The Disintegration of the Family in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and in Sam Shepard's Buried Child

Abstract

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)