Objects and madness in Eugene O'Neill's drama

Abstract

This thesis explores the link between objects and madness in American dramatist Eugene O’Neill’s plays. The five plays analysed are All God’s Chillun Got Wings, The Great God Brown, Dynamo, More Stately Mansions, and Long Day’s Journey into Night, chosen as they are the best examples of plays which delve into the tragic consequences of mental illness. Throughout O’Neill’s plays, there is a tension between the seen and the unseen in terms of what causes the mad characters to succumb to madness – a tension that is at least partly paralleled in a tension considering how O’Neill’s plays are to be categorised (realist or expressionist). This thesis traces the evolution of O’Neill’s objects from mad objects that have power over the characters to objects that cause madness in characters due to the associations of their memories and beliefs with those objects. O’Neill experiments with different modes, objects, and types of madness to illuminate how, in each play, the most important element is the object. I will then consider whether classifying the plays as symbolist amplifies the influence of the object over the respective characters.