society's expectations for women, the issue's function in them reflects that much more society's power to mold perceptions. |
