Role of Deterministic Forces in Eugene O’Neill’s the Emperor Jones
Abstract
O’Neill’s basic concern as a playwright had been to find the meaning of human existence in spite of man’s skepticism, his feeling of alienation and his struggle against various negative forces. The Emperor Jones portrays man’s struggle against something greater than himself, a struggle against the inexorable forces of his innermost ‘self’, i.e., his ‘real’ self. O’Neill presents a bleak world where a baffled Negro, turned into an Emperor, struggles towards ‘self-realization’ in the jungle of his own psyche. Unable to establish any harmony with the outer world, he comes back to himself. Ultimately, he has to face his real self, the knowledge of his guilt and self-hatred. O’Neill’s characters often seek refuge in their dream world; their preference is for richness and beauty to existing mediocrity of life. The present paper examines the Role of deterministic forces in the formation of a man’s identity with special reference to Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones.
References
2. Falk, Doris V. Eugene O’Neill and the Tragic Tension. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1958. Print
3. Horney, Karen. The Neurotic Personality of Our Time. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1937. Print
4. Oberndorf, C.P. A History of Psychoanalysis in America New York: Grune and Stratton, 1953. Print
5. Winther, Sophus K. Eugene O’Neill: A Critical Study. New York: Random House, 1934. Print
