The Women Warriors Dramatized by Eugene O’Neil——in Desire under the Elms and Strange Interlude

文娟（四川科技职业学院，四川 成都 611745）

Introduction

As the founder of American modern drama, the winner of Noble prize for literature in 1936 (Wu Weiren 198), O’Neil is a world-famous tragedy dramatist.As psychological exploring dramas, themes of his dramas are similar.That is the contradictions between desire of pursuing one’s own happiness and the traditional ideas.The protagonists of these two dramas are both females, and they act as women warriors in the process of getting rid of tradition and chasing well-beings.This paper will mainly focus on how Nina Leeds, in Strange Interlude and Abbie in Desire under the Elms protest against the traditional values and the similarities between the two traditionally “vicious” women.

Ⅰ Nina Leeds—A “Scourge to Men”

Strange Interlude has ever forbidden to be played on the stage.The reason is its writing about abortion, adultery and homosexuality that are regarded as immoralities in O’Neil’s time.The protagonist, Nina is an ordinary woman bravely challenged the authority.To some distant,she is a symbol of the creative woman warrior, but she is also a victim of what she protests against.Nina is a representative of the modern western women.She has many characteristics that the modern women in this time own, and she is a complicated and multiple-sides image.She is a daughter, fiancee, prostitute, bride, fornicator and also, a child.Nina leads a life playing all these roles and wearing these masques.She is the magic rebel.Young and vigorous as she is , she doesn’t believe in the negative and conservative attitude of Puritanism and dares to break through its restriction.She is a woman warrior, also a “scourge” to men.

1.1 Protest to the Authority of Her Father.

Nina bravely purchases her Love.She falls in love with an outstanding student that comes from a poor family and intends to marry him, but because of the obstruction of her father.She fails at last.For that reason, she hates her father, and even herself.To punish herself,she devotes her “stupid virginity” to the disabled soldiers, and tries to amuse them to pay back for her coward betrayal to Gordor, her first lover (355).Professor Leeds, her father, a man buries his head in the research of Greece and Roman linguistic culture, disregards the life in reality, and his image is a sharp contrast with her vigorous daughter.He can’t understand her love for life and oppresses her vigor.The wrong behaviors of Nina’s father ruin the life or even the whole life of the daughter.Professor Leeds is a symbol of the old tradition.He thinks that Gordor doesn’t deserve her daughter.His action makes Nina painful and regretful and Nina feels guilt in her long life.We can’t say that the abrupt death of Professor Leeds doesn’t partly roots from Nina’s devotion, and it’s sorrowful and shameful for a daughter of a professor to become a prostituted-like woman.The protestant behaviors of Nina are devastating and even hurt herself.

1.2 Protests to the Puritan Values

Opposing the old tradition and fightin g against the trap of Puritanism is a fashionable theme at beginning of the 20th century in America (Wang Yiqun 257).Nina is not willing to be beaten down by her first failure in love, and she is not wiling to degenerate.She wants to find a new way to happiness.She lusts for a family and a baby of her own, so she gets married with Sam Evans, but this is a marriage without love.She has ever confessed to Evans’ mother that “I don’t love him” (O’Neil 127).Her aim is to have a child and to redeem herself.But when she heard that the Evan’s family has inherent psychosis, her dream of being a mother disillusioned.She resolutely decides to accept Mrs.Evans’ suggestion to persuade doctor, Darrell to be the father of her baby without letting Sam Evans knows.The action of adultery is to be sternly punished by Puritanism and becomes the important theme in many writers.In the representative work of Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is not satisfied with her unmatchable marriage and falls in love with the Priest, Dimmesdale and bears a daughter, Pearl.She is punished sternly and forced to wear a scarlet letter “A” in the rest of her life.In order to purchasing her idealized life, Nina doesn’t hesitate to commit adultery and this is another brave betrayal to the old puritan values.For Puritanism, Laziness and the desire of pursuing easiness are the symbols of devastating, and the indulging of desires just bring evil fruit.Facing the severe punishment of Puritanism, Nina does not hesitate.Her actions represent her protestant spirit as a representative of a new generation and this also conforms to the tide of the time.

