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In this paper an attempt will be made to demonstrate correlations between certain manifestations in O'Neill's works and specific features in his personal life. Two plays will be used: Desire Under the Elms and Long Day's Journey Into Night. The former reveals unconscious autobiographical experiences that resemble in content and structure the conscious autobiographical material of the latter play. The implications of both modes of expression and content—conscious and unconscious—will be discussed in so far as they are related to variations in the status and quality of O'Neill's creativity in these different periods of his life. The specific features of O'Neill's oedipal conflict as reflected in his life, his choice of profession and his writings will be examined.
It is quite unique for a true dramatist to use the material of his conscious biography in an 'unaltered' form for the purpose of writing a play. It becomes more valuable than unique, to those of us who are interested in studying the nature of artistic creative imagination from the psychoanalytic viewpoint. In such studies, inconclusive as they may be, it is inherently essential that biographical material should be completely explored and that its significant and relevant aspects utilized and correlated along with the creations themselves.