o'neill's technique of expressionism - DSpace@INFLIBNET Home

207disillusioned with the unconscious. The truth is that O ’Neill was bound tothe medium of drama because of his remarkable facility for writingdialogues and creating characters. The primary material of a dramatist is notfacts but pe rsons – living characters that he creates by the creative power ofhis imagination. Nobody can deny O ’Neill the power of creating charactersthat fascinate us. In fact, his plays are well c onstructed, full of action andsuspense , his dialogues are witty and brilliant , and yet natural and realistic.O’Neill has used drama for expressing his views on the nature of self,society and contemporary American life. He has dealt with the conflict ofself through satire, unconventional philosophy, witty dialogues, irony,expressionism, symbolism and imagery. In his plays he is primarilyconcerned with the basic fundamental emotions and passions of men. As anartist he knew very well that man ’s chief s traggle is with none bu t oneself,with one ’s own will. O’Neill is without doubt, a craftsman of unusual giftand distinction. He has the imagination of a poet, the wit of a keenhumanist, the conscience of a moralist, the temperament of a philosopher,and the wisdom of a highly experienced man of the world.Thus, like anartist, he is concerned with the task of projecting his philosophic visionrather with the debate regarding certain principles. His interest was notreligion or philosophy but the great pri nciples and ideals of life:I’m always acutely conscious of the Force behind… and of theone eternal tragedy to Man in his glorious, self -destructingstruggle to make the Force express him instead of being, as ananimal is, an infinitesimal incident in its expression. And myproud conviction is that this is the only subject worth writingabout…. (Falk 25 -26)The most notable thing about O ’Neill is that he accomplished abeautiful synthesis and fusion of art and ideas in his plays. The way heemploys a numbe r of remarkable artistic techniques to present his ideas,casting them all into beautiful artistic moulds to turn out a play clearlyshows that he explored the psychological duality of self , and how itconfronts with each other. That is why he advocated th e importance ofmasks. In ‘A Dramatist ’s Notebook ’ O’Neill wrote: