Eugene O’Neill is a playwright that will live to be remembered in the field of theater. According to his biography, he was born in 1888. Some of his plays were based on poetry. He was also associated with international playwrights from Russia. This made him gain reputation in theater in the international borders. In most of his plays, he incorporated speeches that were portrayed in vernacular (Manheim 10). Most of his roles had a sense of humor, somehow making him a comedian. Many people will also remember a comedy film that was written by him.
According to me, the works of Eugene are interesting compared to some of his competing playwrights. O’Neill should be acknowledged for dedicating his time and resources in writing plays. Some playwrights in the United States of America viewed theater activities as a part time job (Bloom11). O’Neill took a stand to fully work on films after he survived tuberculosis. I personally think that he had the passion to indulge in theater activities. That is the reason why he wrote as many plays as possible. In addition, he attended some education institutions to improve his knowledge on writing plays.
Another acknowledgement of O’Neill should be made because of his ability to utilize his talent. He had a talent in writing exotic and unique plays that hit the entertainment industry of the United States of America. Before he started to write his own plays, he had worked for a journalism agency. Here, he used to write poems covering various aspects of lives. In this company, he also used to report news that occurred within the city. O’Neill was able to use his experience to work on humorous and unique plays (Manheim 20).
The works of O’Neill have several themes that make his plays more interesting. Desire under the Elms is one of the plays whose themes create interest and unending curiosity on the part of the audience. Most of his works regard family life and how the members of the family interact in real life situation. One theme regarding the issue of families is that of struggle. In one of his plays, he uses his family as an example. In this play, a story is told of how his family had troubles and how they were solved. In describing his family members, O’Neill exercises a great level of honesty. He does not exaggerate the personalities of the family members included in the play (Bloom 19). That is one thing to acknowledge since it connects film studies to reality.
Greek Mythology is also one of the themes that have been depicted in the works of O’Neill. This theme is largely depicted in Desire under the Elms. The story of Hippolytus is similar to this play. In this story, the mother of Hippolytus fell in love with Phaedra, who is related to her. This remains a secret to many people in the neighborhood. This story is very similar to what Abbie does with Eben. One interesting thing about O’Neill is the ability to connect his play with past myths. In his play, he uses different characters and puts up some interesting aspects to make the play more appealing to the audience. The ability to add creativity in the play is another factor that should be acknowledged by his audience.
Most of the themes used in the works of Eugene O’Neill have been cleverly incorporated into the plays. These themes portray important messages that have been shown by the behavior of the characters involved in the play. They are also meaningful in the formation of the plot of the play. The themes induce excellent flow of the play from the introduction to the end (Manheim23). The excellent organization of the themes explains why I find the works of O’Neill very interesting. This is the reason why I have been compelled to research more about the works of O’Neill.
In the play Desire under the Elms, there are certain things that happen that are not morally upright. According to the people living in the town, there is a love relationship between two people that is secret to the affected person. One of the characters of this play is Eden, who is the stepson of Abbie. In the course of their interaction, they get attracted with each other and start having an affair (Bloom 20). Initially, we find that the mother of Eben had died and his father had the intention of bringing another wife in the homestead. At first, Eben was not happy about this idea. When Abbie was brought into the homestead for the first time, she had a bad encounter with Eben.
As time went by, Eben got attracted to Abbie and he started making advances to her. Abbie was a clever woman and she had sparked to her husband that Eben was making moves on her. This does not stop Eben from making love to Abbie (Manheim 26). When O’Neill was interviewed about this film, he argued that the play had life affirmative. This, according to me, should not hold. I personally think that the crime committed by Eben was an abomination. If we take this issue on a Christian perspective, the secret lovers should be disciplined severely for committing adultery. According to Christian teachings, a person should not have a love affair with his mother. In this case, Abbie is the mother in law of her secret lover, meaning that they should not engage in any form of love affair.
Abbie should be partly blamed for the crime committed by both parties. The reason for this is that she was aware that Abbie was the son of her husband. In the first place, she should not have accepted having an affair with Eben, owing to the fact that he was the son of her husband. In this story, we find that Abbie is not honest to her husband (Bloom 23). It is obvious that she was playing on two courts. If she was honest to her husband, she should have denied Eden the chance to have a love affair. It was also obvious that she was cheating her husband that she loved him. A loving woman cannot commit crime to the tune of sleeping with the child of her husband.
The other reason why this play is not life affirmative is that there was some element of revenge. Eben had the intention to avenge for her dead mother. This is the one of the reasons why he did not care about having an affair with his mother in law. The affair between these two people should not be termed as real love. Real love does not happen by committing abomination in the same homestead. The worst mistake that happens is that Abbie gets pregnant for Eben (Manheim 31). This remains a secret until Abbie kills the child. The sacrifice that Eben is ready to make for his partner is not worth since their affair is not morally desirable. The actions of Eben clearly show that he had no respect for his father. In addition, he did not feel sympathy for his father for the bad things that had happened in the past. According to me, Eben should have respected Abbie right from the first day. More so, he should have restrained from having an affair with her since this would be disheartening to his ageing father.
In conclusion, the works of Eugene O’Neill will live to be remembered due to their interesting aspects. Many audiences have expressed their excitement in regard to the creativity of the plays written by O’Neill. His excellent performance in theater films has been evidenced by the many awards he has won in the United States of America. Some of the playwrights in the country also refer to some aspects of the works of O’Neill. Finally, the use of themes in a clever manner has made audiences to gain the desire of viewing many of his works.
References
Manhaim, M. The Cambridge Companion to Eugene O’Neill. Cambridge. Cambridge University. 2000. Print.
Bloom, S. Student Companion to Eugene O’Neill. Westport. Greenwood Press. 2005. Print.
