"Thirst" by Eugene O’ Neill: Symbolic Significance, Tragic Atmosphere, Hints and Foreboding

Introduction

Eugene O’ Neill is a writer who greatly values brevity in art. In his writings, therefore, he focuses on a small group of characters who have some shared interests. Though this tendency limits the plot as well as the activities of characters, it is ideal for bringing out some kind of hidden trust that O' Neill believes must emerge out of drama. In his one act play "Thirst" the three major characters- the Dancer, The Gentleman and The West Indian Mulatto- are involved with the strategy of survival amidst abject misery of vast ocean after ship wreak. What they do at the critical situation, how they respond to it, what is final route of rescue is of concern for readers, as well as critics. A web of interacted imagery is the technical excellence of "Thirst" by which the text becomes itself misted with more and more meaning.

 O, Neill thinks that the theme should be presentational, on ensemble emerging freely in colour, design, sonic setting and in, what is called, the choreographic acting. It is obviously an expressionistic view in order to penetrate the psychological and spiritual truth of the objective reality. The growing expressionist stance of his plays is process of amalgamation of symbolic and sluggishness inside of surface reality.

If "Beyond The Horizon" is a symbolic conflict between captivity and freedom, If "Anna Christie" bears witness to symbolic fog, "Thirst" can most miss the symbolic meaning under the photographic sort of naturalism. The vast expanse of sea, the scorching tropical sun, the circulations sharks, the colors of red and blood and above all the characters- carry a deeper symbolic meaning in this play.

The Vast Expanse of Sea & Shark

Eugene’s ability to reorganize external landscape in the light of reality or psycho-scape show itself more clearly than in this symbolic treatment of natural landscape. The glassy tropic sea and its vast stillness are void and horror some. Like the "Ancient Mariner" here is the sea for punishment, terror and to agility.  The fins of shark is seen the sea surface to add the gravity of the situation. The forces of Nature- sun, sea and shark-are equally open to all the characters on the life-raft. Regardless of their identity, they are now spectra thin owing to hunger and thirst. The symbolic significance of this sea and shark is related to death. While the sea is for vast loneliness the shark is for death and destination because ultimately they satisfy their thirst at the end of the play by devouring them all.

Symbol of Water

Added to Sea and Shark, the symbol of water plays a crucial role in creating a tragic atmosphere. Throughout the play, water is used as a metaphor for the three characters' inner turmoil and emotional thirst. The characters are all desperately seeking water to survive . As there is water water everywhere but not a drop of it to drink, something, whether it be love, acceptance, or redemption pops up in their emotional thirst.  We all know that  their unquenched thirst leads to their mistrust, madness and ultimate tragic downfall but 'hope of water' is the symbolic stance of our philosophical existence. .

There protagonists, the Dancer, The Gentleman and The West Indian Mulatto, are all driven to madness or emotional imbalance by their unfulfilled desires, their constant thirst for water. Their desperate attempts to quench their thirst highlight the futility of their search for fulfillment in a world that cannot provide it. So water or lack of it leads to a sense of hopelessness and despair that permeates the entire story.

Symbol of Colours

The most important visual motifs or images is of course the colours that constitute the terror and horror in the play. The red crimson colour and blood are the horror imagery in this play. The frantic sun has become a ball of fire. The sunlight with its scorching rays make sore in the eyes turning everything bloody. The sky, it seems, is dropping of blood which metaphorically hunts at murder or death. It is engulfing situation when the cruel and carnivorous sharks engulf them the sea becomes red and bloody. The blood image strikes terror in their heart and lead them more on the fit of madness. The significant colour, the glittering necklace on the raft ironically hints at the insignificance of material object amid abject tragedy of human being.

The Characters as Symbol

All the characters in the play are guided by personal obsessions that term their lives into channels of self- righteous imagination and bring about their destruction. In fact, the characters in this play have no names- they ace symbolic abstractions. They are in utter psychic trauma. They have become physically crippled, psychologically crunched anal imaginatively invaded. In the board perspective, they represent the modern man floating in the nothingness of the society, wailing purposelessly for the naught. We are Dancers in the love of our finery and beauty, the Gentleman in our sober attitude to society and obviously the West Indian Mulatto under our saddest thoughts or in our animal instincts. As after the pomp of finery is over , every human being turns savage. Thus, the play can be read as a symbolic reality of ours.

A Vivid Waiting & Silence

 Language is not the only thing O’ Neill relies on for effective theatre. Gestures, dances, songs along with waiting and silence are important elements that he incorporates into his plays. These elements form important means of arousing the emotions proper to tragedy, pity and fear. The subject of grave ‘thirst’, poignant in its self, is enhanced by the motif of watching and waiting; a strenuous poise recording a variety of feelings. All the characters in O Neill’s play "Thirst" are waiting amidst vast ocean in expectation of water, island or rescue term. Alike in Beckett’s "Waiting for Godot" here too ‘nothing happens’, ‘nobody comes’. Like Estragon and Vladimir, the Dancer, the West Indian Mulatto and the Gentleman are waiting for something to arrive which never comes. The play is one of monotonous sameness and this perpetual recurrence. Waiting and silence are like an unbroken circle until the end of their life. Here we can quote a few speeches: "Oh this silence; I cannot bear this silence." Again, ‘My god, this is horrible. To wait and wait for something that never comes’ etc.

Conclusion

‘A drama should heighten life, should give one an illuminating experience; it shouldn’t set out what you already know’ says Patrick white. It is true for O Neill’s drama "Thirst" as it captures an experience of life in extreme situation reaching deep rooted psychological realism.   

Ardhendu De

Ref: 

1. History of English Literature by EDWARD ALBERT; Revised by J. A. STONE Fifth Edition OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

 2. The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature

 3. Dowling, R. M. (2007, January 1). On Eugene O’Neill’s “Philosophical Anarchism.” The Eugene O’Neill Review, 29(1), 50–72. https://doi.org/10.2307/29784831

4. Review: A History of English Literature * Alexander Michael: A History of English Literature. (2002, July 1). Forum for Modern Language Studies, 38(3), 352–352. https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/38.3.352