In a hotel on the corner of Broadway and 43rd street in New York City
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill is born on October 17th, 1888, a fitting beginning for a man who turned to be one of the greatest playwrights in America.
Early Life and Career
His father, James O’Neill was a popular American actor of his days. In his early life Eugene, O’Neill family toured with James during his shows with his well-performing theater company. He was introduced to the world of acting in these years and learned the challenges of sustaining artistic honor.
The Nobel Prize for literature has ever been won by O’Neill in the history of American playwright, and the only playwright to have won four Pulitzer prizes. He was among the first people to use American vernacular, he introduced to the American stage the social and psychological realism and paid attention to characters marginalized by society. American theater comprised of farce and melodrama before O’Neill, he was among the first American playwright to take drama earnestly as an aesthetic and intellectual form (Bloom, 75).
Personal Life and Success
In 1910 he experienced, passionate feelings for and wedded the first of three spouses, Kathleen Jenkins. Before long, in any case, O'Neill left his companion for the undertakings of voyaging. In Honduras, he was infected with Malaria and came back to realize Kathleen was pregnant with his kid. He did not see his son, Eugene O'Neill, Jr., O'Neill delivered out once more, he left for Buenos Aires, and visited England at a later date. In 1912, Kathleen petitioned for separation and before long, tormented by disease, he came back to his father's household. It was there amid the confusion of a despairing father and a drug abusing mother he chose to end up a writer. He put in the following five years occupied basically on plays. In 1918 he wedded Agnes Boulton, and their two kids, Shane and Oona. He kept on distributing and create his act, however, when his play "Beyond the Horizon (1920)", that American crowds reacted to his brilliance. The poet made him be rewarded first of three Pulitzer Prizes. A lot of people found in this early effort an initial move to a more genuine American drama. The way O’Neill portrayed the lives of the characters in an insightful view and poetic discourse, separated his work the less from the less serious playwriting of the day (Eugene " Jessica, 45).
Later Years and Legacy
He entered into a very productive period as a result of the success of “Beyond the Horizon” leading to the writing of his greatest plays (Dowling, 132). Through the individual struggles of two men and their search for identity followed the incredible "The Emperor Jones (1920)" and "The Hairy Ape (1922)". He was established as a master of the craft through the good reception of these two. The demise of his father, mother, and brother and the collapse of his marriage made these times to be fraught with turmoil. O’Neill created a various penetrating and insightful views into the life of a family and struggle, because of these tragedies. To express the difficulties of the life of a family, he used the moral and physical entanglements comparable to Greek theatre in his plays such as "Mourning Becomes Electra (1931)" and "Desire under the Elms (1924)". He continued in this vein, creating a cycle of plays, in a better part of the 1930s and 1940s, which dealt with the lives of a family in New England. With the worry that they might be changed after his demise, he damaged the manuscripts unintentionally remaining one, "A Touch of the Poet".
Themes of death and mourning
Because of sorrows he had gone through in his life consisted O’Neill’s body of work. In a short period between 1913 and 1919, many of his friends died when he was young and a majority died from suicide. He also wrote about the deaths of his close family members, although he did not properly deal well with the loss of his parents. His older brother got involved in vicious alcoholism and died at age of 45 because was far less able to cope with the demise. The long process of mourning and grieving became his part of writing from this time of loss onward. In an attempt to give himself some closure in the process, into multiple plays, the playwright wrote about his deceased family putting their stories on stage. In "A Moon for The Misbegotten", Jamie O’Neill made a significant appearance more than anyone else. There was a direct and deliberate depiction of Jamie O’Neill, in many incidents in the play being described as salacious histories with the ladies, extreme drinking lifestyles and extensive, which was the real-life of Jamie. The themes of grief and forgiveness displayed in the play bond profoundly to the willingness of O’Neill to absolve his sibling of guilt even after his demise (Eugene " Jessica, 145).
Final Years and Legacy
O’Neill spent his final years estranged from a plentiful of the literary community and his family. A number of later pieces of works were not produced until after his demise, although he was given the Nobel Prize in 1936. Two of O’Neill greatest works that the American stage has ever seen were written in his deteriorating health which did not stop him from writing. A story of individual desperation in the lives a bit of barfly was told in "The Iceman Cometh" and "Long Day’s Journey into Night" depicted the hard family life of his early years. Both the pieces of writing were deep insights into a number of the darker queries of the human way of life. Created afterward, these became his two utmost accomplishments. O’Neill was taken as one of the greatest writers in the twentieth century, by the time of his demise in 1953.
Introduction of Radical Conventions
Introduction of several radical conventions of contemporary theater through his innovations made a tremendous change in the way the drama was thought about in the United States of America. Realism to the American stage that had not been was expressed in his true to life actors from the marginalized group and use of natural and honest American vernacular (Shafer, 12). The golden era of great American drama in the mid-20th century was established through his innovations. Many of his works written in the last phase of his work were more famous, during O’Neill’s life were not much cherished or admired. A number of to date critics state that the plays he wrote after winning the Nobel Prize were his best. For instance, "Long Day’s Journey into Night" one of the best-renowned poet written in 1941. However, for his liking to protect his privacy, the play was published after his death because the play with its great specialty gave details of his family. "A Moon for the Misbegotten" was the final play he ever saw being produced in 1946. They are known as some of his amazing success and are all intensely autobiographical.
Theater as a Platform for Social Commentary
In sharing beliefs on a number of issues affecting their life in their time, many playwrights use the theater as the right place for social commentary. A play in a fast way would become very controversial because playwrights pushed boundaries of what the community considers acceptable. A number of dramas written throughout the 1900s spoke about such matters and the years 20th century was full of political, social, and economic controversy. One of the generally reflected the best play, the emperor Jones by Eugene O’Neill is possibly taken at his most contentious and cutting-edge, for the reason that the violent nature and its visceral and post-colonial criticism. In a time when open racist poet sows were not acceptable entertainment, the play did not downgrade African and African-American culture (Dowling, 32). Initially executed in the early 1920s, the production gives particulars of the rise and fall of Brutus Jones, a railway employee who turns into a thief, a killer, a runaway prisoner, and after traveling to the West Indies, the self-made leader of an island. Through observation of upper white class Americans, the corrupt value system of Jone’s character which is wicked and desperate is derived from such an observation. Jones undergoes a primal change as he becomes a hunted man when the island societies rebel against him (Shafer, 125).
Conclusion
O’Neill frequently talked about his willingness to put his poet straight from his imagination into the imagination of the booklover. His productions are read extensively by Americans still, entering the imaginations of those who read for pleasure as well as actors who put his words to life. Readers of O’Neill work give insight into the great sorrow about his life and also serve as a reminder of his efforts to forgive himself and his family members. In the American dramatic canon, his works remain some of the celebrated poets.
Work cited
Bloom, Harold. Eugene O'neill. New York: Chelsea House, 2007. Print.
Dowling, Robert M. Critical Companion to Eugene O'neill: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 2009. Print.
Eugene and Jessica Lange. Long Day's Journey into Night. S.I.: Yale University Press, 2014. Print.
Shafer, Yvonne. Eugene O'neill and American Society. València: Universitat de València, 2011. Print.
