著者
山内 邦臣
出版者
一般財団法人 日本英文学会
雑誌
英文学研究 (ISSN:00393649)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.42, no.2, pp.223-233, 1966

The Iceman Cometh, as "part of an interlocking series of plays"...A Moon for the Misbegotten, A Touch of the Poet and Long Day's Journey into Night...was written in 1939 during a period of depression and anxiety for O'Neill which he attributed to the impending war, his family troubles, his own weakening health and also to his dissatisfaction with, and finally destroying the first two of long cycle-plays, his would-be monumental works. Seeing the end of his own life approaching, he became immersed in his own past...the years of 1911 and 1912, those of destitution, hopelessness and death longing. His early identification with the pipe-dreamers at Jimmy the Priests, a dilapidated flophouse-saloon on the New York waterfront, was now transmuted into an expression of "hopeless hope", "existential dilemma"... his obsessed life-and-death philosophy. The Iceman Cometh, as Mr. and Mrs. Gelb have said, having "subsurfaces and sub-subsurfaces" and being "the most intricately and symbolically coded of all O'Neill's plays", "has been lengthily analyzed in print from psychiatric, religious and metaphysical viewpoints," "and may ultimately accumulate as large a body of scholarly discourse as Hamlet" The play, if not his greatest masterpiece, but surely one of his most labored works, might be said to give interesting problems but also be tantalizing and even too difficult to grasp what the author wished to signify. The aim of this paper is merely to concentrate, through drawing the contour and conveying the flavor of the play, rather upon pointing out the controversial points than upon elucidating or solving them. As is exemplified by H. Muchnic's Circe's Swine: Plays by Gorky and O'Neill, we might meet with interesting problems in the comparative study of Gorky's The Lower Depth and O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, both of which are very much alike, not only in setting, plot and structure, but in aesthetic conception, which still have the essential difference ; the former based on a respect for humanity and the latter on a hopeless understanding of them; the former laying a stress on an intellectual grasp of values, the materialist doctrine of self-reliant, practical action, the latter putting an emphasis on the paradoxes of existence, a prophecy of doom, the Christian ideal of humility and inactive faith. We also might find the similar cases in the comparative study of O'Neill's play on one side and Arthur Miller's The Death of a Salesman, Elmer Rice's Street Scene or Sidney Kingsley's Dead End on the other. The poetic and mystical features, essential to O'Neill, could be traced in pursuing what is meant and symbolized by 'The Iceman' of the title, the symbolization or meaning of the title 'The Iceman Cometh' giving us another fundamental problem. According to what Prof. Cyrus Day, after developing a fascinating interpretation of the religious symbolism in The Iceman Cometh, has pointed out in his Modern Drama, we might find "several tantalizing resemblances" between the play and the New Testament, which will give us another tempting but significant problem. These above-mentioned problems, together with the ones we might be given in analyzing the dramaturgy of the play, await us to be made clear.
著者
乾 亮一
出版者
一般財団法人 日本英文学会
雑誌
英文学研究 (ISSN:00393649)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.26, no.2, pp.261-276, 1949

(i) The grammatical terms, in some cases, have different names, and where things are not called by their right names, some difficulties or ambiguities cannot be avoided. The so-called 'Cognate Object' is one of them. In the first place, the true function or functions of the Cognate object must be made clear. Laying undue stress on the name of Cognate object (and accordingly on its governing verb), grammarians, one and all, are accustomed to explain that noun as one which 'repeats the meaning of the verb' (H. Sweet), 'repeats the meaning of the verb ..., states the result or effect of activity' (H. Poutsma), 'repeats and explains more fully the idea experssed by the verb' (G. O. Curme), or as one which falls under the head of 'a subdivision under the object of result' (O. Jespersen), etc. These grammatical definitions, however, cannot afford even to serve the lexical exposition that it is 'used adverbially' (P.O.D., C.O.D., N.E.D.). Some examples in OE and in early Mod. E do show us that the Cognate object was not always in the accusative case, but sometimes in the instrumental, and sometimes in the dative. Taking this historical fact into consideration, the adverbial function of the object may be considered of original or inherent nature, which cannot be disregarded at the present time when the case forms of nouns have been levelled. But the function in question, I should think, leaves something essential yet to be clarified. How should the following examples be expounded 'resultantly or effectually' or 'adverbially'?-'Mr. Stoyte smiled to himself, a smile of triumphant self-satisfaction' (A. Huxley) | He smiled at Ed, the strange, wondering smile, again' (J. Steinbeck). Cf. He stood there and waited, suspended' (D. H. Lawrence) | 'He had stepped out of his own shadow, a live quivering creature' (J. Galsworthy). In the Cognate expression, I would venture to assert, the verb, being subservient to the object noun, is in reality a kind of 'Form-word' (or 'Empty-word'), adding nothing significant to the noun in which something characteristic of the 'Predicative' is predominant. Cf. 'She didn't die dead (J. Steinbeck) | Where the blackbird sings the latest, Where the hawthorn blooms the sweetest, ... (J. Hogg). (ii) In the second place, the question naturally arises why this cognate has come into more and more frequent use? To this query, so far as my conjecture is concerned, five points of answer may be given mainly from syntaco-stylistic points of view. (iii) Thirdly, the endeavour is made to show how this syntactic idiom has been influencing on the Japanese language. There were, or have been in that language a native expression identical with the. Cognate which, curiously enough, have no designation whatever in Japanese grammar. The difference of its usage between the two languages is this :-In English, as a general rule, the 'Full (or Modified) object' prevails, while in Japanese the 'Inane (or unmodified) object' is indigenous. The 'Full (or modified) object', being on the increase in Japanese, can be said to be a sort of translation loan-phrase from English (and other Western languages). This foreign influence, however, has not yet found its way in the colloquial or conversational Japanese. Another noteworthy difference is that a similar expression native to our mother tongue can we find in such stereotyped phrases as 'owarai ni warau' (=laugh a hearty laugh), 'otokonaki ni naku' (=weep manly tears), 'hitonemuri ni nemuru' (=sleep an undisturbed sleep), etc., which seems to be equivalent to OE Cognate object in the instrumental or in the dative.
著者
早乙女 忠
出版者
一般財団法人 日本英文学会
雑誌
英文学研究 (ISSN:00393649)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.47, no.1, pp.29-39, 1970

