Born in a hotel room in 1888 to the actor James O’Neill, and his wife Ella Quinlan, Eugene began his life immersed in a world that would go on to become the backdrop of his profession: the theater. Touring the country with his father’s stage company, the young O’Neill became exposed to the seamy underbelly of show business, specifically alcohol, before he was a teen. A bright student, O’Neill was later accepted into Princeton before dropping out after his first year to move from Connecticut to New York––where he spent most of his time drinking and carousing with his brother.

By 1910, he had married his first of three wives, Kathleen Jenkins, although the union was short-lived due to O’Neill’s penchant for traveling. While out on a solo trip to Latin America, wherein he caught malaria, O’Neill returned home to find Kathleen pregnant. Upon giving birth to a son, Eugene O’Neill, Jr., he––without seeing the boy––shipped off again. Kathleen filed for divorce soon after. It was after this return that O’Neill decided to be a playwright.

Over the next five years, O’Neill would write a series of mostly one-act plays, honing his craft as an observational writer by incorporating much of his own traveling experiences into titles like, Into the Zone(1917) and The Long Voyage Home (1917). In 1918, he married Agnes Boulton and the two would have children, Shane and Oona. Professionally, it wasn’t until 1920 that critics and audiences began to take note of O’Neill’s writing, with the publishing of Beyond the Horizon (1918)––which would win the first of four Pulitzer Prizes.

Following this, O’Neill experienced a period of prolific writing, many of these plays dealing with fractured families and general misfortunes. Such characters were fragile and nuanced––but ultimately resilient, including those featured in Anna Christie (1920), The Emperor Jones (1920), The Hairy Ape (1922), Desire Under the Elms (1924), and Strange Interlude (1928)––the former and latter of which won him his second and third Pulitzer.

Despite professional success, O’Neill’s world was crashing down, what with the death of his mother, father, and brother, plus the dissolution of his marriage upon taking up with actress Carlotta Monterey (who we would marry less than one month after divorcing Boulton) in 1929.

The next decade saw the publishing of some of Eugene O’Neill’s best work, including Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), Ah, Wilderness! (1933) and The Iceman Cometh (1939)––featuring further examples of contemplative characters struggling with tragedy. By this time, he had also all but abandoned his children.

In 1943, Eugene O’Neill became father-in-law to famed comedian and actor, Charlie Chaplin who married 18-year-old Oona (Chaplin was 54). Despite the mild controversy, their marriage produced 8 children (including actress Geraldine Chaplin) and lasted until Chaplin’s death in 1977.

Sadly, O’Neill’s final years were spent mostly estranged from his family, as well as from much of the literary community. His failing health, and by now reclusive nature, was a boon for creativity, however, he followed up by making a series of wild and erratic decisions––like, destroying many of his manuscripts (fearing that they would be altered after his death) and asserting that certain plays, like the autobiographical Long Day’s Journey Into Night, not be produced for the stage during his lifetime. Also, a severe Parkinsons-like tremor had developed in his hand, which all but prevented him from writing new material.

Eugene O’Neill died in his room at the Sheraton Hotel in Boston on November 27, 1953. Though varying causes of death have been released over the years, it wasn’t until 2000 that it was discovered he died from a rare form of brain deterioration.

His final words, allegedly, were: “I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room and died in a hotel room”.

Beyond the Horizon, 1918
A classic exploration of the bonds of loyalty, O’Neill’s Beyond the Horizon tells the story of brothers Andrew and Robert––the former, a steely and determined farmer destined to inherit the family stead; and the latter, a writer recently recovered from illness and set to sail the world with an uncle. Before Robert’s leave, he falls in love with Ruth, a girl-next-door type whom both families thought would marry Andrew. Given this newfound romance, Robert stays behind to be with Ruth and tend to the land while Andrew sets sail. However, years pass, and Andrew returns to find the farm desolate, their father dead, and Ruth a bitter shell of her former pristine self.

