유진오닐의 『밤으로의 긴 여로』에 나타난 비극적 요소에 관한 연구

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to discuss the tragic elements in Eugene O'Neill's most autobiographical play, Long Day's Journey Into Night, and to examine how his miserable experiences from his childhood to adult affected his views on life as a playwright. O'Neill is one of the most prominent and striking playwrights in 20th century, and he is recognized as a founder of modern American drama. Many of his excellent dramas and writings, which were awarded the Pulitzer Prize four times and the Novel Prize once, prove it. By common consent, Long Day's Journey Into Night is his best masterpiece among his great plays. In Long Day's Journey Into Night, there are four tragic characters whose tragic causes are closely related to one another. James Tyrone, the father, has ruined his life by preferring money to his family and love. He cannot stand the truth about himself which he shows by constantly turning out the lights, which symbolizes reality. Jamie, the elder son has no career at all and exists solely on his fathers largesse. It is also unfortunate that Jamie cannot act creatively because he spends most of his time in bars and brothels and has no concern for the future. He never receives real affection and recognition from his parents, and it makes him more tragic. The mother, Mary Tyrone is a dope addict and the most tragic character who has no hope without drugs. And the younger son, Edmund, who is modeled on the young O'Neill, is somewhat of a dreamer with an uncertain future because he has been diagnosed with tuberculosis. His suffering comes from his belief that his birth was a great mistake. O'Neill spent on touring with his father, the romantic actor James O'Neill who travelled with his troupe through the States for decades. This must have created in his mind the desire for a permanent home in some good warm city with uninterrupted schooling as every biographer and critic has pointed out. As he became older, the desire for education must have become more abnormal and this must have made him develop a hostility toward James which was intensified when he contracted tuberculous. His chronic ill-health created in him vision of terror and doom, visions which were to be transformed on the stage into powerful tragic patterns. Though he began his impressive career of ever deepening tragic vision of human life, he finally becomes to realize that there is a big gap between the ideal and the real in it. It follows that man, during his early existence, is fated to get visions of the ideal but never comes any closer to achieve it. His plays are considered undoubtedly the most serious attempt at presenting a tragic vision. His posthumous play, Long Day's Journey Into Night is autographical and has association with a devoted tragic dramatist. He was concerned all his life with the problems of exploring the sickness of today with modern psychological analysis of repressions. In Long Day's Journey Into Night, O'Neill expresses his tragic vision for life through these four helplessly tragic characters in their miserable situations, by revealing his unhappy and tragic family story.