Chapter 22 American theatre three playwrights美国文学 童明版

1、Chapter 22,American Theater：three major playwrights,American Drama in 20th century A 1920s: first climax of American drama “Small Theatre Movement”: modern American dramatists: Eugene ONeil, Clifford Odets B Post-war: second climax of American drama Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller C 1960s: with fr

2、esh energy Theatre of the Absurd (荒诞派戏剧 ), Edward Albee,Eugene ONeill (1888-1953),Eugene ONeillthe foremost United States playwright the first American dramatist to receive the Nobel Prize for literature (1936) founder of the American Drama the American Shakespeare,Eugene ONeill：His Life was born Oc

3、tober 16, 1888. his father was absent most of his childhood due to his acting career, while his mother was a drug addict. spent most of his time in hotels, never knowing what a true home felt like. attended various boarding school and one year of college before dropping out. Early on in his career,

4、he began to drink more heavily and became addicted to alcohol. He finally decided to stop drinking and become a writer. After his parents death ONeill became interested in dramatizing the complicated pattern of his familys life. It is then that ONeill became “the nations first major playwright and t

5、he first to explore serious themes in the theater.,In 1920, his first full-length play, Beyond the Horizon, produced on Broadway; In 1936, won the Nobel Prize for literature “for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy”;,Eugene ONe

6、ill a introducer of realism and expressionism More than any other dramatist, ONeill introduced the dramatic Realism pioneered by the European playwrights Henrik Ibsen and Expressionism by August Strindberg into American theater. b tragedian of underprivileged ONeill was also famous for the bleak and

7、 tragic tone of his plays, which persistently examine the crushed hopes and dreams of the underprivileged.,O Neills experiments P 286-287 Gave extended and elaborate stage directions. expressionist experiments sometimes they called for sets (布景) and performances that distort reality to intensify emo

8、tion and heighten symbolism. fusing ancient and the modern use of masks and Greek chorus,Expressionism: generally refers to a twentieth century art movement that began in Germany. It is the tendency of an artist to distort reality to express emotion, especially angst (焦虑). expressionism, a general t

9、erm for a mode of literary or visual art which, in extreme reaction against realism and naturalism, presents a world violently distorted under the pressure of intense personal moods, ideas, and emotions: image and language thus express feeling and imagination rather than represent external reality.,

10、The Scream by Edvard Munch (1893),Portrait of Eduard Kosmack by Egon Schiele,Major works,Beyond the Horizon(1920) Pulitzer Prize, 1920 The Emperor Jones,1920 The Hairy Ape, 1922 Mourning Becomes Electra, 1931 悲悼 The Iceman Cometh, 1946 Long Days Journey into Night, 1956 Pulitzer Prize 1957,THE HAIRY

11、 APE A drama in eight scenes. produced in 1922 and published the following year. considered one of the prime achievements of Expressionism on stage. Yank Smith, a brutish stoker on a transatlantic liner, bullies and despises everyone around him, considering himself superior. He is devastated when a

12、millionaires daughter is repulsed by his simian（类人猿的） ways, and he vows to get even with her. Ashore in New York City, Yank schemes to destroy the factory owned by the womans father, but his plans fail. Yank wanders into a zoo. There, feeling alienated from humanity, he releases an ape, and the ape

13、kills him.,（指指街对面正在修建的摩天楼虚张声势地）看见正在修建起来的那个建筑吗？看见那种钢铁结构吗？我就是钢铁！你们住在那上面，以为你们算个人物。但是，在里面的是我，懂吧！我就是使它往上蹿的起重机！我就是它的内部和基础！对！我就是钢铁、蒸汽、烟和一切！它能活动，有速度，二十五层向上去我就在那顶上和底层里活动着！你们这些傻瓜却活动不了。你们只不过是木偶，我给你们上了劲，你们才会转。你们是废料，懂吧是我们堆在一边的残渣和炉灰！现在，你们还有什么可说的？,But as they seem neither to see nor hear him, he flies into a fury.

