Complete Plays, 1920–1931

This is the second of three volumes of Eugene O'Neill's plays that I have now made my way through. Only the third volume remains to be explored.

Just like the first volume, the plays in this one also continued to showcase development. Starting from 1920 with "Caleb" and "The First Man" and progressing all the way to what I would regard as the first of O'Neill's classics, "Mourning Becomes Electra" in 1930. Although the development from one play to another is not entirely smooth, there is a clear transition from generally capable plays, despite some flops as well, to works of self-conscious genius. The overall theme, similar to that in the first volume, persists in being our inability to overcome some overwhelming fate in our lives.

"Mourning Becomes Electra", which is loosely based on "Oresteia" by Aiskhylos, adheres to this theme. Here, the characters are well-developed as they inexorably move towards their family fate. The central character, Lavinia (Electra), tirelessly struggles to avoid the family curse, only to discover that each step she takes brings her ever closer to her destiny. What impresses me the most is that, as this inevitable fate unfolds, I find myself incapable of predicting the ending. Exactly what will occur remains uncertain until it confronts the reader. I would dearly love to see it performed on stage.

Strange Interlude - finished 6/22/02

This play, "Strange Interlude," reached its completion on 6/22/02. It likely offered a unique and perhaps somewhat mysterious exploration of human emotions and relationships. The story might have delved deep into the inner workings of the characters' minds, presenting a complex web of desires, conflicts, and secrets.

Mourning Becomes Electra - finished 6/24/02

Just two days after "Strange Interlude," on 6/24/02, "Mourning Becomes Electra" was also brought to an end. This work might have had its own distinct flavor, perhaps dealing with themes of grief, vengeance, and the consequences of past actions. It could have painted a vivid picture of a family torn apart by tragedy and the lengths to which they would go to find resolution.

Diff'rent, The First Man, The Hairy Ape, The Fountain, Welded, All God's Chillun Got Wings - finished 02/23/24

On 02/23/24, a whole collection of plays was completed. "Diff'rent" might have offered a fresh perspective on a particular subject or situation. "The First Man" could have explored the concept of humanity's beginnings or the experiences of an individual in a unique context. "The Hairy Ape" might have delved into themes of class struggle and identity. "The Fountain" could have had a more symbolic or philosophical undertone. "Welded" might have focused on the idea of joining or fusing different elements together. And "All God's Chillun Got Wings" might have dealt with issues of race and social inequality. Each of these plays likely contributed to a rich and diverse body of work.

I don't think I can single out any one play of O'Neill's that I truly admire.

The Hairy Ape, The Emperor Jones, and Strange Interlude are very interesting experiments and expansions of the theatrical arts, but they don't really wow me.

The Ice Man Cometh is just too dark. I guess Long Day's Journey into Night is his best work overall.

However, I do admire the experimentation and the firmly American themes in his plays. All American dramatists must come to terms with O'Neill (just as American poets must come to terms with Whitman).

I have a sense that he was attempting to prove that American drama could be as forward-thinking as European drama, and I wonder if he sometimes sacrificed the good for the revolutionary.

The Hairy Ape **** - O'Neill does a wonderful job creating a claustrophobic mood. In this closed environment, the characters move, breathe, and surprise. Yank is probably the least interesting character in the play. Mildred and the Aunt are excellently drawn, as are the men in the stokehole with Yank, particularly Paddy and Long.

The play is largely a monologue by Yank, and at times it can move slowly, and the ending seems predictable. But it is an exquisite work of mood and emotion.

It's interesting to note that Yank does not turn to Fascism or racism to explain his condition and place in society, as is commonly the case. O'Neill seemed to miss those key human motivations.

Strange Interlude *** - This play is perhaps most famous for its use of asides, creating a kind of dramatic "stream of consciousness." In the excerpts I've seen online, this technique works better than I expected. It gives it a rather Shakespearean feel, which is not something you can say about O'Neill.

The story, though. Ugh. It's like something out of a soap opera. A woman's lover is killed in WWI, so she decides the appropriate thing to do is have indiscriminate sex with wounded war veterans. Of course. Then the play delves into arranged marriages, genetic madness, abortions, affairs, secrets, strokes, and more marriages, etc. And there's a little too much - okay, a lot too much - Freudian psychology. The whole Oedipal/incest thing gets a bit thick.

