THE ASIDE AND THE SOLILOQUY IN EUGENE O'NEILL'S STRANGE INTERLUDE

Abstract

Eugene O'Neill was always exploring and searching for a more effective "medium of communication" that could satisfy his own needs as dramatist. For him "a new approach" was not simply a question of new plots or subject matter, but of new techniques. It is obvious that he was deeply concerned to create "a new language for the theatre." Therefore he attempted many experimental plays with devices from older dramatic tradition which had ceased to be applied or left abandoned by the modern dramatists. O'Neill, to meet his experimental plays, dug out such dramatic devices, masks in The Great God Brown, choral chants in Lazarus Laughed, and the old-fashioned asides and soliloquies in Strange Interlude. Among these devices, my main concern lies in the asides and the soliloquies utilized in Strange Interlude. O'Neill revived these dramatic devices which had disappeared from the stage since the advent of Ibsen's realistic drama. To the modern audience both the aside and the soliloquy seemed awkward as they were destroying the illusion of reality and unfit for the picture-frame stage of today. O'Neill, dedicating himself to exploring any possible "language for the theatre," felt strongly that he could adopt these conventional devices for his own uses and modern style of his characteristic expression. He deliberately adopted these devices as a better means of producing an immediate and direct appeal to the audience. For this approach he tried to show the inner thoughts and the conflicts of the characters through the asides and the soliloquies. Furthermore he attempted to reveal the stream of consciousness of the characters. His attention approached a search for the dual personality or the paradoxical feelings of human being. O'Neill, not satisfied with reviving these theatrical devices, extended them on a grand scale in order to reveal the "subjective life" of his characters more subtly and precisely. In this thesis the following points are stressed; how these dramatic devices were used on the past stages from the Greek period to Pro-Ibsen days. However my chief objective is concentrated on pursuing the different aspects of the asides and the soliloquies in Strange Interlude, and to illustrate O'Neill's unique method with which he could bring out an entirely new outlook to this play.