14、 Bums! Pigs! Tarts! Bitches! He turns in a rage on the men, bumping viciously into them but not jarring them the least bit. Rather it is he who recoils after each collision. He keeps growling. Git off de oith! Gwan, yuh bum! Look where yuhre goin, cant yuh? Git outa here! Fight, why dont yuh? Put up

15、 yer mits! Dont be a dog! Fight or Ill knock yuh dead! But, without seeming to see him, they all answer with mechanical affected politeness: I beg your pardon. Then at a cry from one of the women, they all scurry to the furriers window. THE WOMANEcstatically, with a gasp of delight. Monkey fur! The

16、whole crowd of men and women chorus after her in the same tone of affected delight. Monkey fur!,（可是他们好像既没有看见他也没有听见他，他勃然大怒了）流氓、猪猡、婊子、母狗！（他愤怒地转身对着他们，恶意冲撞他们，但是一点也没有碰到他们。相反，在每次接触之后，后退的倒是他。他不断怒叫）下地狱去！滚开，你们这些流氓！看你们往哪里走，看不见吗？躲开！你们为什么不动手呢？举起拳头来！别装狗熊！打吧，要不，我就揍死你们！（可是好像没有看见他似的，他们全都用一种机械的、造作的客气态度回答说：请您原谅。接着一位太

17、太大叫一声，他们全都慌慌忙忙跑到皮货店的窗前。） 那位太太（欣喜若狂、气喘吁吁地）猴皮！（全体男女跟着她异口同声用同样造作的兴高采烈的腔调：猴皮！）,YANKGlaring from one to the other of themwith an insulting snort of scorn. Huh! Huh! Without seeming to see him, they make wide detours to avoid the spot where he stands in the middle of the sidewalk. He approaches a ladywith

18、 a vicious grin and a smirking wink. Hello, Kiddo. Hows every little ting? Got anyting on for to-night? I know an old boiler down to de docks we kin crawl into. The lady stalks by without a look, without a change of pace. YANK turns to othersinsultingly.,Scene 5 of The Hairy Ape It takes place three

19、 weeks later, when Yank and Long are searching New York for their revenge. They pass through crowds that ignore them entirely until the end of the scene, when Yank punches an elderly gentleman. The gentleman does not react at all to the punch but is angry that Yank made him miss his bus, for which Y

20、ank is sent to prison in scene 6.,Expressionism in Hairy Ape YANKSeeing a fightwith a roar of joy as he springs to his feet. At last! Bus, huh? Ill bust yuh! He lets drive a terrific swing, his fist landing full on the fat gentlemans face. But the gentleman stands unmoved as if nothing had happened.

21、 GENTLEMANI beg your pardon. Then irritably. You have made me lose my bus. He claps his hands and begins to scream: Officer! Officer! Many police whistles shrill out on the instant and a whole platoon of policemen rush in on YANK from all sides. He tries to fight but is clubbed to the pavement and f

22、allen upon. The crowd at the window have not moved or noticed this disturbance. The clanging gong of the patrol wagon approaches with a clamoring din.,Themes of The Hairy Ape a search for identity in Yank, we see modern man desperately in search of his identity within industrial society. b alienatio

23、n As an expressionist play, The Hairy Ape makes a protest against the dehumanization and alienation in the industrialized world. invisible man,An autobiographical play The story took place at the home of the Tyrone.,Long Days Journey into Night,Major Characters James Tyrone, the father, a famous act

24、or, anxious to become rich at the expense of his own talent; Mary Tyrone, the mother, a drug addict; James (Jamie) Tyrone, their elder son, an irresponsible alcoholic; Edmund Tyrone, their younger son, an intellectual and romantic dreamer,Major Characters James Tyrone, the father, a famous actor, an

25、xious to become rich at the expense of his own talent; Mary Tyrone, his wife, long lost in the haze（烟雾） of a morphine addiction acquired when the difficult delivery of her son Edmund was complicated further by the incompetence of her doctor; James (Jamie), their elder son, an alcoholic neer-do-well

