O’Neill’s Journey

Bibliographic Data

ID9230293
AuthorsGeorge Mandelbaum (Former Associate Professor of English Literature and Humanities at Mercy College in New York, has taught extension courses on O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night and Strindberg’s late plays at the New York Psychoanalytic Society, and is currently a Visiting Scholar at the William Alanson White Institute., corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume84
Issue1
Pages125-158
Publication date2015-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Psychoanalytic Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0033-2828 • E-ISSN: 2167-4086
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/j.2167-4086.2015.00005.x
PMID25619368
OpenAlexW2063004788
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited16

This paper considers some of the processes through which Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953) dramatically shaped his inner life and through which he created his plays. These processes at their finest are evident in his composition of Long Day's Journey into Night (1941a). During its 21-month composition, the play went through three different versions, as evidenced by the playwright's handwritten and typed materials (O'Neill, unpublished, a, b, c, d). This paper posits that each version reflects O'Neill's changing state of mind as he began to master his instinctual life, developing increasingly rich characters and creating a painful, deeply tragic vision. Thus, this paper shows that O'Neill's great artistic achievement reflected a great psychological one

Cultural Studies and Interdisciplinary Research · Philosophy

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