In his existential philosophy Frederick Nietzsche re-values the values and morals of western history. In so doing, he arrives at a bleak and desolate reality where only the will to being remains within an individual’s control. For Nietzsche this allows a potential triumph for the individual against an often indifferent and hostile universe. Sigmund Freud felt we were all sick, explained by his theories of psycho-sexual development and personality development gone awry. Improper development leads to feelings of anxiety, despair, inadequacy, and a host of other neuroses including repression, obsession/compulsion, and sublimation. Carl Jung’s theory of archetypes and myths places great significance on archetypes and myths posited in our collective psyche. In order for self-realization or individuation to occur, we must release into the conscious mind these archetypes and collective memories from the unconscious mind.
Whether we pull up a stool with the denizens of Harry Hope’s saloon in The Iceman Cometh or spend a haunted evening with the Tyrones in Long Day’s Journey Into Night, it is remarkable how much the modern drama of Eugene O’Neill’s later plays dramatize the theories and philosophies in the works of men like Nietzsche, Freud, and Jung. In large part this is due to O’Neill’s autobiographical dramatizations, ones that include painful delusion, escape from reality, shocking disclosure, and devastating self-discovery – all in a vain attempt to find human happiness in the midst of an often desolate reality. In so doing, we see that O’Neill’s works are a dramatization of the playwright’s own life efforts to define his own identity, to find meaning for himself in an often indifferent and hostile universe. Unfortunately, few of O’Neill’s characters end happily. Most, if not all, end up singing in the wilderness or becoming broken and disillusioned when reality finally becomes more intrusive than ...