A Strange Antiwar Play : The Fight of Feminine Theology against the Masculine Hero Myth in Eugene O\u27Neill\u27s Strange Interlude

The story of Eugene O\u27Neill\u27s Strange Interlude starts with the death of Gordon Shaw in a plane crash in the First World War. A former college athletic star and ace pilot in the war, Gordon becomes a mythical hero after death, having a great impact on other characters\u27 lives. The problem is that Gordon\u27s myth is transformed into a one-sided glorification of masculine power to win battles and competitions, for the myth as such is easily exploited for military purposes. According to historian Howard Zinn, the United States joined the war, at least in part, to protect their economic elites\u27 profits in Wall Street. Given that social position is ultimately where power resides, as Carla J. McDonough argues, there is no denying that Gordon is in fact merely a shot for the ruling capitalist class, whatever a legendary hero he posthumously becomes. Known to be a self-acknowledged philosophical anarchist weary of war and distrustful of the ruling class, O\u27Neill certainly had this idea about the dead hero.But Strange Interlude is far from a simple antiwar play with a straightforward message for peace. In a typical war-related storyline in which a fallen soldier keeps residing in people\u27s memories, O\u27Neill depicts his former lover Nina\u27s struggle to become a mother in her self-realization. It is important for her to be a mother, both literally and symbolically, as losing her lover in the war has made her firmly believe in a feminine worldview based on the Mother God as the ultimate principle of life\u27s becoming and growing. Recalling an ancient matriarchal culture worshiping the Mother Earth, her perspective is ultimately pacifist-like in that it places the greatest significance on the natural cycle of life, and therefore throws into relief a patriarchal American culture in which aggressive masculine heroes are produced