关于戏剧《进入黑夜的漫长旅程》中自然主义的分析_英语论文

An Analysis of Naturalism in Long Day’s Journey into Night

摘要

尤金·奥尼尔被誉为“美国现代戏剧之父”，曾获得4次普利策奖，并于1936年获得诺贝尔文学奖。在其多产的写作生涯里，对表现主义、现实主义和自然主义进行了多种尝试。奥尼尔致力于创作严肃戏剧，将粗粝的现实融入作品，试图在作品中表达人们所面临的生存困境，即：生活的背后，潜藏着无法控制的某种力量，决定着人类的命运。这与自然主义的本质——宿命论不谋而合。

自然主义坚持宿命论，认为人类同时受制于内在力量和外部环境，在二者的挟持下，人们无能为力。而且运用自然主义的文学作品的结局往往带有悲剧性：面对不可逆的命运，筋疲力尽的主人公不再做徒劳的抵抗，只是等待着生命被一点点蚕食，直至死亡。

《进入黑夜的漫长旅程》是奥尼尔创作生涯晚期的成熟作品。本文结合自然主义和运用自然主义的文学作品的特征，通过对信仰的丧失、环境的挟持和情节设置这三方面的讨论，具体分析了自然主义在戏剧《进入黑夜的漫长旅程》中是如何体现的。

关键词：尤金·奥尼尔 自然主义 丧失信仰 环境的挟持 情节设置

Abstract

Eugene O’Neill was generally seen as “the father of modern American drama”, awarded with four Pulitzer prizes and the Nobel Prize in 1936. In his prolific writing career, O’Neill made various experiments, including expressionism, realism and naturalism, etc. He was devoted on creating serious plays, in which he combined grim reality with techniques and tried to convey human’s predicament: there are always inscrutable forces behind life that determine their fate. It just complies to the essence of naturalism: pessimistic determinism.

Naturalists insist on determinism, and they think men are just victims of internal forces and external environment. The characters just become totally impotent at the mercy of those uncontrollable forces. “The end of the naturalistic novel is usually tragic, because of a heroic but losing struggle of the individual mind and will against gods, enemies, and circumstances. Instead the protagonist of the naturalistic plot, a pawn to multiple compulsions, usually disintegrates, or is wiped out.”(Abrams 304)

The drama Long Day’s Journey Into Night is the masterpiece during the later period of his writing career, when many profound works came into being. Based on some characteristics of naturalism and naturalistic literature and the careful discuss towards three aspects: the loss of faith, the control of environment and the plot design, this thesis is mainly aimed at the analysis towards the naturalism in the drama Long Day’s Journey into Night.

Key words: Eugene O’Neill naturalism loss of faith control of environment plot design   

Contents

摘要 I

Abstract II

Introduction 1

1. Loss of Faith 3

1.1 The Chasm of Belief between Two Generations 3

1.2 Mary’s Loss of Religious Belief 4

1.3 Tyrone’s Loss of Artistic Belief 6

2. Pawns of Internal Forces and External Forces 7

2.1 Tyrone as the Victim of Poverty in the Past 7

2.2 Mary Confined to Gender Role Expectation 9

2.3 Jamie's Oedipus Complex 10

3. The Design of Plot 12

3.1 Reducing the Element of Plot 12

3.2 The Tragic End: Numerous Same Long Journeys in the Future 13

Conclusion 15

Bibliography 16

Acknowledgments 17