The Great God Brown (Masterplots II: Drama, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Eugene O’Neill
- First Published: 1926
- Type of Plot: Expressionist
- Time of Work: The early 1920’s
- Setting: The East Coast of the United States
- Principal Characters: William “Billy” A. Brown, Dion Anthony, Margaret, Cybel
- Genres: Drama, Expressionist literature
- Subjects: United States or Americans, Art or artists, Dreams, 1920’s, Reality, Creative process, Imagination, Ethics, Masks, Mortality, Architecture or architects
- Locales: East (U.S.)
The Play
The prologue to The Great God Brown takes place outside a high school during the annual commencement dance. Billy Brown’s father, partner in a construction firm with Dion Anthony’s father, anticipates that Billy will study architecture in college. Dion, wearing the mask of a reckless, sensual young man, is secretly extremely sensitive and anxious to create a self of his own unlike that of his stolid father. Margaret, adored by Billy, rejects him and is attracted instead to Dion’s mask; when Dion takes it off, however, hoping to be loved for his essential...
[The entire page is 2306 words long]
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