O’Neill’s drama just like Shepard’s Buried Child portray family history as inescapable. These plays depict the family less as a refuge than a trap, therefore as a rather paradoxical union. The reason for the family’s being an entrapping force can be found in the characters’ corrupted relationships that are actually the results of deep-seated psychological wounds. The majority of these wounds are caused by the characters’ failure to fulfill certain conventional gender roles that are forced by the patriarchal society. (Introduction)