of writing. His plays created characters that former playwrights never really dealt with in the theatrical arts. Eventually, O'Neill had gotten so sick he was forced to be treated in a sanatorium for tubercular patients. Some say he attempted suicide there. This was the turning point in which he developed plays in which he was famous for. The themes of his plays consisted of Realism, then the study of the forces behind human life, and the ideas of his favorite philosophers , Freidrich Nietzsche, psychologists Sigmund Freund, Carl Jung, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg.

http://www2.lucidcafe.com/luci dcafe/library/95oct/egoneill.h tml

Eugene O'Neill
Playwright

2006

Robin Chew

Eugene O'Neill's greatest influence had to be August Strindberg, the Swedish playwright, novelist, and short-story writer, who combined in his works psychology, naturalism, and later elements of mysticism. O'Neill like Strindberg combined his constant interest in self analysis with evolutionary history of mankind's supposed advancements that pitted the weaker against the stronger throughout history. The writing of O'Neill tended to reveal the true characters , often reflected the bouts of alcohol and drug addiction of his own experiences. O'Neills "The Naked Ape" truly reveals the underbelly of forces at work in the roaring twenties. A rich young girl in the story uses her influence to interact with the what appears to be beastral forces that are products of her own life style. The key character, tramped in a lifestyle which involves shoveling coal for a Steam ship for the rich is angered to learn that his appearance sends the young women shirking in horror at his appearance. The characters final connection to civilized is severed as he learns he has more in common with the ape in the cage than the forces at work around him.

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/str indbe.htm

(Johan) August Strindberg

2002

Authors' Calendar

Writers came from all walks of life, including rich, blacks, Jewish, and women writers were zealous on exposing all the forces at work in peoples existence. Their writing echoed a spirit that reflected a sense of searching out and forming the new image of humanity from the ashes of the wars they experienced. Gertrude Stein, a modernist writer, saw that women's life and thoughts were often put in a cage separate from the thoughts of the male civilization. Born in 1874, Stein was the youngest child of Daniel and Amelia

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