In Shakespeare's sonnet 146, the poet, using the conventional means of distinguishing between soul and body, addresses his "poore soule" and tries to wake it up ("Then soule live thou upon thy servants losse .../Within be fed, without be rich no more"). We may say that this sonnet arises from the 'story' behind The Sonnets, even though it seems to have no direct relationship with it. For some reason he has to say, "Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth/Painting thy outward walls so costlie gay?" (Italics mine) These lines are adapted from the Biblical passage in Matthew 23:27, (according to The Bishops' Bible)" Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites, for yee are like unto painted (AV whited) sepulchres, which indeed appeare beautiful outward, but are within ful of dead mens bones, and of all filthinesse (AV uncleanness)." Shakespeare blames his soul emphatically by introducing Christ's denunciation of hypocrisy in his verse. Although sonnet 146 consists in the process of such self-criticism and tragically determined resolution, it is free from any curse upon the body which is found in sonnet 129. The first two quatrains consist of four interrogative sentences and each sentence is shortened one by one (the first is four lines long, the second two, the third one and a half, and the fourth half). At first the poet reasons fully and lastly asks a pointblank question somewhat ironically. The third quatrain is in the imperative mood. Its style is plain, forthright and proverbial and forms an antithesis like "Within be fed, without be rich no more." And Shakespeare concludes the poetic doctrine of 'salvation without the Saviour' by remarking in the last couplet "So shalt thou feed on death, that feeds on men,/And death once dead, ther's no more dying then." Sir Walter Ralegh's "The Lie" is another example of the poetry of resolution based on the Platonic principle. The determination and self-persuastion in the first and last stanzas make the cynical and radical cry of the main part of this poem sound pathetic and real. Moreover, "Grow rich in that which never taketh rust:/What ever fades, but fading pleasure brings," the third and fourth lines of Sir Philip Sidney's Plantonic poem, beginning with "Leave me o Love," are also the expression of the poet who determines to live afresh. (We may point to the verbal similarity between Sidney's poem and Shakespeare's sonnet 146.) Fulke Greville and John Donne write extraordinary poems of determination based on Christian-Platonic doctrine. The poetic elevation generated by the Neoplatonic idea in Milton's early peoms is seen in one of his great epic. Compare "the deep trnsported mind may soare/Above the wheeling poles, and at Heav'ns dore/Look in ...' in "At a Vacation Exercise in the College" with "my adventrous Song,/That with no middle flight intends to soar/Above th' Aonian Mount ..." in Paradise Lost. The latter shows his literary ambition-the writing of the Christianized epic-and is, as is shown, based on the youthful passion for Platonism apparent in the former. A common theme of the antithesis between soul and body was, in short, brought to life by the poetic structure of determination. On the other hand, by Milton and even a poet like Marvell the same poetry of aspiration was written with their variation.
著者
後藤 武士
出版者
一般財団法人 日本英文学会
雑誌
英文学研究 (ISSN:00393649)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.26, no.2, pp.185-220, 1949

