Eugene O'Neill:  "The Emperor Jones" (1920)

• What does the forest symbolize?
• Explain the significance of the name of Emperor Jones: Brutus Jones.
• Point out the clothes imagery in the play. How is "disrobing" symbolic?
• This play is like Jones' monologue. How does the sound effect help make the play successful?
• How is the play a work of Expressionism? Point out some theatrical devices.

Eugene O'Neill:  Long Day's Journey into Night (1956)

• Discuss what O'Neill's character Edmund calls "faithful realism" in Long Day's Journey into Night. Is this play a work of realism? In what ways does it extend the concerns of the earlier realists to include twentieth-century concerns?
• What dramatic devices does O'Neill use to reveal the past in the play?
• What are the functions of the sea, fog, foghorn, and bells?
• How does this play present the universal problems in a family? And what are the problems?
• O'Neill suggests that modern life is more difficult for women than for men--if morphine addiction becomes a more extreme response to the modern condition than the alcoholism of Mary Tyrone's husband James. Discuss the role Mary plays in the play.
• In the play what does O'Neill say about versions of the American dream; about individual identity; about self-reliance; about social exclusion; and about the development of consciousness?

Eugene O'Neill: Mourning Becomes Electra