O'Neill's Heroes Haunted By Their Tragic Choices in Long Day's Journey into Night
BAKEA International Symposium of Western Cultural and Literary Studies: Hero(ine), Denizli, Türkiye, 7 - 09 Ekim 2009, ss.99-105, (Tam Metin Bildiri)
- Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Tam Metin Bildiri
- Basıldığı Şehir: Denizli
- Basıldığı Ülke: Türkiye
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.99-105
- Ankara Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Tragedy as a part of the literary tradition has been on the world stage since ancient
times though with changes on several accounts. In each period the critics and the playwrights
construed tragedy differently. Tragedy, in classical literature, is mostly governed by the fatalistic
viewpoint, according to which man has a slight role in preventing tragic events from happening;
on the other hand, in modern works of tragedy, man is plagued by a particular course of actions
with his own free will. Tragedy has been discussed in the light of several binary oppositions as
Eagleton asserts: "[t]he traditionalist conception of tragedy turns on a number of distinctions
[namely] between fate and chance, free will and destiny, inner flaw and outer circumstance, the
noble and ignoble, blindness and insight, historical and universal, the alterable and inevitable,
the truly tragic and the merely piteous, heroic defiance and ignominious inertia” (21). In each
phase of tragedy, the very action or disposition of a character and/or a quirk of fate leading him
into his downfall is the most essential element of tragedy. In modern works, with the
progressive decline in the role of fate in modern man's life, the most determining factor
bringing forth a tragic outcome is the choice of the tragic hero. Eugene O'Neill, as one of the
pioneers of the modern tragedy, similarly, puts the issue of choice at the heart of his tragedy,
Long Day's Journey into Night. In this domestic tragedy, all four members of the family, the
Tyrones, exercise their respective choices, the adverse outcomes of which hold sway and
torment the rest of their lives.