All that said, the technique is actually the focus of the play. And it seems to work surprisingly well on stage. The play is excessively long - nine hours, I think I read - so I don't know if it has ever been shown in its entirety. I imagine the asides are often the first things to be cut.

If you can get past the soap opera plot and Freudian depths, this is an interesting work. (04/19)

Mourning Becomes Electra - O'Neill (9/10)

Great God Brown - O'Neill (7/10)

This is the second volume of the three-volume Library of America's O'Neill series.

The first volume comprised one-acts and apprentice works, during which O'Neill was truly honing his craft. In this volume, he has mastered the fundamentals of playwriting and is engaging in genuine experimentation. The modernism of the twenties had a profound impact on O'Neill as he delved into psychological stream-of-consciousness, blatant symbolism, and the fusion of Greek tragedy with American plots.

These experiments, such as "Strange Interlude", "Lazarus Laughed", and "Desire Under the Elms", are captivating, but in my view, they are deeply flawed. The final play in the collection, "Mourning Becomes Electra", is the pinnacle of O'Neill's experiments and a true masterpiece. He tempers the symbolism, retains the精华 of Greek tragedy, and presents well-rounded characters within a compelling story.

I'm glad I read the plays preceding "Electra" as it provided me with a far deeper appreciation of his accomplishment. It's akin to listening to Mozart. Indeed, Mozart is a genius, but when you listen to his contemporaries, you'll notice that they essentially do the same as Wolfgang. However, while Wolfie wasn't a trailblazer like Beethoven, they pen long stretches of dull music, whereas every bar of Mozart's compositions sparkles and holds your attention. For me, this is precisely like "Electra" following O'Neill's experiments. Now that he is writing like a master, I'm eagerly anticipating reading the next volume of his plays.

All God’s Chillun Got Wings is a powerful and thought-provoking play. It delves into themes of race, class, and love, presenting a complex and often uncomfortable view of society.

Mourning Becomes Electra is another remarkable work. It explores the darker side of human nature, with its themes of revenge, guilt, and family secrets.

The Iceman Cometh is a play that challenges the audience's perception of reality. It examines the dreams and illusions that people hold onto, and the harsh truths that lie beneath.

The Hairy Ape is a unique and influential play. It uses symbolism and allegory to explore the alienation and disenfranchisement of the working class.

Desire under the Elms is a passionate and intense drama. It delves into the themes of love, lust, and greed,展现ing the destructive power of these emotions.

Together, these plays offer a rich and diverse exploration of the human condition. They challenge us to think deeply about the world around us and our place in it.

I have an unwavering love for O'Neill. Among all his plays, "The Iceman Cometh" stands out as my absolute favorite. It presents a group of utterly burnt-out men, hopelessly waiting for someone or something to rescue them from their own self-destruction.

When the play reaches its conclusion, every character has endured permanent psychic damage, leaving them with nothing left to do but drown their sorrows in alcohol until the end. The movie adaptation starring Jason Robards is truly outstanding. After watching it with a friend, who not long ago took a drastic turn and became a raving reactionary, he made a rather unexpected comment: "That was SO depressing - I feel great."

Anyway, O'Neill had an incredible talent for touching on the pathos in life. He explored themes such as broken dreams, shattered relationships, and people who seem unable to connect with each other. Even when they do care, they often spend their lives in a state of half-loving and half-torturing one another. I don't necessarily believe that "this is how life is" in general, but I do think it accurately represents the experiences of many people. His other plays are equally remarkable and offer great reading material, especially for young people who haven't yet developed their own bullshit detectors.

I Lost my Book :0(

I am really sad because I lost my book. It was a very important book for me. I had been using it to study for my exams. I don't know where I could have left it. I have searched everywhere in my room, but I just can't find it.

I remember taking it with me to the library yesterday. Maybe I left it there. But when I went back to the library to look for it, it wasn't there. I asked the librarian if anyone had turned it in, but she said no.

I am so worried that I might not be able to find it. Without this book, it will be very difficult for me to study for my exams. I hope someone will find it and return it to me. If you happen to see my book, please contact me. Thank you very much.

