1 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study

1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study Literature is in part and a binding source of beauty and entertainment for all civilized men, and in part a record of the ideas and customs, the special visions and feelings of the people who created it. Literature is divided into three major genres like, poetry, novel, and drama. Different from poetry and novel, drama is more realistic in a way to show the portrait of human daily life. Through a character’s speeches and movements, audience will be able to feel or interpret the meaning that the actor or actress trying to deliver. I choose drama for my thesis because; I think drama is just like a piece of our daily life that can really show human problems or in other words drama is performance human life which are involved with tragedy, happiness, love, etc. No consensus exists about the exact date of the birth of drama but, according to most authorities, it originated in Greece over 2500 years ago as an outgrowth of the worship of the god Dionysus. Drama itself comes from a Greek word meaning “a thing that is done” Drama own set of customs, rituals, and rules which have evolved over many countries (Gwynn, 1982, p 2) like prose fiction, utilize plot and characters, drama develops a theme, arouses emotion or appeals to humor….” (Perrine, 1983, p 837). However, I find interesting aspect in drama. The interaction / dialog between the characters help me understand the meaning and make it easier for me to feel the emotion that the character has. A play is in fact made rather than written, and a playwright is similar to an architect who has designed a unique building. The concept may be his or hers, but the construction project requires the contributions of many other hands. I admire a lot of playwrights like Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen, Tennessee William, Arthur Miller, and Eugene O’Neill. However, Eugene O’Neill is the playwright that I admire most. Therefore, I choose Eugene O’Neill for my analysis. There are three reasons for choosing O’Neill which are O’Neill’s achievement in literary world, his style of writing, and techniques. My first reason for choosing O’Neill is his achievement in the literary world. According to Unger, “O’Neill was a forty – nine years old playwright 1 Petra Christian University 2 who received Nobel Prize in 1936.”(p 385) Moreover, O’Neill also received his third Pulitzer in 1928 for his work. All of O’Neill achievements have enriched the development of drama in America. My second reason for choosing O’Neill is his style of writing. O’Neill experimentally blended two opposing streams in drama. Unger states that O’Neill used two styles of theater which are realism and expressionism equally in his plays. (p 385). I believe that O’Neill might have faced high risk on his career through his experimental style. According to Unger, “In O’Neill’s work there is veritable summary of the modern theater’s aspiration and achievement as well as its more or less inevitable limitations and failures.” (p 385) Moreover, I am really interested in his style of combining nature especially about sea in realist characteristic. Unger states, “O’Neill sees sea as the symbol of the lost ness of humankind in different side of universe that becomes the conspiracy of the Nature against Man.” (p 388) The sea-plays like Glencairs are the products of his engagement with sea life for years. Throughout his life and his work, sea life plays an important role and gives elements to his works (Cargill, 1961, p 6 ). Basically, he tries to explain human suffering in his plays. Other reason about his style of writing is, O’Neill does not use the normal English, but he uses no English that can be seen in Anna Christie and Desire under the elms. I think this is some interesting part that makes me choose him. Moreover, O’Neill is known as a realism playwright. O’Neill used two styles of theater which are realism and expressionism. According to Unger, “in O’Neill’s works there are veritable summary of the modern theater’s aspiration and achievement as well as more or less inevitable limitations and failures”(Unger, 1972, p 385). His plays always reach down to frightening depths and steps on the social, religious, philosophical, and psychological toes (Cargill, 1961, p2). Therefore, his works are full of emotional qualities that touch and move the feeling of audiences and readers of his plays. Undoubtedly, O’Neill is considered as a dramatist of emotions (Berlin, 1982, pp 161-3). My third reason is O’Neill’s techniques. As a playwright, O’Neill has made American drama a serious endeavor. Before him, America’s theater is just dominated by a superficial realism. Yet, since O’Neill’s presence in the American Petra Christian University 3 theater, drama can be an art (Bogard, 1972, p xiv). Next to that, he is considered as America’s daring experimenter and opens up new possibilities of theater by introducing the important use of expressionism and realism in America. His techniques in using sound, light, gesture movement, and setting on the stage are highly imaginative and emotive (Berlin, 1982, p159). All of his theatrical innovations are admired by the audience and critics, and later many dramatists who follow his patterns. Those are O’Neill’s significant contributions to the history of American drama and proofs that O’Neill brings a change in American drama (Bogard, 1972, p xiii-v). Based on those facts O’Neill’s has given many great contributions to modern drama. Among O’Neill’s works I choose a four act play entitled Anna Christie. I choose Anna Christie because of the reason that, Anna Christie is a picture of human common life’s problem. “Anna Christie pitches sentimentalities against determinism partly a product of hostile environment and partly a consequence of willful self-destruction” (Bigsby, 1967, p 35). Such as prostitution, unhappy family, and self destruction. These issues are pretty closed to human life and form the reality in nowadays society. There are so many unhappy marriages in our society as much as prostitution. Beside those reasons, Anna Christie shows the emotion, and presents sympathetic characters. In addition, it is also considered as a straightforward, realistic play with symbolic overtone (Berlin, 1982, p 61 -63). In the sea-play like Anna Christie, O’Neill always portrays characters from the lower strata of the society. Although the language and the ideas of the characters are limited, the play does not lack emotional qualities (p 82). Anna Christie is different from other O’Neill’s plays since it is his only play that has a happy ending. Yet, the end of this play is regarded a controversial ending for O’Neill occupies double vision of life as suspended between love and despair (Falk, 1958, p 50). Those unique facts of Anna Christie arouse me to choose Anna Christie instead of O’Neill’s other plays. Anna Christie by Eugene O’Neill is about a girl named Anna Christie who loses her father’s love. He prefers being a sailor rather to stay with his family. He ran away because he tries to protect his daughter Anna Christie from the bad Petra Christian University 4 influence of the sea life. As a sailor, he tries to deny himself that he is a part of sea. Also, as the head of a family, he has run away from his responsibility. Based on this problem, Anna Christie is thirsty of Chris’s love and it influences her growing up. Being left by her father, Anna Christie lived with her uncle. Unfortunately, she was treated very badly by her uncle. She is suffering. She wants to get happiness. That is why she wants to search for happiness. Unlike to suffer any longer, Anna Christie went home in order to get happiness with her father. Unfortunately, her expectation of his father is not as high as she expected. She got disappointed. In fact, her father Chris is not as same as what she expects. Anna Christie never reveals that she used to be a prostitute. Unfulfilled in her expectation on Chris, Anna Christie keeps searching for happiness. I choose the female characters named Anna Christie in Anna Christie for my analysis because I notice that Anna has been suffering since she was child and even until she has grown up. She has not been taken care of by her father Chris Christoperon and also treated very badly by her uncle. I choose the topic searching for happiness of Anna Christie because I am interested in Anna’s feeling about her life, what are the causes behind Anna Christie for searching happiness and how she searches it. 1.2 Statement of the Problem I am interested in discussing why Anna Christie wants to search for happiness and how she searches for happiness in Eugene O’Neill’s Anna Christie 1.3 Purpose of the Study Moreover, the aim of my study is to reveal the causes why Anna Christie wants to search for happiness and the way she searches for happiness. 1.4 Significance of the Study Through this study I hope that the reader will achieve something useful for their daily lives in nowadays society. In this thesis I will discuss issues that have close relationship with daily life of unhappy families, prostitution, self destruction, etc. I encourage the students of literature to explore Eugene O’Neill’s Petra Christian University 5 plays more so that they have a better understanding of his plays and become more familiar with O’Neill’s plays.

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