English Paper

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Jay Yates

Mrs. Kortman

English III

19 May 2010

Eugene O’Neill, the second of two children, was born on October 16, 1888, to James and Ellen O’Neill in a hotel at Broadway and Forty-Third Street in New York City. His family was Irish Catholic, and his dad was a famous romantic actor until World War I. Ellen was a beautiful and talented artist who was inconvenienced by the birth of her second child, Eugene. He was raised by his Cornish nanny, so he was very isolated from his family. O’Neill’s first seven years were spent with her while his family traveled on trains following his father’s career as an actor in “The Count of the Monte Christo.” His mother was addicted to morphine, sometimes blamed on the families’ constant travels and sometimes blamed on O’Neill’s birth, which lead to an attempted suicide in 1902. His mother’s morphine addiction lead to emotional scares, especially when he thought that his own birth may have contributed to her addiction. (www.essaymania.com)

O’Neill’s family did maintain their family home overlooking the Thames River in New London, Connecticut where he spent his summers. Needing an education, O’Neill was enrolled at St. Aloysius Academy, a boarding school for boys, in 1895 at age seven. In 1900, he transferred to De La Salle Institute in Manhattan to study which began many of his ten school changes. His mom’s addiction worsened and he began to renounce

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Catholicism, so he transferred to Betts Academy in Stamford for six years which provided a non-sectarian preparatory education. O’Neill briefly attended Princeton University in 1906, where he frequented bar rooms and brothels instead of going to class and was expelled after one year. (www.eoneill.com)

In 1909, O’Neill went to prospect for gold in Honduras but contracted malaria, a tropical fever and had to return home. After his recovery, he held many positions including cattle steamer, sailor, dock worker, stage manager, tramp, actor,...