Anna Christie, 1920
Eugene O’Neill won his second Pulitzer Prize in two years, Anna Christie blends humor with melodrama in this explorative four-act play about the testing of familial bonds. Chris Christopherson is an old sailor who has spent his life at sea––much to the chagrin of his family, including his daughter, Anna, whom he hasn’t seen in years. Following the death of his wife, Chris sends Anna to live with relatives on a farm. After experiencing a lifetime of abuse at the hands of the men on the farm, Anna, now working as a prostitute, writes to her father in the hopes that she can come to New York and live with him until she gets herself back on her feet. Anna escapes the life she hates, only to find new challenges while grappling with her history of abandonment until a handsome sailor––just like her father––enters the picture.

Mourning Becomes Electra, 1931
One of Eugene O’Neill’s acclaimed masterpieces, Mourning Becomes Electra is a trilogy of tragic plays inspired by Aeschylus’ Oresteia trilogy––with a New England backdrop and an American Civil War timeline. The play follows the volatile Mannon family––Lavinia, who constantly fights with her mother, Christine, while waiting for the battlefield return of her father, General Ezra. All the while, as America attempts to return to a version of its former self, arrogance, hatred, and duplicity, along with dark secrets, threaten to fracture the Mannons to the point of murder. A study in psychological conflict, Mourning offers insight into family tragedy and its effect on the survivors.

The Iceman Cometh, 1939
Every night, the ramshackle saloon and rooming house owned by Harry Hope is teeming with a motley crew of New Yorkers from all walks of life, including two Boer War veterans, a once-wealthy gambler, and a former syndicalist anarchist. This ragtag team of drunken misfits has little in common other than the need for a stiff drink. It isn’t until a not-so-unexpected visit from their favorite, charming and newly sober traveling salesman, Theodore Hickman, that the members of this wily gang are forced to confront their habits and life choices and take a look at their sobering realities once and for all––while bearing the brunt of the consequences of such introspection.

Long Day’s Journey Into Night, 1941
Easily one of O’Neill’s most closely associated acts, not to mention one of the most lauded and studied plays in the history of American theater, Long Day’s Journey Into Night is a work so deeply personal (some say autobiographical) that the author himself insisted that it not be produced until twenty-five years after his death. Taking place over the course of a single day in the life of the tortured Tyrone family–– beginning in the morning, as the family gathers for breakfast, and concluding in the late evening––this four-act character study (James and Mary, along with their sons, Edmund and Jamie) is a daunting, yet seminal read for any fan of O’Neill.

Mary, subsumed by an addiction to morphine, watches helplessly as her family is overtaken by trauma––Edmund falls ill with consumption, while Jamie descends into a bitter, alcohol-fueled downfall––all the while James, a former successful actor, bemoans and dreams of the life he could have had. All of the Tyrones are haunted by their missteps and are eventually consumed by them.

A Moon for the Misbegotten, 1943
A Moon for the Misbegotten is the sequel to the events in Eugene O’Neill’s A Long Day’s Journey Into Night and centers around the elder Tyrone brother, Jamie Tyrone. Since he was last seen, Jim, as he is now known, is older and much more despondent, working as the landlord of the estate and spending most of his time drinking and socializing with his tenants. He is especially friendly with two renters: the hard-worn Irish ex-pat Phil Hogan and his domineering daughter, Josie, who has been secretly in love with Jim all the while. When Phil discovers that the stead is to be sold off, he concocts a plan for Josie to seduce a drunken Jim in an effort to thwart the sale. However, Jim, as Josie discovers, is haunted by the ghosts of his past, racked with misgivings and self-loathing torment, virtually incapable of love. A Moon for the Misbegotten is the story of a doomed man’s guilt and the woman who tries desperately to love him.

Eugene O’Neills Greatest Plays

Eugene O’Neill plays, many of which explored everyday Americans living through desperate conditions, Eugene O’Neill won 4 Pulitzer Prizes (a still unmatched record for a playwright) and he, himself, received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1936.

