Down the Nights and Down the Days

by Shaughnessy, Edward L.

• ISBN13: 9780268008956
• ISBN10: 0268008957
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-08-01
• Publisher: Univ of Notre Dame Pr

Summary

This latest book from veteran O'Neillian Edward L. Shaughnessy examines the influence of the Irish playwright's Catholic heritage on his moral imagination. Due to O'Neill's early renunciation of faith at age 15, critics have mostly overlooked this presence in his work. While Shaughnessy makes no attempt to reclaim him for Catholicism, he uncovers evidence that O'Neill retained the imprint of his Irish Catholic upbringing and acculturation in his work.

Shaughnessy discusses several key plays from the O'Neill canon, such as Long Day's Journey into Night, The Iceman Cometh, and Mourning Becomes Electra, as well as the lesser-known Ile and Days Without End.

Down the Nights and Down the Days: Eugene O'Neill's Catholic Sensibility is a compelling investigation into the psyche of one of the most brilliant, internationally honored playwrights of our time.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Prologue	1	(10)
Part One The Reluctant Apostate
The Lad, the Rebel, the Artist	11	(23)
The O'Neills: Cradle Catholics	11	(7)
Training and Education	18	(5)
Greenwich Village, Radicals, and the Provincetown Theatre	23	(4)
Dorothy Day	27	(7)
Catholic Memory, Classic Forms	34	(19)
Catholic Sensibility: A Brief Definition	34	(5)
O'Neill the Traditionalist	39	(4)
O'Neill and the Timeless Issues of Sin and Guilt	43	(7)
``What a modern tragedy would have to be''	50	(3)
Church Authority, Artistic Freedom, and the Search for God	53	(28)
A Note on the Climate of Opinion	53	(3)
O'Neill and the Catholic Press	56	(10)
``The Substitute-God Search'': Brief Remarks on Three Plays	66	(15)
The Great God Brown	67	(3)
Lazarus Laughed	70	(3)
Strange Interlude	73	(6)
Part Two Catholic Sensibility and Thematic Development
An Introductory Note	79	(2)
Plays: Early Period (1916-1923)	81	(14)
Ile	81	(2)
Beyond the Horizon	83	(4)
All God's Chillun Got Wings	87	(8)
Plays: Middle Period (1924-1933)	95	(32)
Desire Under the Elms	95	(6)
Mourning Becomes Electra	101	(15)
Ah, Wilderness!	116	(11)
The ``Catholic'' Play: Days Without End (1934)	127	(17)
Plays: Late Period (1939-1943)	144	(43)
The Iceman Cometh	144	(8)
Long Day's Journey into Night	152	(10)
A Touch of the Poet	162	(8)
More Stately Mansions	170	(9)
A Moon for the Misbegotten	179	(8)
Epilogue	187	(6)
Appendix The Immigrant Church Press and the Catholic Writer, 1920-1950	193	(6)
Notes	199	(22)
Index	221