Hamartia and Recognition: Patterns of Ambivalence in Long Day's Journey Into Night
Abstract
Long Journey Into Night is generally recognized as Eugene O'Neill's masterpiece. Much critical treatment of the play, however, has been superficial at best. With respect to James Tyrone, the central figure of the drama, I find that many O'Neill scholars tend to sentamentalize his character. In this paper I have endeavored to prove that the function of James is that of the tragic protagonist in the Aristotelian sense and that this function is revealed through the patterns of ambivalence which occur in the play. By examining these ambivalences and relating them to two of the qualities (i.e., the hamartia and the recognition) which Aristotle says the ideal tragic protagonist should possess, I believe I have succeeded in demonstrating my thesis.
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- OSU Theses [15752]