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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A brilliantly emotional tragedy,
This review is from: Beyond the Horizon (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)
Beyond the Horizon was O'Neill's first major full-length play and its release is considered a significant turning point in the history of American theater. Its main characters are two twentysomething brothers, Rob and Andy, who have both spent their lives on the family farm and have quite opposite dispositions: Andy is excruciatingly practical and hopes for little more in life than to take over the farm and make it successful; whereas Rob is something of a bookish dreamer who hopes to see what life is like "beyond the horizon." He gets this opportunity when his uncle invites him to come along on a three year trip to South America and Asia, but the night before their departure, a woman with whom both Rob and Andy are in love professes her love for Rob, causing Rob to stay behind to marry her while Andy, unable to bear the idea of living alongside the new couple, takes Rob's place on the trip. The bulk of the play deals with the long-term consequences of this one night in which the brothers ignored their callings in life. As is often the case in O'Neill's plays, the premise is fairly simple and unoriginal and the development of the plot is relatively predictable, but the intensity with which the characters are developed is excellent and truly memorable. We see in Rob the same sort of futile hope that O'Neill would develop so well some years later in The Iceman Cometh, and the despair of the other characters is quite moving. At times, the pathos in the play can almost be over-the-top (and I imagine that in live performances this might be something that the actors have to be all the more careful to avoid), but O'Neill manages to avoid going into the realm of melodrama and create very real, touching characters. O'Neill would, of course, go on to write many other deeply emotional plays, a number of which are still better known than this one. Beyond the Horizon shows us many of the talents for which O'Neill is now universally recognized, and the almost-universal acclaim that it received upon its 1920 premiere seems equally apt today.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Melodrama and bathos swamp several otherwise powerful scenes,
By
This review is from: Beyond the Horizon (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)
The first O'Neill play performed on Broadway (in 1920), "Beyond the Horizon" is actually the fifth full-length drama in O'Neill's career as a playwright. ("Bread and Butter,""Servitude," "The Personal Equation," and "Now I Ask You" all were completed before 1916, although none of them were performed during O'Neill's lifetime.)
A commercial success and winner of a Pulitzer Prize (the first of four for O'Neill), "Beyond the Horizon" is somewhat jarring to the modern ear in both theatric arrangement and thematic development; it shows a still-green O'Neill struggling to convey his characters' emotional depth and psychological torments in the not-quite-convincing framework of a melodramatic plot. The problems start in the very first act, when Robert Mayo, a youth inclined to poetry and a life of idleness, is preparing to leave for an apprenticeship at sea with his uncle. In the matter of a few pages, Robert confesses his love for his brother Andrew's childhood sweetheart, Ruth; he casts aside the plans for his voyage and decides to live as a farmer--an occupation he despises; the love-struck couple agree to be married forthwith; and Andrew, in bitterness, assumes Robert's position on the ship and leaves the very next morning for a journey of several years. All in a evening's work. This abbreviated soap opera suffers from a lack of any attempt at dramatic preparation or character development; Ruth, in particular, pretty much walks onto the stage and ecstatically accepts Robert's out-of-the-blue marriage proposal. As O'Neill was to learn later in his career, it takes a much longer play to set up this sort of scenario. Fortunately, the rest of the play is much better; it focuses on the deterioration of Robert and Ruth's hasty marriage, with Ruth regretting her decision and pining for Andrew's infrequent visits. In these two acts, O'Neill avoids impulsive, life-changing choices and more effectively shows slice-of-life scenes: Ruth's fights with her mother and her indolent husband, Andrew's exultant although brief return, the near-bankruptcy of the farm, and Robert's declining health. Although the play closes with a sentimentality bordering on bathos, these two acts herald the first triumph of one of America's great dramatists.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extremely thought provoking,
By A Customer
This review is from: Beyond the Horizon (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)
Beyond the Horizon is the story of 2 very close brothers, Robert and Andrew, who choose opposite paths in life. Each unfortunately, chooses a path better suited for the other. The deeper meaning in this play is what happens to a man's soul when he doesn't follow his dreams.
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