Abstract

Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953) was a foremost American dramatist and Nobel laureate in Literature. Beyond the Horizon and The Hairy Ape are two of his important plays, in which Eugene O'Neill displays us the struggle life of Robert Mayo and Yank. Both of them looked for the final arrangement of heart, but actually they lost themselves and had a tragic ending. This paper tries to point out social factors of the miserable fates of Robert and Yank through analyzing their experience and spiritual beliefs separately, and attempts to understand O'Neill’s tragic theme of “finding self” and its aesthetic value through comprehensive analysizing the similarities of the tragic fate of them.

KEYWORDS:Eugene O'Neill; tragedy; source; aesthetic value

摘　要

尤金•奥尼尔(1888-1953年) 是美国著名剧作家和诺贝尔文学奖得主。《天边外》和《毛猿》是他的两部重要作品，作者向我们展示了主人公罗伯特•梅奥和扬克挣扎的一生。他们各自都在寻找归属，但事实上他们都丧失了自我，最后以悲剧告终。本文通过分别分析主人公罗伯特和扬克的经历和精神信念，来剖析其悲惨命运的诸多社会因素，并通过综合分析两部作品表现主人公悲剧命运的共同点，展示奥尼尔的以“寻找自我”为主题的悲剧色彩和审美价值。

关键词:尤金•奥尼尔；悲剧；根源；审美价值

1    Introduction
1.1 Eugene O'Neill and American drama
Eugene O'Neill is the founder of American modern drama. His dramatic creation is closely related to the development of American drama. To be more precise, the playwriting and stage performance of American drama before the early 20th century fell far behind European drama, and did not form its own independent system until the First World War. Therefore，some critics held the idea that drama had been for the most part an undifferentiated affair before the plays of Eugene O'Neill came to the scene. Just because of his persistent efforts, the phrase “American Drama” began to take on significance.
1.2 Eugene O'Neill and his plays
Eugene O'Neill is generally considered as the renowned American dramatist whose works truly reflect the lives and pursuit of the American people in the 20th century and vividly reveal their inner world. In his lifetime, O'Neill wrote about forty five plays which could be divided into three parts: early stage (1912-1919), middle stage (1920-1938) and late stage (1934-1953).
In the early stage, he primarily wrote the one-act plays which described the lonely and humdrum sailing life by using naturalistic approach, especially portrayed the hopelessness and desperation of the sailors，including Bound East for Cardiff，The Long Voyage Home，Moon of the Caribbees.