Abstract：Eugene O’Neill was generally seen as “the father of modern American drama”, awarded with four Pulitzer prizes and the Nobel Prize in 1936. In his prolific writing career, O’Neill made various experiments, including expressionism, realism and naturalism, etc. He was devoted on creating serious plays, in which he combined grim reality with techniques and tried to convey human’s predicament: there are always inscrutable forces behind life that determine their fate. It just complies to the essence of naturalism: pessimistic determinism.

Naturalists insist on determinism, and they think men are just victims of internal forces and external environment. The characters just become totally impotent at the mercy of those uncontrollable forces. “The end of the naturalistic novel is usually tragic, because of a heroic but losing struggle of the individual mind and will against gods, enemies, and circumstances. Instead the protagonist of the naturalistic plot, a pawn to multiple compulsions, usually disintegrates, or is wiped out.”(Abrams 304)

The drama Long Day’s Journey Into Night is the masterpiece during the later period of his writing career, when many profound works came into being. Based on some characteristics of naturalism and naturalistic literature and the careful discuss towards three aspects: the loss of faith, the control of environment and the plot design, this thesis is mainly aimed at the analysis towards the naturalism in the drama Long Day’s Journey into Night.

Key words: Eugene O’Neill naturalism loss of faith control of environment plot design 

Content

摘要：

Abstract:

Introduction-1

1. Loss of Faith-3

1.1 The Chasm of Belief between Two Generations-3

1.2 Mary’s Loss of Religious Belief-4

1.3 Tyrone’s Loss of Artistic Belief-6

2. Pawns of Internal Forces and External Forces-7

2.1 Tyrone as the Victim of Poverty in the Past-7

2.2 Mary Confined to Gender Role Expectation-9

2.3 Jamie's Oedipus Complex-10

3. The Design of Plot-12

3.1 Reducing the Element of Plot-12

3.2 The Tragic End: Numerous Same Long Journeys in the Future-13

Conclusion-15

Bibliography-16

Acknowledgments-17