Context---- Eugene O'Neill

Eugene O'Neill (18881953) was the son of an actor whose work meant that the family le a ifficult life on the roa ! O'Neill woul later ee"ly resent his insecure chil hoo # "inning the family's many "ro$lems# inclu ing his mother's rug a iction# on his father! E ucate at $oar ing schools# O'Neill gaine a mission to %rinceton &ni'ersity $ut left after only one year to go to sea! (e s"ent his early twenties li'ing on the ocks of )uenos *ires# +i'er"ool# an New ,ork# sinking into an alcoholism that $rought him to the "oint of suici e! -lowly O'Neill reco'ere from his a iction an took a .o$ writing for a news"a"er! * $out of tu$erculosis left him inca"acitate an he was consigne to a sanitarium for si/ months! 0hile in reco'ery# O'Neill eci e to $ecome a "laywright! O'Neill wrote his first "lay# )oun East for 1ar iff# in 1912# "remiering it with a com"any in %ro'incetown# 3* that took it to New ,ork that same year! 4n 1956# O'Neill's $reakthrough came with his "lay )eyon the (ori7on! (istorians of rama i entify its "remiere as a "i'otal e'ent on the )roa way stage# one that $rought a new form of tragic realism to an in ustry almost entirely o'errun with stock melo ramas an shallow farces! O'Neill went on to write o'er twenty inno'ati'e "lays in the ne/t twenty years# to stea ily growing acclaim! 8he more famous works from his early "erio inclu e 8he 9reat 9o )rown (1952)# a stu y in the conflicts $etween i ealism an materialism# an -trange 4nterlu e (1958)# an am$itious 32:hour saga on the "light of the E'erywoman! (is late career $rought such works as his master"iece# 8he 4ceman 1ometh (19;2)# an 4$senian "ortrait of man's hol on his "i"e reams# an * +ong <ay's =ourney into Night (1952)# the "osthumously "u$lishe an "ainfully auto$iogra"hical trage y of a family haunte $y a mother's rug a iction! O'Neill wrote morality "lays an e/"erimente with the tragic form! O'Neill's interest in trage y $egan as early as 195; with his <esire &n er the Elms# a tale of incest# infantici e# an fateful retri$ution# $ut woul come to maturity with his monumental re'ision of *eschylus's Oresteia#3ourning )ecomes Electra (1931)! O'Neill chose Electra $ecause he felt that her tale ha $een left incom"lete! 3ore generally# as his iary notes in icate# O'Neill un erstoo his e/ercises in trage y as an attem"t to fin a mo ern analogue to an ancient mo e of e/"erience! 8hus 3ourning aims to "ro'i e a >mo ern "sychological a""ro/imation of the 9reek sense of fate> in a time in which the notion of an inesca"a$le an fun amentally non:re em"ti'e eterminism is incom"rehensi$le! *ccor ingly# the setting of the trilogy# the *merican 1i'il 0ar# s"rings from O'Neill's attem"t to negotiate the chasm $etween ancient an mo ern! ?or O'Neill# the 1i'il 0ar "ro'i e a setting that woul allow au iences to locate the tragic in their national history an mythology while retaining enough istance in time to len the tale its re@uire e"ic "ro"ortions! 3ourning also "ro'i e O'Neill with an occasion to a$an on the com"le/ set esign of the *rt 8heater# which he ha long $emoane as a constraint on the "laywright's creati'e free om!