Mourning Becomes Electra by Eugene O’Neill: Aeschylus and Plato’s Cave to Create a Dark Drama


Autoria(s): Gilabert Barberà, Pau
Contribuinte(s)

Universitat de Barcelona

Resumo

The fundamental debt of E. O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra to Aeschylus, and to a lesser degree to Sophocles and Euripides, has been always recognised but, according to the author’s hypothesis, O’Neill might have taken advantage of the Platonic image of the cave in order to magnify his both Greek and American drama. It is certainly a risky hypothesis that stricto sensu cannot be proved, but it is also reader’s right to evaluate the plausibility and the possible dramatic benefit derived from such a reading. Besides indicating to what degree some of the essential themes of Platonic philosophy concerning darkness, light or the flight from the prison of the material world are not extraneous to O’Neill’s work, the author proves he was aware of the Platonic image of the cave thanks to its capital importance in the work of some of his intellectual mentors such as F. Nietzsche or Oscar Wilde. Nevertheless, the most significant aim of the author’s article is to emphasize both the dramatic benefits and the logical reflections derived, as said before, from reading little by little O’Neill’s drama bearing in mind the above mentioned Platonic parameter.

Identificador

http://hdl.handle.net/2445/63632

Idioma(s)

eng

Publicador

Adolf M. Hakkert Editore

Direitos

(c) Adolf M. Hakkert Editore, 2011

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/</a>

Palavras-Chave #Tradició clàssica #Mite de la caverna (Al·legoria) #Electra (Mitologia grega) #Classical tradition #Plato's cave (Allegory) #Èsquil, 525-456 aC. Agamèmnon #O'Neill, Eugene, 1888-1953
Tipo

info:eu-repo/semantics/article

info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion