| Long Day’s Journey into Night and A Moon for the Misbegotten are two important later plays of “the father of American modern drama” Eugene O’Neill.Long Day’s Journey into Night depicts the family tragedy of Tyrones,which not only reveals the weakness of humanity,but also portrays every family member’s emptiness and inner strain in face of the inevitable fate.A Moon for the Misbegotten is deemed as an elegy for Jamie Tyrone,also for O’Neill’s elder brother who had suffered greatly from the family trauma and lack of faith,in which Jamie gets salvation in the embrace of Josie and finally experiences a spiritual journey from escapism to self-recognition.From the perspective of posttraumatic growth,this thesis aims to analyze the tragic character Jamie Tyrone,who is modelled on Eugene O’Neill’s elder brother James Jr.O’Neill,with the help of the “posttraumatic growth inventory model”(PTGI model)and its five indicators.Jamie’s traumatic experience derives from his unfortunate family background;and his lack of religious faith as well as his repressive behavior of excessive drinking both block his ability to release himself from the traumatic experience.However,Josie as an incarnation of “truth,goodness and beauty” helps Jamie find his values and belief in life,and ultimately make him experience a spiritual development.Then,this study uses the five indicators of the PTGI model to evaluate Jamie’s posttraumatic growth and analyze the reasons for its failure,and finally concludes that even though Jamie’s growth is unsuccessful and incomplete,it still has important literary and practical significances.O’Neill’s two semi-autobiographical plays not only reflect the playwright’s review of his personal family trauma,but also possess great literary and realistic significances.This thesis explores O’Neill’s creative intention and reveals the profound significance of the theme of “love and forgiveness as a miraculous cure of trauma”which often appears in O’Neill’s tragedies. |
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