<p>All the books that come between Liza of Lambeth and The Moon and Sixpence are regarded in this essay as so many records of Mr. Maugham's long pilgrimage to find himself. Among them Mrs. Craddock and Of Human Bondage are especially important for the study of his later works. There are two minor characters worthy of note in Mrs. Craddock. The one is Miss Ley, whose attitude towards life is a shrug of the shoulders, and whose temperate philosophy of "live and let live" is also entirely that of the author. The other is Dr. Ramsay, whose position in this novel is the very one which Mr. Maugham later steps into to write in the first person. For all its defects as a novel, the attractive sincerity of the author makes Of Human Bondage a highly original book. Seeing that his own philosophy of life as outlined in The Summing Up about twenty years later is practically that of Philip almost unmodified, I felt justified in accepting the hero's spiritual adventure which ends in a triumphant nihilism or refined agonsticism as the foundation of the author's compassion and tolerance, the keynotes of his later works. Of Human Bondage, however, is, like Liza of Lambeth, an isolated attempt which has no successor. In The Moon and Sixpence we see the emergence of Somerset Maugham, the mature writer who has found his material and his style. His outlook on life has acquired new freedom and composure. Moreover, he adopted a new technique of writing in the first person singular. This may be but a variety of the autobiographical form suggested by the method of Henry James, but it is a technique so perfectly in keeping with his disposition that it makes us feel the more that he has at last found himself. In spite of the author's disapproval of the technique of "the stream of consciousness," the psychoanalytical view is found reflected in the treatment of Strickland's art and in the author's own reference to the psychology of the writer in creating scoundrels. Cakes and Ale and The Razor's Edge are direct successors to this novel. Importance is attached to those written in the first person as works most characteristic of Mr. Maugham and more detailed comments are given to them than to the rest. The importance of The Painted Veil, otherwise a negligible book, lies in the fact that it is the first instance of Mr. Maugham taking up the theme of the reality of the spirit. In Cakes and Ale the art of Mr. Maugham is revealed in full maturity. It is indeed the work of a man who knows his own limitations. Rosie is most typical of his excellent characterizations. The Narrow Corner reflects a conflict in the author-a conflict between the self that has accepted the actualities of human life as they are and another self that now begins to suspect the existence of the spirit that the former has tried to believe non-existent. Those who were disappointed by Theatre, Up at the Villa, and Christmas Holiday must have been pleased to find a worthy successor to Cakes and Ale in The Razor's Edge. From every point of view it shows the culmination of Mr. Maugham's novels written in the first person. Its central theme makes one suspect the presence, in the author's heart, of a craving for God and immortality which his reason has forced back to the deep recesses of the subconsciousness. Both of the two latest works Then and Now and Catalina are to be regarded as the products of Mr. Maugham's belief that the novelist should turn to the historical novel towards the end of his career, a lesson the author learned from the failure of his second book. Mr. Maugham has rightly complained that the critics have, using the word in a slightly depreciatory sense, called him "competent." But it can not be denied that what we feel after we have read some of his novels is not unqualified admiration. For all the merits they have, they always leave for (at</p><p>(View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)</p>
著者
小田島 雄志
出版者
一般財団法人 日本英文学会
雑誌
英文学研究 (ISSN:00393649)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.42, no.1, pp.55-64, 1965

In the whole history of English drama, there has never been an age so closely allied to the Elizabethan plays as the contemporary theatre. A number of ways may lead us to prove it, but I will choose only one way out of them ; I will look into the view of human condition revealed in the works of contemporary playwrights, and try to find out some elements in common with Elizabethans'. Among many promising dramatists of today, I am going to pick out three : John Osborne, the first runner of so-called 'New Drama' ; John Arden, the representative of the Brechtian school ; Harold Pinter, the champion of the Theatre of the Absurd. When Osborne's Look Back in Anger was first performed, K. Tynan observed of its hero : "Jimmy Porter is the completest young pup in our literature since Hamlet, Prince of Denmark". It seems to me of much importance that Hamlet was named in order to make Jimmy's position clear. The most fascinating enigma with Hamlet is the surprisingly conspicuous lack of connection between Hamlet the thinker and Hamlet the doer. And the most interesting problem with Jimmy is the divergence between his outward heroic gestures and shouts of anger and his inward neurotic consciousness of disgusting self. The same thing can be said with Martin in Luther and Bill in Inadmissible Evidence. Osborne's intention must be in presenting human beings as they are, not always consistent with their real selves, but always sincere in their meditation and action, like Hamlet the typical Elizabethan. Arden's attitude towards human condition is most distinctly shown in its objectivity. For example, Live Like Pigs apparently aims at making an attack on the Welfare State, but the Sawneys, the attackers, are not freed from the dramatist's critical eye, either. Serjeant Musgrave's Dance deals with pacifism, it is true, but its pacifism is too rigorously, almost too grotesquely expressed at its crisis to gain the complete sympathy of audience. And how to solve the questions he offers is left entirely in audience's hands. Such an objective eye bears a striking resemblance to, say, Jonson's. Pinter's case is more subtle and complicated. In him, there is a coherent symbol, 'the room'. In The Room, The Dumb Waiter, The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, 'the room' is the protagonist. Every character in 'the room' is Everyman, and consequently 'the room' becomes the world, the stage the macrocosm. Each character also stands for some consciousness within the human mind, and consequently 'the room' comes to be transformed into human mind itself, the stage into microcosm. And in this macro-microcosm, human drama can be at once tragedy and comedy. This is the world of Pinter, directly connected with that of the Elizabethans.