Eugene Glastone O'Neill 美国文学史尤金·奥尼尔课件

Analysis
“The gorilla lets the crushed body slip to the floor; stands over it uncertainly, considering; then picks it up, throws it in the cage, shuts the door…” Theme: the helplessness and impotence of modern man trying to seek an identity
Eugene O’Neill 尤金·奥尼尔(1888-1953):
“Founder of the American Drama”
life



NY (1888, hotel) Princeton (1906, expelled after one year) Wandering around (gold digger, seaman) Sanitorium (1912-1913, TB, reading widely) Baker‘s 47A Workshop at Harvard (1914-1915, 第47号戏剧 研习班) Provincetown Players (1916,普罗温斯敦剧团) Pulitzer Prize(1920, 1922, 1928, 1957), Nobel Prize (1936) Boston (1953, hotel)

OEDIPUS COMPLEX
Myth and Archetypal Criticism 神话原型批评

弗雷泽 Frazer（文化人类学） 荣格 Jung（分析心理学） 卡西尔 Cassirer （象征哲学）
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Cabot （ wrathful God ）

我看钱是上帝送给他们的——不是你！上帝是严厉的， 不是那么好说话的！也许在西部很容易搞到金子，可 是那不是上帝的金子，它不是为我而存在的。我听到 了上帝的声音，又在警告我要坚强，要留在这田庄上。 我看到时他的手通过伊本偷走我的钱，使我脱离软弱。 我觉得自己就在他的手里，他的手指在给我引路。现 在我比以前任何时候都要孤独——我老了，天哪—— 熟得快从树枝上掉下来了……怎么——你还需要什么？ 上帝是孤独的，不是吗？上帝是严厉而孤独的！
在奥尼尔之前，美国只有剧院；奥尼尔以后，美国才有了戏剧。
Major Plays

Three Periods: 1916-1920: Bound East For Cardiff; Beyond the Horizon 《天边外》 1920-1934: The Emperor Jones; Anna Christie; Desire Under the Elms; The Hairy Ape; The Great God Brown; Strange Interlude; Mourning Becomes Electra; Ah, Wilderness! 《安娜· 克里斯蒂 》，《啊，荒野!》 1946-1953(the best phase of his writing): The Iceman Cometh (1946); Long Day’s Journey into Night (1956)
Abbie and Eben （ incest）


Eben: I’m as guilty as yew be! He was the child o’ our sin. Abbie: I don’t repent that sin! I hain’t askin’ God t’ fergive that!


伊本：我和你一样有罪！他是咱们的罪恶所生 的孩子。 爱碧：我不忏悔这个罪恶！我不要上帝饶恕我 这个！
Extra Content


伊莉克特拉是希腊联军统帅阿伽门农和王后克 拉得耐斯特拉的女儿。特洛伊战争结束之后， 阿伽门农回国，但被王后和她的姘夫伊吉斯修 斯杀害。伊莉克特拉鼓舞她的弟弟欧莱斯提兹 入宫，杀死她的母亲和姘夫。精神医学家就把 这段女儿为了报父仇杀害母亲的故事，比喻为 女孩在心性发展上的恋父情结。 ELECTRA COMPLEX

Features of O’Neill’s Plays
Stylistic features
* tragic structure: dream—doubt—defeat * naturalistic and realistic spirits mingled with symbolic expressionism * focus on people’s psychological struggles rather than plot or characterization with a frequent use of interior monologues Robert Browning (dramatic monologue) * puppet characters representing all human beings
Expressionism

Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas. Expressionist artists sought to express meaning or emotional experience rather than physical reality.
Greek Elements
Eben: Oedipus Complex Plot: drawn from Euripides’ Hippolytus (a father returning home with a new wife who falls in love with her stepson)


《希波吕托斯》

古希腊雅典著名悲剧诗人幼里披底斯（Euripides） 的悲剧作品（约作于公元前428年）。故事的情节 是这样的：雅典国王忒修斯的第二个妻子菲德拉 爱上了忒修斯与希波吕忒生的儿子希波吕托斯， 但当她向希波吕托斯表示爱慕之意时，反遭其断 然拒绝。菲德拉遂自杀身亡，并留下遗言说希波 吕托斯侮辱了她。结果希波吕托斯被不辨真相的 父亲放逐，同时，忒修斯还把海神波塞冬送给自 己的三个诅咒中的一个降到了希波吕托斯的身上， 希波吕托斯最终为惊马踩死。
Extra Content

传说底比斯国王拉伊俄斯受到神谕警告:如果他让新生儿 长大，他的王位与生命就会发生危险。于是他让猎人把儿 子带走并杀死。但猎人动了恻隐之心，只将婴儿丢弃。丢 弃的婴儿被一个农民发现并送给其主人养大。多年以后， 拉伊俄斯去朝圣，路遇一个青年并发生争执，他被青年杀 死。这位青年就是俄底浦斯。俄底浦斯破解了斯芬克斯之 谜，被底比斯人民推举为王，并娶了王后伊俄卡斯特。后 来底比斯发生瘟疫和饥荒，人们请教了神谕，才知道俄底 浦斯杀父娶母的罪行。俄底浦斯挖了双眼，离开底比斯， 四处漂流。精神医学家就把这段儿子杀父娶母的故事，比 喻为男孩在心性发展上的恋母情结。
Characters

Ephraim Cabot Simeon Peter Eben Abbie
Central Conflict


True love Vs. Property ↓ Abbie & Eben Vs. Farm
Puritan elements

Do you know anything about Puritanism?
The Hairy Ape

Yank Smith, a brutish stoker on a transatlantic liner, bullies and despises everyone around him, considering himself superior. He is devastated when a millionaire’s daughter is repulsed by his simian ways, and he vows to get even with her. Ashore in New York, Yank schemes to destroy the factory owned by the woman’s father, but his plans fail. Yank wanders into a zoo. There, feeling alienated from humanity, he releases an ape (for whom he feels some kinship), and the ape kills him.
pure belief, simple church service, widespread disciples, disciplined life, wrathful God

The image of Cabot as a puritan
Cabot （ disciplined life ）

你们真是一对杀人害命的好鸳鸯！你们得双双绞死在 树上，吊在风里，烂掉——这对我这样的老傻瓜倒是 个警告，应该独自去忍受孤独——对你们这些年纪轻 轻的色鬼也是个警告。我今天不能干活，我没兴趣。 这田庄见鬼去吧！我要离开它！我去把母牛和其他牲 畜都解了绳子，我去把它们都赶到树林里去，在那儿 它们可以自由了，我让它们自由，我也让自己自由！ 我今天要离开这儿！我要把屋子和饲养场都放火烧了， 还要看着它们烧！我要让你妈在这废墟上出没。我把 这片土地归还上帝，这样任何人都永远别想碰它！
Pulitzer Prize & Nobel Prize
Features of O’Neill’s PlaysFra Baidu bibliotek
Thematic

Features (naturalism):
depicting people who have no hope of controlling their destinies dealing with the basic issues of human existence and predicament: life and death, illusion and disillusion, communication and alienation, dream and reality, self and society, etc.