A brief introduction Eugene Glastone ONeill (October 16, 1888 November 27, 1953) was an Irish American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg. His plays were among the first to include speeches in American vernacular(本国语,本地 话) and involve characters on the fringes(边缘 ,外围) of society, where they struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations, but ultimately slide into disillusionment(理想破灭 ) and despair. ONeill wrote only one well- known comedy (Ah, Wilderness!). Nearly all of his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism. Portrait of Eugene ONeill as a child Eugene ONeill 1936 He received the Nobel Prize in Literature His family life He was the son of Irish immigrant actor James ONeill and Mary Ellen Quinlan. Because of his fathers occupation, ONeill was sent to a Catholic boarding school where he found his only solace(安慰) in books. ONeill spent his summers in New London, Connecticut. He also attended Princeton University for one year. He spent several years at sea, during which he suffered from depression and alcoholism. ONeill joined the Marine Transport Workers Union of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), which was fighting a kind of guerrilla(游击战) war for livable conditions with quick on the job direct action. ONeills parents and elder brother Jamie (who drank himself to death at the age of 45), died within three years of one another, not long after he had begun to make his mark in the theater. Despite his depression he had a deep love for the sea, and it became a prominent theme in many of his plays, several of which are set onboard ships like the ones that he worked on. In the fall of 1914, he entered Harvard University to attend a course in dramatic technique given by Professor George Baker. He left after one year and did not complete the course. ONeill was married to Kathleen Jenkins from October 2, 1909 to 1912, during which time they had one son, Eugene ONeill, Jr. In 1917, ONeill met Agnes Boulton, a successful writer of commercial fiction, and they married on April 12, 1918. The years of their marriageduring which the couple lived in Bermuda and had two children, Shane and Oona. They divorced in 1929, after ONeill abandoned Boulton and the children for the actress Carlotta Monterey. ONeill and Carlotta married less than a month after he officially divorced his previous wife. In their first years together, Monterey organized ONeills life, enabling him to devote himself to writing. She later became addicted to potassium bromide, and the marriage deteriorated, resulting in a number of separations. Although they separated several times, they never divorced. Actress Carlotta Monterey in Plymouth Theatre production of ONeills The Hairy Ape, 1922. Monterey later became the playwrights third wife. His tense relationship with his children In1943, ONeill disowned(断绝与某人的关系） his daughter Oona for marrying the English actor, director and producer Charlie Chaplin when she was 18 and Chaplin was 54. He never saw Oona again. He also had distant relationships with his sons. Eugene ONeill, Jr., a Yale classicist, suffered from alcoholism and committed suicide in 1950 at the age of 40. Shane ONeill, became a heroin addict and moved into the family home in Bermuda, Spithead, with his new wife, where he supported himself by selling off the furnishings. He was disowned by his father before also committing suicide (by jumping out of a window) a number of years later. Oona ultimately inherited Spithead and the connected estate. After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism) over many years, ONeill ultimately faced a severe Parkinsons-like tremor in his hands which made it impossible for him to write during the last 10 years of his life; he had tried using dictation but found himself unable to compose in that way. 奥尼尔去世后，按他的要求，墓碑只镌“奥 尼尔”三字，但他在美国戏剧史上烙下的辉 煌印记却是永难磨灭的。 His major works 1916: Bound East for Cardiff 东行卡迪夫 1920: Beyond the Horizon天外边 （ Pulitzer Prize） 1920: The Emperor Jones琼斯皇帝 1922: Anna Christie安娜克里斯蒂 1924: Desire under the Elms榆树下的欲望 1928: Strange Interlude奇异的插曲 1931: Mourning Becomes Electra悲悼 1946: The Iceman Cometh 卖冰的人来了 1956: Long Days Journey into Night 进入黑 夜的漫长旅程 榆树下的欲望 前妻所生的埃本对继承农场抱有希望，76 岁高龄的父亲又娶了年轻美貌的爱碧做第 三任妻子。爱碧嫁给行将就木的老头，就 是为了这份遗产，但是她跟年迈的卡伯特 生不出孩子，继承权眼看要落空，于是引 诱埃本同她发生关系，并生下了儿子。在 利用、引诱埃本的过程中，她对埃本产生 了真正的爱情。而埃本一直认为爱碧对他 并无感情，只是为了生个继承人夺取农场 。爱碧百般表白也不能证明自己的真心， 于是忍痛杀死了亲生婴儿。她与埃本的隔 阂消除了，但等待着他们的却是法律的制 裁。 在这个家庭中的悲剧向人们揭示出，在金 钱占统治地位的社会里，人的自然的情感 与本性是如何被压抑与扭曲的，对财产的 欲望使父子、母子、夫妻与兄弟之间尔虞 我诈，虎视眈眈，一个个贪婪、狡诈、邪 恶、虚伪。作者也写了人性中美好的一面 ，当爱情的火花迸发而出，冲破对金钱的 占有欲时，他们会变得真诚、善良，为了 得到一份真情而奋不顾身地追求。但是这 种追求所表现出的疯狂依然造成了毁灭， 这正是悲剧性所在。