『地平の彼方』におけるアイロニーの構造 : 「取り替え」のモチーフ(岸英司名誉教授追悼記念号)

概要

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Eugene O' Neill's Beyond the Horizon (1920) has a dominant motif of replacing which runs throughout the play. The play itself is actually more ironic than tragic. That is because the ironic realization of humanity is caused by the unnatural replacing of what one should be with what he or she cannot be. The hero, Robert Mayo and his older brother Andrew exchange their original positions because of Ruth Atkins, their childhood friend. As a result, Robert replaces his long-cherished dream to go and see things beyond the horizon with his marriage to Ruth. Unable to stay on the farm and watch Robert and Ruth living together, Andrew goes beyond the horizon instead of Robert. As a result, Robert is obliged to do farming which is not his nature while Andrew becomes a sailor. Robert ruins the farm and Andrew goes into bankruptcy. Both of them ironically realize that they made the wrong choice. In this brief paper, the motif of exchanging or replacing in Beyond the Horizon is examined in light of Robert and Andrew's ironic process of replacing.