The Ecological Eugene O'Neill: Nature’s Veiled Purpose in the Plays

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The dramas of Eugene O'Neill - often called America’s first
serious
playwright - exhibit an imagining of the natural world that enlivens the plays and marks the boundaries of the characters’ fates. O'Neill’s figures move within purposefully animated natural environments - ocean, dense forest, desert plains, the rocky soil of New England.

This new approach to O'Neill’s dramas explores ecological settings as crucial to his characters’ ability to carry out their conscious and unconscious desires. O'Neill’s career is covered, from his youthful one-acts, to the experimental dramas of his middle years, to the mature tragedies of his late period. Special attention is paid to the connection of ecology and theological quest, and to O'Neill’s persistent evocation of an exotic, natural
other.
Combining an ecocritical approach with an examination of Classical and philosophical influences on the playwright’s creative process, the author reveals a new, less hermetic O'Neill.