O'Neill's Marco Millions: A Road To Xanadu

Abstract

IT IS A COMMONPLACE OF O'Neill criticism that the areas of action within his plays are neatly coincident with his own moral universe that as an obsessed dramatist, his entire canon is a search for meanings in a world he finds sterile and corrupt. Certainly the complexity of O'Neill's obsessions and their relationship to his well-known psychological difficulties are the sources of his unique virtues and defects as an artist; the author's psychological state is the catalyst bringing together artistry and idea, linking each play to his own core concern. His conclusions are thus often far less interesting than the various means he uses to analyze his material.