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=Eugene Gladstone O'Neill by Teresa Torres=

Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was born on October 16, 1888. He attended boarding school for most of his life, then dropped out of Princeton. His father was an actor so he was around theater for most of his life. The works of Eugene O'Neill have been hard to criticize because he wavers from one style to another. He changed drama from popular entertainment to serious literature.(Reardon) Some people say that they were mostly autobiographical. He did not have one particular view, or writing style. He wrote very simple so that it was easy to understand for that time period. "The stature of O'Neill has cast a long shadow on the American theater" (Bloom 8). His plays were about the fault of humanity, our greed, and about finding our own identity. "Eugene O'Neill set out to create meaningful drama in America at a time when the barriers against it were significant."(Reardon) He was a very good playwright but most of his works did not become popular until after he died because he was so harshly criticized.

His styles were very dramatic and realistic. He wrote a few plays that had political corruption and capitalism. Many of his plays were simply monologues that were supposed to represent certain issues of the time. One of his most famous phrases was "I want to be an artist or nothing". He considered himself to be a tragedian. He wrote more than fifty plays before his death. O'Neill wrote about real life events that were both political and personal. He told life like it was, he had a very wide imagination and was also very ambitious. In a couple of his plays he even used masks, for example in //The Great God Brown (1926)// which were supposed to represent the hidden thoughts in a persons mind//.// He wanted people to see things the way that he saw them which was one of his greatest flaws. He also wrote like many Greek play writes, his first original piece was //The Iceman Cometh//. Eugene wanted to solve all of the religious differences of people. He therefore tried to find a new faith. For his own dramatic power he used various theatrical devices in his plays. Though his most successful plays were the ones that portrayed realism. //The Emperor Jones// and //The Hairy Ape,// have both artistic experiment and social reality. Another inspiration the he looked into is historical drama. That, following family issues and problems at home. All of this is hard to understand because Eugene's ancestry has little to do with American tradition. He viewed life very different than the average person, as shows in his works. He went through his own state of depression where he would just write until he came to tears which is where he produced his work //Long Days Journey// after his other died. A few of his plays were written based upon the loss of hope which reflected about the same time as The Great Depression. "Success gave O'Neill the leisure to write as he wished." (gale)

=Annotated Bibliography=

"O'Neill, Eugene (Gladstone)."Detroit:Gale,2003. 22 May 2008.

This database had tons of information on Eugene O'Neill. It gave personal information as well as his career, works, and awards. It would have been more useful if it would have talked a little more of his life after his works. I would definitely recommend another student to use this database as a source.

Bloom, Harold. "Introduction." Harold Bloom. New York. Chelsea house Publishers, 1987. Pages 1-12. 22 May 2008

The source __Modern Critical Views__ also had a lot to offer on the works of Eugene O'Neill and the contents of his plays. It was very useful but it was very long. This wouldn't be something I would recommend because you had to look very hard to find useful information. There was also much useless stuff if you are searching for critical views.

Reardon, William R. "O'Neill, Eugene (1888-1953)." //Encyclopedia of World Biography//. Ed. Suzanne M. Bourgoin. 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998. 17 vols.//Student Resource Center - Gold//. 26 May. 2008 

This database was very useful. There wasn't too much information but what was there was very helpful to my research. the different topics were very well organized into the sections of his life. Also the time periods in which each of his plays came out. It has great views and topics that i would recommend for research.

Gassner, John. "From Darkness" __Twentieth Century Views.__ John Gassner. Philadelphia. Twayne Publishers, 1964. pages 15-17,48.

This source was very useful for the basic information needed for my trading card. It had many interesting facts about Eugene but I didn't find too much use for his view. There were a few facts here and there. I wouldn't recommend this book for research but I would recommend it for random information on his personality.