| The purpose of this study was to compare and contrast William Shakespeare's King Lear and The Tempest with Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and The Hairy Ape. The overall significance of this study was to discover what the drama of Shakespeare and O'Neill teaches us about power--either personal power or power inflicted on individuals by elite and brute forces.; This study revealed that O'Neill's characters often believe that they are victims of a pointless universe, they are spiritually diseased, and they do not mature during the process of the play, nor are they redeemed.; Unlike O'Neill's characters, Shakespeare's characters live in an orderly universe. They discover that they are responsible for their own destiny because the conflict which they are confronted with is often a result of their own temperament. They overcome the conflicts in their lives, journey toward personal discovery and spiritual growth, and are redeemed. |
