Eugene O'Neill: Expressionism vs. Realism in Two Plays

O'Neill as an American Playwright

Eugene O'Neill (1888–1953) is one of the most prolific and highly recognized American playwrights of the twentieth century, though he had no real American contemporaries or precursors to speak of. He remains the only American dramatist to win the coveted Nobel Prize, and while his work was written for American audiences and is certainly American in most respects, he was greatly influenced by European writers and thinkers who shaped his literary interests and had a serious impact on his early plays.

O'Neill is often viewed in histories of American drama as a kind of inexplicable upthrust — a towering figure looming between William Vaughn Moody or Percy MacKaye and Arthur Miller or Tennessee Williams, without appearing to have solid connections to either his predecessors or his successors. As Raleigh observes, it is more revealing to place him within the tradition to which he belongs: the tradition of serious American writing of both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Once this readjustment is made, it becomes apparent that O'Neill is a major American writer whose work constitutes one of the quintessential expressions of American culture. "In fact few other American writers have explored so thoroughly the ranges and the depths of the national experience... O'Neill's work had stronger popular appeal for middle-class American audiences than that of almost any other serious writer of his time. Many of his plays were Broadway successes, and on several occasions were made into moderately popular movies." (Raleigh, 239)

Two Career Phases: Expressionism and Realism

When discussing Eugene O'Neill, it is important to understand that his work can be divided into two broad phases. The first phase of early fame was the 1920s, when the playwright, under the influence of writers like Strindberg and Ibsen, wrote a number of important expressionist plays, including Dynamo and The Emperor Jones. Expressionism can be defined as "the attempt to create the essence rather than the appearance of reality through the use of non-related realistic symbols" (Elwood, 1966).

The second period began after his work came under the strict scrutiny of stern critics such as Francis Fergusson, Lionel Trilling, and Eric Bentley. This was a low period in his life and career: his work began suffering in quality, and the criticism led to a kind of oblivion that proved almost fatal to his reputation. Yet it was during this second phase that he produced some of his best and most important plays, including A Touch of the Poet (1935–1942), More Stately Mansions (1935–1941), The Iceman Cometh (1939), A Long Day's Journey into Night (1939–41), and A Moon for the Misbegotten (1943). His work in the second phase was certainly more intense and showcased a heightened realism. Unlike the early expressionist plays, in which reality was often distorted, the later plays infused a strong element of realism, making the two phases of his career distinctly different.

O'Neill was an authentic writer who experimented with expressionist techniques but did not find as much success as he later achieved with his more realistic plays. The forces of expression and naturalism in his early plays turned his writing into ambiguous pieces that often appeared elusive, and not many viewers could relate to the constant conflict between actuality and dream that those plays contained. It was when O'Neill became determined to prove his merit as a serious writer — having been severely criticized by a new breed of critics — that he produced plays that received worldwide acclaim and carried him to new heights of fame.

The Emperor Jones: Identity, Race, and Inner Darkness

The Emperor Jones consists of a series of monologues that are so subjective in nature that they can almost sound ambiguous. The only significant character is the black protagonist, Brutus Jones. In this play, as in most expressionist plays of the period, what is most important is the darkness that resides within the human soul. Readers and viewers need to pay close attention to "that dark center of emotion inherent in his characters and in the ideas represented in his works. The dark centers appear to represent a reflection of reality, an inability to cope with life as the playwright saw it. The German Expressionist movement was clearly reflecting a similar view of life, although some would contend that the base of reaction from expressionism was ultimately an exhortation for a return to positive values. It is safe to say that expressionism is centered upon an internal dramatization of ideas, not always dark, although mostly that is the case." (Haiping Liu, 129)

In this play, the author illustrates one man's journey into the heart of darkness, where he meets his fears in the form of apparitions and finally comes to accept his own humanity. The Emperor in this case is Jones, who has been controlling an island ruthlessly — robbing the natives of their wealth and making them believe he was an invincible, god-like being. When he learns of a revolt brewing, he flees into the forest and loses his way. This journey is the most important part of the play, as it reveals the inner struggle that every person goes through when choosing between right and wrong, good and evil. As Doris Falk explains: "The progress of Jones is progress in self-understanding; it is the stripping off of the masks of self, layer by layer, just as bit by bit his emperor's uniform is ripped from him, leaving him destined to face himself in nakedness." (67)

Jones is stripped of the front he had maintained for so long. Once that identity is gone, he is forced to question and accept his own limitations. He is a human being with the same desires, urges, and fears that every person experiences, and it is when he realizes how helpless he is without his false identity that he becomes more human and humble. Expressionist drama has a distinctly subjective way of dealing with real problems. Fears, for example, are projected as apparitions or ghosts that haunt Jones and remind him of his weaknesses: "They are black, shapeless; only their glittering little eyes can be seen. If they have any describable form at all it is that of a grub worm about the size of a creeping child. They move noiselessly, but with deliberate, painful effort, striving to raise themselves on end, failing and sinking prone again." (The Emperor Jones, Scene II, 28)

Important issues of race and racism are also raised in the play. Threading them with the issue of identity, the author shows that Jones's belief that he possessed the same powers as a white man was a faulty one, since it negated the significance of his own black identity. Because he denied his race and shunned it — and because he was certainly not white — the man lost his identity completely and was left lurking in the dark, searching for a sense of belonging. While reminiscing about his criminal past, the protagonist thinks about Jeff, the man he had murdered. This murder plays an important role in highlighting the issues of race and identity, as Tornqvist observes:

"Jeff is an image of Jones himself as a Pullman porter, affected by the white quality talk, a gambler loading his dice to cheat others. Jeff's color is important: neither black nor white, it is a blend of the two, a true representation of Jones's in-between position. Jones has tried to believe that black is white, but this has only resulted in making him a confused hybrid, excluded from both races, a lonely brown man in a world that is either black or white." (Tornqvist, 235)

Conclusion

O'Neill's career arc — from the expressionist experimentation of The Emperor Jones to the unflinching realism of A Long Day's Journey into Night — reflects both his artistic growth and his deepening engagement with the American experience. The early plays, shaped by European influences and expressionist technique, explored the inner darkness of individual identity through subjective, often ambiguous dramatic forms. The later plays, forged in the crucible of critical scrutiny and personal hardship, achieved a psychological realism that resonated far more directly with audiences. Across both phases, however, the thread of naturalism persists: O'Neill consistently presents his characters as products of their circumstances, neither wholly good nor wholly bad, but profoundly and recognizably human.

References

Falk, Doris V. Eugene O'Neill and the Tragic Tension: An Interpretative Study of the Plays. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1958.

Tornqvist, Egil. A Drama of Souls: Studies in O'Neill's Super-naturalistic Technique. New Haven: Yale UP, 1969.

Elwood, William. "Early Manifestations of German Expressionism in New York Productions of American Drama." Diss., University of Oregon, 1966.

Raleigh, John Henry. The Plays of Eugene O'Neill. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1965.

Liu, Haiping, and Lowell Swortzell, eds. Eugene O'Neill in China: An International Centenary Celebration. New York: Greenwood Press, 1992.

Williams, Raymond. Drama from Ibsen to Brecht. Oxford University Press, 1968. Reprinted in Harold Bloom, ed. Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 1987.