26、brother ; Edmund, the Tyrones youngest son, a poet suffering from tuberculosis and deep disillusionment with the world;,Long Days Journey into Night Summary The action begins in the morning, just after breakfast. We learn as the first act unravels that Mary has returned to her family recently after

27、receiving treatment in a sanatorium for morphine addiction. Edmund, meanwhile, has in recent weeks begun to cough very violently, and we learn later on in the play that he has tuberculosis tuberculosis. The gradual revelation of these two medical disasters makes up most of the plays plot. In between

28、 these discoveries, however, the family constantly revisits old fights and opens old wounds left by the past, which the family members are never unable to forget.,The father is angry with the mother for her drug addiction, the mother with the father for his failure to offer her a home, the father wi

29、th his sons for not being good. They torment one another and themselves until midnight. The long day thus journeys into night when the tragedy of the family is finally enacted. Love gives way to hate, day to night, and hope to despair.,Tennessee Williams (1911-1983),Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) He

30、 is widely considered the greatest Southern playwright and one of the greatest playwrights in the history of American drama. At their best, his twenty-five full-length plays combined lyrical intensity, loneliness, and violence. His troubled family provided inspiration for much of his writing.,Life,B

31、irth and Family Background born in Columbus, Mississippi; his father, traveling shoe salesman, alcoholic, abusive, distant from family; his mother, Southern lady, educated, refined, snobbish and neurotic; his elder sister Rose, shy, sensitive and fragile, suffering from mental illness,Life Homosexua

32、lity In 1948, met and fell in love with Frank Phillip Merlo (19221963), an occasional actor who had served in the U.S. Navy in World War II; The relationship lasted 14 years until infidelities (背信) and drug abuse on both sides ended it.,His troubled family provided inspiration for much of his writin

33、g. Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie can easily be seen to represent Williams mother. Many of his characters are considered autobiographical, including Tom Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie.,Rose: Great influence Tennessee was close to his sister Rose, who had perhaps the greatest influence on

34、him. She was a slim beauty who was diagnosed with schizophrenia(精神分裂症) and spent most of her adult life in mental hospitals. The common mad heroine theme that appears in many of his plays may have been influenced by his sister. Laura Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie is understood to be modeled on Ro

35、se. Some biographers say that the character of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire is based on her as well and a small part on Williams himself.,Major Works,The Glass Menagerie (1950)玻璃动物园 A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) 欲望号街车 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)热铁皮上的猫,Writing Features,Subjects viole

36、nce, sex, homosexuality (taboos in drama) Characterization defeated, unhappy wanderers; lonely, vulnerable women indulged in memory of the past or illusion of the future Style combination of coarseness and poetry, vivid southern speech,Regional and Universal Regional: decline of the Southern aristoc

37、ratic plantation class He is a regionalist in that he dramatized the decayed aristocrats of a declining Southern culture Behind the action of most of its plays is a social process: the Southern aristocratic plantation class declines with the economic decline of the South. Universal: It should be sai

38、d that his regionalism, or his interest in the South, is incidental to his central concern with the human emotions and the crisis of personality. Southern lady or belle (pure, innocent, graceful, subordinate, docile),Major Plays The Glass Menagerie (1944) New York Drama Critics Circle Awards A Stree

39、tcar Named Desire (1947) Pulitzer Prize for Drama,Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951),Amanda Wingfield (mother) a now-poor, former Southern belle,Laura Wingfield (daughter) lame suffering from an inferiority complex,Tom Wingfield (son),Jim OConnor ( A friend of Tom),The

40、 Glass Menagerie,The Glass Menagerie Amanda Wingfield is a now-poor, former Southern belle with a daughter Laura who is lame and suffers from an inferiority complex. Lauras passion is a collection of glass animals. Nevertheless, Amanda wishes for Laura to have the romantic life she had. Tom, her bro

