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Eugene O'Neill and Oriental Thought: A Divided Vision
“Off and on, of late years, I have studied the history and development of all religions with immense interest as being for me, at least, the most illuminating ‘case histories’ of the inner life of man.”—Eugene O’Neill writing to M. C. Sparrow, 1929
While it is commonly accepted that Eugene O’Neill studied Oriental mystical religions and that this study may be detected in some of his less successful experimental plays (Lazarus Laughed, The Fountain, Marco Millions) there has not been an effort to consider systematically his “immense interest” and the influence it had on O’Neill’s thought and writing. Robinson explores the tension between Occidental and Oriental elements in the playwright’s art, examining both the sources of the conflict and its manifestation in selected plays written between 1916 and 1942.
Through an examination of O’Neill’s correspondence, research library, and manuscript materials (some of which have previously been unavailable for study) Robinson is able to reveal the origins of O’Neill’s Orientalism. An easy familiarity with the complex interrelationships of Eastern and Western religions and the Oriental thought that underlies the ideas of many Western philosophers, allows Robinson to address the intricate problem of Oriental influences on O’Neill’s favorite Western sources, including Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Jung, Strindberg, and Emerson.
Finally in a play-by-play exegesis, Robinson traces the course of O’Neill’s mysticism from its apparent repudiation in the deeply flawed Dynamo to its synthesis in The Iceman Cometh, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, and Hughie, where Eastern ideas of maya, dynamic polarity, and the emptiness of the universe are again evident.
While it is commonly accepted that Eugene O’Neill studied Oriental mystical religions and that this study may be detected in some of his less successful experimental plays (Lazarus Laughed, The Fountain, Marco Millions) there has not been an effort to consider systematically his “immense interest” and the influence it had on O’Neill’s thought and writing. Robinson explores the tension between Occidental and Oriental elements in the playwright’s art, examining both the sources of the conflict and its manifestation in selected plays written between 1916 and 1942.
Through an examination of O’Neill’s correspondence, research library, and manuscript materials (some of which have previously been unavailable for study) Robinson is able to reveal the origins of O’Neill’s Orientalism. An easy familiarity with the complex interrelationships of Eastern and Western religions and the Oriental thought that underlies the ideas of many Western philosophers, allows Robinson to address the intricate problem of Oriental influences on O’Neill’s favorite Western sources, including Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Jung, Strindberg, and Emerson.
Finally in a play-by-play exegesis, Robinson traces the course of O’Neill’s mysticism from its apparent repudiation in the deeply flawed Dynamo to its synthesis in The Iceman Cometh, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, and Hughie, where Eastern ideas of maya, dynamic polarity, and the emptiness of the universe are again evident.
216 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1982
About the author
James A. Robinson
43 books198 followersJames A. Robinson (born 1960) is a British economist and political scientist.
He is David Florence Professor of Government at Harvard University and a faculty associate at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. He studied economics at the London School of Economics, the University of Warwick and Yale University. He previously taught in the Department of Economics at the University of Melbourne, the University of Southern California and before moving to Harvard was a Professor in the Departments of Economics and Political Science at the University of California at Berkeley. His main research interests are in comparative economic and political development with a focus on the long-run with a particular interest in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. He is currently conducting research in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Haiti and in Colombia where he has taught for many years during the summer at the University of the Andes in Bogotá.
He is David Florence Professor of Government at Harvard University and a faculty associate at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. He studied economics at the London School of Economics, the University of Warwick and Yale University. He previously taught in the Department of Economics at the University of Melbourne, the University of Southern California and before moving to Harvard was a Professor in the Departments of Economics and Political Science at the University of California at Berkeley. His main research interests are in comparative economic and political development with a focus on the long-run with a particular interest in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. He is currently conducting research in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Haiti and in Colombia where he has taught for many years during the summer at the University of the Andes in Bogotá.
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November 11, 2022
Per this book's first chapter, Eugene O'Neill -- by his own admission -- "did considerable reading in Oriental philosophy and religion." But James A. Robinson's subsequent study of the influences of Eastern ideas on this great Western writer coalesce but briefly in regard to "Lazarus Laughed," "The Fountain" and "Marco Millions" and little outside that. Dubious sections that equate the sea of "Anna Christie" with Vedantic Hinduism or the inaction of "The Iceman Cometh" with Dorothy Graham's "Chinese Gardens" stretch credulity. The many paragraphs devoted to Freud, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Jung and Strindberg aren't erroneous so much as errant; they do nothing to increase our apprehension of how Buddhism, Taoism, or even Confucianism may have impacted the great playwright's prodigious output. Despite his unique access to O'Neill's library (and the notes on the book margins therein), Robinson's compelling thesis remains untested. Stating Marsden's bisexuality ("Strange Interlude") reflects the yin-yang and equating Mary's morphine addition (in "Long Day's Journey Into Night") with mystical detachment is internationally comical.
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