从《榆树下的欲望》看奥尼尔的悲剧思想

《榆树下的欲望》表现了西方现代人在失去"上帝"这一精神信仰后的惶恐和不安。受物质主义文化影响,他们把追求财富作为一种新的精神寄托,在这种追求中,他们的人性与物质主义产生了激烈的冲突,结果导致他们人性的丧失,根本无法感受到生命本身的意义,同时也造成他人的悲剧。欲望本身成为他们成功的标志,同时也成为他们失去正常人精神和道德生活的标志。在物质主义造成的复杂矛盾中,父子关系、夫妻关系,都沦落为物质关系,无论他们如何选择自己的生活方式,结果都必然是悲剧性的。奥尼尔通过表现他们在和自己的命运进行抗争时所表现出的悲剧力量,从而表达了自己独特的悲剧思想:人只要能在绝望的境地里继续抱有希望,他就获得了生命的悲剧美感。

Eugene O'Neill's Tragic Conceptions As Seen from his Desire under the Elms

Desire Under the Elms mainly expresses Western contemporaries' uneasiness and fright after their loss of faith in "God". Influenced by materialism popular in the West,they take the pursuit of wealth as a new spiritual escape. However, an intense conflict between their human nature and materialism has been brought about in this sort of pursuit, leading to the loss of their human nature, so as not to be able to appreciate the meaning of life itself as a result, and inflicting tragic fate for other people at the same time. Desire itself has become a symbol for their success, and the indicator of the loss of their natural mentality and their moral life. Among the conflict complexes resulting from materialism,all kinds of relationships between parent and son or that between wife and husband,have completely become that of pure materialism. As a result whatever way of life they choose,their lives only lead to tragedies. O'neill admires their spiritual strength exposed in their struggling with their inevitable tragic destiny,and his specific tragic idea is embodied by them:whoever he is,if he still cherish hope in hopeless situation,he is exactly a tragic hero who can enjoy the tragic sense of beauty of life.