In Beyond the Horizon, Robert proposes to take Ruth along on his three-year voyage. Additionally, Captain Dick Scott worries that his crew will assume Robert's vacant cabin was meant for a lover who abandoned him. Historically, women have played various roles in naval history, including wives and mistresses. They also served as nurses and, in some instances, disguised themselves as male sailors. In his book Women Sailors and Sailors’ Women: An Untold Maritime History (2001), renowned nautical historian David Cordingly delves into the extensive history of women at sea, focusing primarily on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

In the play, life on the Mayo farm becomes a confinement for Robert and Ruth. However, Michael Dregni's nostalgic collection This Old Farm: A Treasury of Family Farm Memories (1999) illustrates that family life on farms in the United States and Canada was enjoyable for many. The compilation includes essays, fiction, photography, and artwork that detail various aspects of farm life, featuring everything from a radio monologue by renowned commentator Garrison Keillor to a discussion on tractor repair.

Arthur Miller’s classic play Death of a Salesman (1949) tells the story of Willy Loman, a salesman who dreams of success. By examining a single day in Loman’s life, Miller exposes the American dream that many people pursue and the tragedy that can ensue when this dream is unattainable.

O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh, first published in 1946, is often regarded as his finest play. The narrative, which draws heavily from the tragedies in O’Neill’s own life, depicts life in a skid row saloon in 1912. Here, society’s outcasts—including drifters, prostitutes, and con artists—drown their sorrows in alcohol and talk about the successes they hope to achieve. Their lives are brightened by the annual visit of Hickey, a salesman who usually brings joy. However, this year, Hickey is a changed man who tries to persuade the bar patrons to abandon their unrealistic dreams and take control of their lives.

O’Neill’s Pulitzer Prize–winning autobiographical play, Long Day’s Journey into Night, was written in 1940. The playwright was so concerned about the stark portrayals of his dysfunctional family that he initially intended for it to be published twenty-five years after his death. Nevertheless, since the O’Neill family members depicted in the play had already passed away, O’Neill’s widow authorized its publication in 1956. This intense play portrays a single day in the life of the Tyrone family. The youngest son, Edmond, suffers from tuberculosis and resents his father. The mother is addicted to drugs, and the older son is an alcoholic.

Prior to penning Beyond the Horizon, which solely mentions the sea, O'Neill crafted several one-act plays set aboard a steamship. The Long Voyage Home and Other Plays, published in 1995, includes four of these works: the titular play, first released in 1917; Bound East for Cardiff (1916); The Moon of the Caribbees (1918); and In the Zone (1919).

O'Neill wrote letters to many individuals in his life, but none are more revealing than those addressed to his second wife, Agnes Boulton. In A Wind Is Rising: The Correspondence of Agnes Boulton and Eugene O’Neill (2000), editor William Davies King compiles these letters, offering insight into O'Neill’s personal perspective on living in the public eye. The book also provides a brief overview of the lives of Boulton and O'Neill.

Tennessee Williams’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), explores the relationships among Blanche DuBois, her sister Stella Kowalski, and Stella’s husband Stanley. When Blanche, an aging southern belle, moves in with the Kowalskis, her romanticized dream world collides with Stanley’s harsh realism, threatening to unravel her.