Eugene O’Neill Monologues

There can be no half way work when working on O’Neill and that is why it is important immerse yourself in his work as a young actor. In that spirit we have put together a list of Eugene O’Neill monologues for you to explore and work on.

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Few 20th-century playwrights capture the American spirit like Arthur Miller. Creator of several theatrical masterpieces, such as Death of a Salesman and The Crucible, Miller lived a life most can only dream of experiencing. Achievement, critical acclaim, high scrutiny before Congress, and the smoldering love of a Hollywood movie actress – Marilyn Monroe – each colored Miller’s writing legacy.

Over seven decades, Miller penned dozens of theatrical plays, radio plays, and screenplays. He also earned an Academy Award nomination in 1997 for an adaption of his work The Crucible, featuring Wynonna Ryder and Daniel Day-Lewis in starring roles. But it was Death of a Salesman, Miller’s preeminent masterpiece first performed in 1949, that won him the vaunted Pulitzer Prize, propelling him into something of a celebrity of his time. Miller’s marriage to Monroe was an indirect result of his acclaim as they met at a Hollywood party. Recalling to a friend, Monroe once said of meeting Miller, “it was like running into a tree. You know, like a cool drink when you’ve had a fever.” After making substantial contributions to American literature’s canon, Miller passed away at 89-years old, seeing his works performed on stage and on the big screen time and again.

From Boom to Bust – Early Life And Childhood

He was born on October 17, 1915, in Harlem; Miller’s early life and childhood centered around the modern-day Boroughs of New York City. Miller’s father was a Polish-Jew immigrant who, according to accounts from Miller’s memoir Time Bends: A Life published in 1987, couldn’t read, but that didn’t stop the elder Miller from amassing a sizable nest egg in the women’s clothing manufacturing business.

Unfortunately, the Miller family went broke during the stock market crash in 1929 that ushered in the Great Depression era. The family had no choice but to pull up roots and leave Manhattan for a more modest life in Brooklyn, where Miller finished his high school education and saved money to attend The University of Michigan. Critics point to this period of Miller’s early life and childhood as a possible source for the inspiration which birthed Death of a Salesman.

As a child, Arthur Miller witnessed the boom-to-bust cycle of the American dream firsthand in his father’s eyes. Coincidentally, the same theme of a lifetime wasted chasing a dead-end dream pervades works like Death of a Salesman and After The Fall.

Curtains up – The beginning of a Broadway writing career

At the University of Michigan, Miller studied under famed playwright Kenneth Rowe, who greatly influenced Miller’s desire to return to New York City and pursue a career making Broadway plays. Miller wrote his first full play while attending college and also writing for the school newspaper. No Villain earned the young Miller the Avery Hopwood Award, which likely cemented Miller’s identity as a writer worthy of high regard. Unfortunately, the first Broadway play Arthur Miller wrote flopped upon debut in 1944. The Man Who Had All The Luck only ran four performances before shuttering. Theater critics abhorred the work as inconsequential.

Interestingly, Miller’s next work was a novel named Focus, which he published in 1945 before trying his hand at Broadway theater once again.

All My Sons, Miller’s play that debuted in 1947, made up for The Man Who Had All The Luck mediocrity. The play earned Miller a Tony Award for the first time and had a year-long run, impressive for a new play.

Miller’s next work – his masterpiece Death of a Salesman – solidified his place in history.The play won Miller the Pulitzer Prize in addition to a slew of Tony Awards and a New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award. No other playwright of Miller’s era would earn such honors except for perhaps Tennessee Williams, a master storyteller in his own right.

Death of a Salesman – A brief synopsis

The plot to Death of a Salesman is equally as poignant today as in the wake of the Great Depression and World War II. Set in New York, the play protagonist is Willy Loman, an aging, mentally worn-down salesman. Loman has problems recalling past events so much that he also has issues recognizing the present. The play introduces Loman’s sons Biff and Happy, who have conflicts of the self, too. Miller’s play, transitioning from memory to memory, does a fantastic job showing the audience Loman’s tale, not merely telling it.

