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213house and one in the country outside… The symbolic significancesare obvious ; in each of these scenes we are from the farm house,on a road w hich could lead the characters to far places…. (21 -22)The dramatist himself has said:In Beyond the horizon there are three acts of two scenes each.One scene is out of doors, showing the horizon, suggesting theman ’s desire and dream. The other is indoo rs, the horizon gone,suggesting what has come between him and dream. In that wayI tried to get rhythm, the alternation of longing and of loss.(qtd. in Falk 38)The alternation of longing and of loss dramatizesthe subjectivedesires and the reality. Bey ond the Horizon also follows a systematic timepattern. The play proceeds from spring to fall and from sun set to sun -ris e.John Henry Ra leigh remarks:Beyond the Horizon begins in happiness in a warm sunset in thespring; it ends in tragedy on a cold daw n in the fall; in betweenis the heat – and scenes of anger – of the summer. (174)In Abortion , the dramatist has made use of several means ofexpression to achieve the desired intensification. Lighting, music and song,furnished by the approaching paradeof college students deepen theintellectual appeal of the play. “This and not The Emperor Jones , as iscommonly assumed,” observes Timo Tiusanen, “is the first play in whichO’Neill makes use of a repetitive sound effect with an increase in intensity– and does so in a purposeful way. ” (44)The Emperor Jones is another important play through which thedramatist highlights the psychological conflict within the mind of anindividual. It portrays the psychological terrors and obsession of BrutusJones. It is a gripping play which would not have produced desired effectwithout the use of expressionistic technique. T o quote Timo Tiusanen:The Emperor Jones belongs to that sect of expressionism,sometimes called “monodrama” where the distortion ismotivated “by a character ’s state of mind… The play consistsof a realistic exposition scene, a rapid series of six scenic
214images, all expressionistically shaped. (101 -02)Expressionistic plays ar e, generally speaking , loose in d ram aticstructure but this difficulty has been fully overcome in The Emperor Jones .The play has achieved a remarkable concentration of dramatic power bymeans of several unifying effects.The presence of Jones in all the eight quick moving scenes, the loudnoise and flash of Jones ’s revolver, and the beating of the tom -tom are thethree important unifying factors. Edwin Engel points out :After the first scene, the action occurs between duskof oneafternoon and dawn of the following day in, or on the edge of,the Great Forest. The successive scen es are synchronized withJones ’s revolver, the chamber of which contain approximatelyas many cartridge as there are scenes; as the gun is dischargedthe scene changes, approaching the point where the sixth bullet,the silver one, coincides with the comple ted reversion tosavagery. The beating of tom -tom, like the steamer ’s whistle inBound East for Cardiff , also serves as an important unifyingfactor, symbolising as it does the pervasive and inescapablepresence of the primitive. (52-53)The Emperor Jones is a study of t he involuntary regression of anindividual ’s consciousness through the stages of its own history to the racialor collective uncon scious. John Gassner remarks:And in succumbing to primal fears, ‘Emperor Jones ’ re-enactsthe whole drama of atavism, of humanity ’s inability to abolishthe ghosts of the racial past. (170)In The Emperor Jones , the basic symbols are used to give a feeling ofthe secret workings of the unconscious of man. The forestbecomes thesymbol of racial unconsciousness of man. In the same way , the silver bulletbecomes the source of strength to the emperor. After in itial indifference inrunning the government, a negro, Brutus Jones, had settled down to rule thenatives. Jones became one of the capitalists by amassing wealth andpolitical power. His dress is symbolic of his distinction.He wears a light blue uniform coat, sprayed with brass buttons,
Page 1 and 2: `O’NEILL'S TECHNIQUE OFEXPRESSION
Page 3 and 4: 206inadequate because speech does n
Page 5 and 6: 208I advocated masks for stage crow
Page 7 and 8: 210was the deep experience that int
Page 9: 212pro ne to consump tion. Environm
Page 13 and 14: 216stage only to givea tragic touch
Page 15 and 16: 218the number of characters is cut
Page 17 and 18: 220brings symbolically before us Ma
Page 19 and 20: 222a hairy ape. Thus there is a uni
Page 21 and 22: 224his characters ’ personalities
Page 23 and 24: 226present to the past times. Time
Page 25 and 26: 228no laws, there can be no conscio
Page 27 and 28: 230with tuber culosis and only as a
Page 29 and 30: 232the purpose of which is to extri
Page 31 and 32: 234Works CitedAbrams, M. H. A Gloss
Page 33: 236Winther, S. K. Eugene O ’Neill

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