I don't know why Americans give low ratings to O'Neill when he is really excellent. His works are so detailed and delineated that they could well be short stories or novellas. In Spanish, it is difficult to find translations of his work - except for Long Day's Journey into Night, Hughie, and The Iceman Cometh (all of which correspond to his last stage) - so I recommend the editions of the Library of America who have published all of O'Neill's work in three volumes. This is the second volume that takes up all of his works written between 1920 and 1931; many of the works are characterized by a distancing from the realism of his first stage to embrace symbolism, expressionism, and also the psychoanalytic theories of Freud and Jung. There are 13 works and this is how they seem to me from least to most (all are good, I just liked some more than others):

- Marco Millions: What could be considered a panegyric to the figure of Marco Polo, in fact, reveals an ironic reflection on greed and excessive materialism contrasted with the spiritual.

- The First Man: I believe, the most "soap opera" of all the works. A work about the psychosexual tensions of a couple; the intimate/private dimension confronted with a hierarchical society with archaic materialistic values and prejudices.

- Dynamo: Eugene considered the work a failure. The first act is frankly laughable for its excessive drama, but understandable for the time. The other two acts are better. O'Neill reflects on the acceleration towards an increasingly industrialized and mechanical world; if God is dead, who is your God now? the author asks in the face of the crisis in the belief system derived from this new world.

- Welded: A work about the tortuous love relationship between artist and muse. It has a great symbolism at the end.

- The Fountain: O'Neill takes up the figure of the explorer and conquistador Juan Ponce de León during his arrogant youth and his search for the mythical Fountain of Youth in his old age. A work about time, greed, fanaticism, physical, moral, and sexual old age, and, in the end, redemption.

- Diff'rent: The work that opens the book and sets the tragic tone that we will constantly see throughout the volume. A young love is shattered by rumors and exaggeratedly moralistic standards: years later the love persists but will end in the most painful way. It has one of the most detestable villains in all of O'Neill's work.

- Desire Under the Elms: One of his most famous works where O'Neill takes up the tragic Greek myth of Phaedra and recontextualizes it in rural America. Forbidden love and desire that gets entangled with the hunger for wealth and a relationship of hatred between father and son. It could well be a novel.

- All God's Chillun Got Wings: One of Eugene's most controversial works. O'Neill was quite progressive when it came to the rights between whites and blacks and here he exposes racism in its most brutal and pulverizing form. The relationship between a black man and a white woman puts on the table the venomous bile of racism that leads to madness and prevents happiness. Eugene also shows discrimination not as something natural but as something that poisons society from the cultural.

- Lazarus Laughed: One of O'Neill's most ambitious works where he takes his symbolic and expressionistic explorations to the limits. So ambitious that it has very rarely been able to be staged as it was conceived. Set shortly after the resurrection of Lazarus, and including as protagonists Tiberius, Caligula, Pompeia, and, of course, Lazarus himself. A very metaphysical work where the meaning of life, its traumas, the materialistic search of man to become God, what is the nature of God, and what awaits us in what we call "the beyond" are questioned.

- The Hairy Ape: A great work about capitalism, industrialization, marginalization, and the nature of man within that marginalization; it also questions the inability of socialism in the face of the capitalist machine. What does it mean not to be seen by society and the sad and brutal role that man plays within this sad work that we have created for ourselves and that we call modernity.

- Strange Interlude: Another ambitious work. It could well be a novel (it is the longest in the volume and extends over almost 200 pages). The stagings usually cut the work since in its complete version it would last at least 6 hours. Probably one of the most complex characters that O'Neill has devised and where we can see a succession of traumas and psychopathologies that show Eugene's interest in the writings of Freud and Jung. It also talks about time and how we weigh the present against the past and future.

- Mourning Becomes Electra: Another great work where O'Neill takes up the epic fall of the Atreides of Greek mythology and sets it during the end of the American Civil War. Divided into three parts (Homecoming, The Hunted, and The Haunted), like the Oresteia of Aeschylus, it presents the relationships of vengeance, hatred, love, incest, and self-destruction that lead to the end of the mythical Mannon house. A great, great work.

- The Great God Brown: Use of masks and symbolism to hide identity, desires, and resentment. The masks are changed and removed so quickly that the protagonists end up losing themselves and their identities and the only thing that persists of them is a vague idea of what they were, and that in turn, was probably just a mask and not the real face.