41、ther, brings home Jim, a friend; Jim and Laura dance awkwardly; and her glass unicorn is broken. But Jim is engaged to someone else. He takes off, Laura gets sad, and Amanda yells at her son and then comforts Laura during Toms closing speech to the audience. Tom reveals to us that he abandoned his f

42、amily shortly after that night, but has been haunted by Laura, the sister he abandoned, ever since.,A Streetcar Named Desire,Characters,Blanche DuBois: neurotic central character who lives in a fantasy world of Old South chivalry but cannot control her carnal desires; Stella: Blanches down-to-earth

43、sister who seems satisfied with her life as the wife of a factory worker; Stanley: Stellas churlish (脾气暴躁的) and outspoken husband and the bane (祸根) of Blanches existence; Mitch: Stanleys poker partner and best friend. He woos Blanche until he finds out about her seamy (丑陋的) past.,Plot The play cente

44、rs on a desolated woman named Blanche DuBois. Reared in Old South aristocratic traditions, she lived elegantly in the family homestead, married a man she adored, and pursued a career as an English teacher. But her life fell apart when she discovered that her husband, Allen Grey, was having a homosex

45、ual affair. Disgraced, he killed himself. Blanche sought comfort in the arms of other men, many men. After she had relations with one of her students, a 17-year-old, authorities learned of the encounter and fired her. Meanwhile, relatives died and she could not keep up the family home. Eventually, c

46、reditors (债权人) seized it. The play begins when Blanche arrives in New Orleans to stay with her sister, Stella, and her crude, outspoken husband, Stanley.,The arrival of Blanche upsets her sister and brother-in-laws system of mutual dependence. Stellas concern for her sisters well-being emboldens Bla

47、nche to hold court in the Kowalski apartment, infuriating Stanley and leading to conflict in his relationship with his wife. Blanche and Stanley are on a collision course, and Stanleys friend and Blanches would-be suitor, Mitch, gets trampled in their path. Stanley discovers Blanches past through a

48、co-worker who travels to Laurel frequently, and he confronts her with the things that she has been trying to put behind her, partly out of concern that her character flaws may be damaging to the lives of those in her new home, and partly out of a distaste for her pretense in general. The climax occu

49、rs when Stanley rapes Blanche. This brutal act marks the completion of her mental deterioration, pushing her over the edge from sanity to madness.,Themes,The reluctance or inability of people to accept the truth; The despoliation (掠夺) of the sensitive and feminine by the wild and masculine; The fina

50、l destruction of the Old South;,Arthur Miller with Marilyn Monroe after their wedding in 1956,Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe,All My sons, 1947; Death of a Salesman, 1949; (the Pulitzer Prize for drama) The Crucible, 1953; A View from the Bridge, 1956; After the Fall, 1964;,Major Works,Major Themes

51、: the pressures of the American dream; dilemma of modern man in relation to family and work; As seen in the majority of his plays, Millers favorite material is the conflict in the American middle-class family, with the tension often anchored on the father-son relationship.,His Expressionism: P 294 M

52、ost of his theatrical devices are borrowed from expressionism. These include the fluidity of space and time, the breaking down of the audience barrier as found in Brecht, the inner psychological analysis as seen in O Neil.,Death of a Salesman (1949) It is the story of a traveling salesman-a metaphor

53、 for American society-who chooses popularity and getting rich as the false goals for his life and is finally driven to suicide. Miller believes that the common man is the tragic hero of modern times. Willy Loman, a middle-aged salesman who is no longer able to earn a living. He receives only a small

54、 commission as he ages, and he slowly loses his mind and attempts to kill himself to get an amount of insurance payment. He is obsessed with the post-war interpretation of the American Dream.,The Crucible It depicts the Salem (Massachusetts) witchcraft trials of the 17th century in which Puritan set

55、tlers were wrongfully executed as supposed witches. Its message was relevant to the era in which the play was staged, the early 1950s, when an anti-Communist crusade led by U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy and others ruined the lives of innocent people.,Death of A Salesman: Tragedy of the Common Man Traditional