Light at the tunnel's end: the archetypal patterns of journey in eugence o'neill's plays

Abstract

This research examines the archetypal patterns of journey in Eugene O’Neill’s plays. Themythical-legendarystoriesuse this pattern, which has continuedshaping the way humans tell stories even in modern time.In O’Neill’s plays, the protagonists pass through the multifaceted life-situations on the surface; behind the seeming varieties of their evolution, however, there exists an archetypal pattern. O’Neill’s characters accomplish their journey going throughthis pattern; the journey transforms them into the bringers of spiritual awakening and elevates them as martyrs. This study introduces the archetypal concepts of thinkers like Sir James Frazer, Maud Bodkin, Northrop Frye, Carl G. Jung, Joseph Campbell, DavidHartman and Diane Zimberoff, and Conor Neill. It specifically synthesizes the individuation process of Jung with the journey pattern of Campbell to examine the spiritual transformation of archetypal personalities. The research thinly parallels the pattern of life-course O’Neill’s characters cover with the one of Neill’s personalities. It presents the characteristic traits which help categorize a specific O’Neill protagonistas oneof Neill’s spiritual characters, and then goes on detailing the life-adventures of that particular O’Neill protagonist to observe how he/she gets transformed into enlightened being. The research proceeds trying to find answers to the questions as to what O’Neill portrays in his plays, how his protagonists are characterized and why their transformation matters. It asserts that O’Neill’s plays portray characters whose life-course reflects the pattern of journey which is archetypal in nature. Using the qualitative method to present a blend of description, analysis and interpretation of O’Neill’s protagonists’ journey, the study establishes that O’Neill’scharacters begin life enthusiastically. The enthusiasm breaks soon, and forces them to face ordeals, from which they come out triumphant. Theyaccomplish the journey, in which the interaction between their conscious and unconscious life transforms them into what Neill calls the Explorer, the Innocent and the Sage. Their transformation matters because it is how O’Neill justifies the ways of life and death of modern individuals. O’Neill has been studied for his dramatic progression, the notions of the archetype and the gothic, rudimentary human needs, his growth as a dramatist, his representation of human characters, the problem of the hero’s expedition and renovation, and the influence of the dead in the living characters. He is also approached from the cultural materialistic perspective. However, scholars or researchershave not studied O’Neill with an exclusive focus on the issue of archetypal journey and spiritual transformationso far. The study attempts to see spiritual meaning behind suffering and miseries, claiming that such ventures open a new way of looking at suffering and miseries in O’Neill’s character-portrayals. The research has selected sixteen characters from O’Neill’s six plays picked up from his three periods. The characters are grouped as per their conscious and unconscious orientations. Consciously, the characters in the early plays are the neophytes, in the middle the obstinate and in the late the disillusioned. Unconsciously, they are, and move towards becoming, the Explorer, the Innocent and the Sage. The study uses the common sense approach‒literal denotation as given in the dictionary‒to justify the grouping of characters into the conscious attitude types. It establishes them as a specific archetypal personality describing the stages of their journey as described by Campbell and Hartman and Zimberoff.