This project is about the re-actualization of the Aristotelian theory in two of Eugene O’Neill’s plays. These plays are The Iceman Cometh (O’Neill, Eugene. 1947) and Mourning Becomes Electra (1932). This project will attempt to determine whether or not such a re-actualization has taken place in the aforementioned tragedies by O’Neill.
The project will of course begin with an introduction to the project itself and to Eu-gene O’Neill’s plays some of which are currently playing on Broadway.
This project will also touch on the subject of the Greek tragedies and modern trage-dies, because there are links to be drawn between the old Greek tragedies and the modern tragedies. The following chapter will be about Eugene O’Neill’s place in the American Literary History. This chapter will for instance entail Eugene O’Neill’s involvement with the Provincetown Players, and how his involvement with this particular amateur theatrical group helped his career along.
The analysis is split up into two parts, because the project deals with two plays. “Analysis I” will deal with The Iceman Cometh (O’Neill, Eugene. 1947), and “Analysis II” will f course deal with Mourning Becomes Electra (O’Neill, Eugene. 1932),
Before each analysis of the plays there will be a short introduction to the play. For instance in the case of The Iceman Cometh (O’Neill, Eugene. 1947) there will be an introduction of where Eugene O’Neill have found his inspiration for this particular play and various productions of the play.
And hereafter there will be a general analysis of the various settings of Mourning Be-comes Electra (O’Neill, Eugene. 1932) and The Iceman Cometh (O’Neill, Eugene. 1947), before moving on to the characterization of all the characters of both Mourning Becomes Electra (O’Neill, Eugene. 1932) and The Iceman Cometh (O’Neill, Eugene. 1947).
As a final part of the characterization of the characters, there will be a chapter in both “Analysis I” and “Analysis II” devoted solely to the tragic hero or the tragic heroine, where these will be analyzed and hopefully prove to help re-actualize the theory used in this project.
Hereafter the project will dwell into the themes or each play before ending the project with a general discussion as to whether or not The Iceman Cometh (O’Neill, Eugene. 1947) and Mourning Becomes Electra (O’Neill, Eugene. 1947) do help to re-actualize the Aristotelian theory or not. Finally there will be a conclusion as to what the result of these analyses and the discussion is.