Ⅱ Abbie—Another Warrior to the Old Traditions

Desire under the Elms and Strange Interlude are both the works of O’Neil’s second creating period, his prime time.O’Neil characters Abbie, the protagonist in Desire under the Elms as another woman warrior struggling for her own happiness and against the Puritanism and materialism.This drama mainly focuses on the theme of incest and killing baby to strenghthen its tragedy effects and expresses the conflicts between human desires and social Puritanism and materialism.

2.1 Commit Incest—For the Sake of Property.

The 76-years old farm owner Cabot married with his third wife,the young and beautiful widow, Abbie.The sons of his first wife, Peter and Simon are extraordinarily tired of lives on the farm.As the hope of inheriting the farm gets more and more insignificant with the coming of their young stepmother, they decide to go to California to make their lives, whereas the son of Cabot’s second wife, Eben, is unwilling to give up his inheriting right and stays hatred to his stepmother, Abbie.

Abbie get married twice.Her 1st husband died and life in the past was full of woes and sorrows, and she never had a home of her own before.Her marriage with an old man that is over 30 years older than her is undoubtedly comes from some selfish motivations.Her aim is to found a home of her own, but because of Cabot’s old age, it’s impossible for her to bear a baby for Cabot.On seeing she is about to lose the right of heritage, Abbie starts to fight against her fate.She plans to bear a son for Cabot by seducing Eben.This play exposes how the true human nature and feeling are suppressed and twisted in a society that is governed by money, and nearly all the members of the Cabots focuses their eyes on the heritage like chicks (Ju Dongmei).The relationship between them goes around the fighting for the occupation of the farm.No matter the relationship between son and father, son and mother,husband and wife, or the relationship between brothers goes around the icy desire for property.Although these desires of different figures in this drama may shock the readers, but as a aggressive female image in this play, Abbie declaims that she can’t be invaded and she can fight like a woman warrior for her own fate in spite of the means of her fighting are not so respectable.It’s no doubt that showing off the amorous feeling and seducing men are the most direct and simple tools for a woman,especially beautiful woman.

2.2 Killing Babe—For the Sake of Love

In the process of seducing Eben, Abbie gradually falls in love with him.Her desire of occupying the farm is surpassed by her desire of love.When Eben suspects that Abbie doesn’t love him and she approaches him just for her desire to possess the farm, Abbie painfully but resolutely decides to kill their baby to clarify her love for Eben.In this section of time, her desire for occupying love gets the upper hand.Both Eben and Abbie are greedy for the farm, and both of them try their best to occupy it, and on this basis, they take each other as enemy.But the writer depicts something in their nature that is the passionate love between them; this strong love breaks the limitation of their desires for property.When Abbie get married with old Cabot, we see a greedy, evil, and hypocritical woman, but when her heart is burning for love and when she tries to regain her love, and is willing to sacrifice anything for love, we see an earnest, passionate brave and selfishless woman (Guo Jide 355).

Conclusion

Both Abbie and Nina are hysterical women in O’Neil’s plays,and they are also brave women warriors at the same time.However, their rebellions and challenges to the old orders are useless, because they live in a world that all the innovations, meanings and struggles are useless.Their failures are the results of the morbid society (357).As women,Nina and Abbie make use of the men around them to satisfy their own desires.Although their means are too extreme and their endings are failures, they declare to the world that women can be so strong –willed and brave when they confront the woes and difficulties in their life and they would fight like warriors to pursue their own happiness.New things always get frustrated at the beginning.But as more and more followers follow their steps, these new things would undoubtedly change the world in some degree, Nina and Abbie are just like the forerunners in women’s battle.

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