The play takes a dramatic turn when Loman asks his boss for a new job position and gets fired instead, which tumbles Loman further down a sad path of familial disgrace. Estranged from his sons and caught red-handed having an affair, Loman’s shame, as expertly suggested by Miller, ends in suicide. Such an emotionally powerful, poignant, and honest portrayal of a failing American family has yet to be surpassed in the annals of theater.

A Hollywood romance – Marriage to the infamous Marilyn Monroe

Like many writers of the time, Arthur Miller’s personal life became known as his professional life, his marriage to Marilyn Monroe being the prime example. The tale of their romance echoes throughout history as it began under unusual circumstances. Interestingly, the meeting of Miller and Monroe in 1951 resulted from the director of Death of a Salesman, Elia Kazan, asking Miller to accompany Monroe to a party. Miller’s idea was to “run interference,” to use a modern colloquialism, while Kazan romped about Hollywood with another actress.

According to accounts of their relationship, what started as a respectful friendship blossomed into a passionate love affair over a few years. Eventually, Miller chose to divorce his wife Mary Slattery, to marry Monroe barely a month after. Miller was reluctant to leave his wife, but he was very much in love with Monroe; in one letter, he told her, “I believe that I should really die if I ever lost you.” Their marriage, like the portrayal of the loss of the American dream in Death of a Salesman, fell into disrepair, and they were divorced five years later in 1961.

As a gift to his celebrity wife, Arthur Miller penned The Misfits, which became a film starring Monroe – the last she would complete before passing away from an accidental overdose of barbiturates.

Many still believe to this day that After The Fall, Miller’s next play is a thinly veiled portrayal of Miller’s rocky, tragic marriage and subsequent divorce to the ill-fated Hollywood actress.

Contempt of Congress – Scrutiny of the arts in the name of national security

Once After The Fall had its day, Arthur Miller wrote a new play with heavy allegorical undertones fused with the Salem Witch Trials account. The Crucible, debuting in 1953, earned Miller yet another Tony Award. Part social commentary, part tragic romance, The Crucible, remains controversial and evocative even in modern times. The play had such an impact that Representative McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee summoned Miller to reveal political undesirables’ names. In the name of national security, a sitting U.S. Representative grilled a playwright about his beliefs, whereabouts, and conversations with alleged communist sympathizers.

Miller received a charge for contempt of Congress as the result of his lack of cooperation and candor. Committee chairman McCarthy’s political demonizing showed its true colors.If a writer, a famed playwright, and ex-husband to Marilyn Monroe, could come under government scrutiny over a work of fiction, what would stop McCarthy from forming an American inquisition? To this day, historians and political scientists continue to debate the effects and follies of McCarthyism.

What is clear is Miller’s role in pushing back against intrusions on civil liberty in the name of stamping out an ideology. The House of Representatives rescinded Miller’s contempt of Congress charge two years later.

Sunset years – Respect, admiration, and family secrets

Arthur Miller would marry a third time to Inge Morath. The Austrian-born photographer had two children with Miller named Daniel and Rebecca. While many consider Miller a man of high class and character, Morath’s marriage gave evidence to the contrary. Their only son, Daniel, born with Down Syndrome, became a source of shame for Miller, who had the child institutionalized as soon as possible. Interestingly, Rebecca Miller would go on to marry actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Anecdotes report that Day-Lewis was instrumental in reuniting the elder Miller with his mentally challenged son.

In 2018, Rebecca released Arthur Miller: Writer, a documentary of the Miller family with a particular focus on her relationship with her late father. After Morath’s passing in 2002, Miller planned a fourth marriage to Agnes Barley – only 34-years old at the time of their engagement. But tragically, Miller passed away a few years later in 2005 on the 56th anniversary of Death of a Salesman’s initial run. Even today, the life and works of Arthur Miller have a special place in the canon of American literature.

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