Eugene O Neill: Modern American Drama In The 20th Century

Chapter one: introduction

1. Eugene O’Neill: A brief introduction 20 ورقه Eugene Gladstone O 'Neill (1888-1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. He was the third son of the best Irish immigrant actor of American theatre James O 'Neill and Mary Ellen Quinlan, who was also of Irish descent. O 'Neill was sent to the St. Aloysius Academy, because of his father 's profession, a Catholic boarding school in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, where he found his only consolation in books. O 'Neill spent his summers in New London. He attended Princeton University for one year. His mother suffered from mental illness and his father suffered from alcoholism and . O 'Neill 's first appearance as a critic came in

Modern American Drama in 20th Century Modern American Drama cannot be defined in a matter of a few words. It is not a dictionary term that has a specific definition. It could be described as a period in which America’s writers began to prosper in their work, producing new and ‘modern’ dramatic pieces. “However once exploring this period one would see that it is a collection of experimentalism in such forms as expressionism and realism, themes such as Reality versus Illusion, language that reflects the society of which they were writing of, and an exploration of social and cultural changes” (Gerry1987: 92).
The purpose of Modern American Drama was to “speak to a world in which the individual had been increasingly cut loose from the traditional of religion, socio/political alignments, family relationships, and a defined self-image” (Kenneth, Melnitz 1955:164). It is a fateful part of literary study into a world that was beginning to change literary future with extremely emotional and compelling work which paved the way for generations to interest in literary

One may start to establish what Modern American Drama is, just through focusing deeply on their texts, the foundations it begun on and the ways in which it flowered and their influential plays are still widely known today. Their literary works such as Miller’s A View from the bridge and death of a salesman, Williams’ Streetcar… and Glass menagerie, and O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night and Albee’s Zoo Story, show many of the common features that can be classed as trends of American Drama. Their plays, which one could suggest may have been the aim of this period, also display through these features many of the cultural and social changes of America as many critics claim the American theatre has always been a sensitive gauge of social pressures and public issues. Moreover, Modern American Drama’ is a title used to define some of America’s most influential dramatic work throughout the 20th Century in economic, political, social and cultural changes that occurred in America. It is not just because they are written by and about Americans, but it is also the impression that all these plays have distinguished features such as style, characters, themes, language and structure of similarity to each other, that allow them to be placed under the title Modern American Drama. These features heighten each dramatist’s critical explanations on American Society at