The Silence of Nature in Eugene O’Neill’s Thirst

Abstract

As a father of modern American drama, Eugene O’Neill is distinguished by his interweaving of autobiographical experiences with his plays. He is aware of the effect of the natural environment on man’s inner problems. O’Neil’s tough life at sea for several years is reflected in some of his plays, which show his ecological awareness. These plays depict the presence as well as the power of nature in the lives of the characters. This paper examines the elements of nature that distinguish O’Neill’s Thirst in a way that forms his tragedy in the modern era. Like The Ancient Mariner, the play depicts the powerful sea as a source of punishment, terror, and death. All the characters’ suffering is confronted by the horrible silence of nature, from which those characters cannot escape. In the play he embodies man’s inevitability to challenge his destiny in the form of nature. The study presents how this challenge demonstrates the ecological and psychological dimensions of the play.