Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953)

Mourning Becomes Electra


Characters:

  • General Ezra Mannon
  • Christine
  • Orin
  • Lavinia
Summary:
  • updates the Greek myth of Orestes to the family of a Northern general in the American Civil War
  • Agamemnon is General Ezra Mannon, Clytemnestra is Christine, Orestes is Orin and Electra is Lavinia
  • the play is divided into three plays of four to five acts each - "Homecoming", "The Hunted", "The Haunted"
The Iceman Cometh

Characters:
  • Harry Hope
  • Hickey   
Summary:
  • stages the story of the whiskey-soaked and disillusioned denizens of Harry Hope's saloon and the upheaval caused by the newly sober salesman Hickey who, with all the annoying zeal of a recent convert, urges his former drinking companions to give up their "pipe dreams"
Long Day's Journey Into Night

Characters:
  • James Tyrone Sr.
  • Edmund
  • James Jr.
  • Mary Cavan Tyrone
Summary:
  • covers a fateful, heart-wrenching night at the seaside Conneticut home of the Tyrones
  • James Tyrone Sr. is an Irish-born retired actor who squandered his gifts as a clasical thespian to make a career playing a particular role in a commercially successful but artistically unfulfilling play
  • Edmund, the younger son, suffers from a respiratory condition and a deep disillusionment with the world around him after sailing the world as a deck hand
  • James Jr. is an affable alcoholic and the object of stubborn attempts by his father to be set up in business
  • Mary lapses between self-delusion and the haze of her morphine addiction as a result of the shoddy ministrations of a quack doctor during her difficult labor and delivery of Edmund years ago

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