Abstract

            Change is so omnipresent in our lives that it almost defeats depiction and investigation. This paper endeavors to appreciate how change and uncertainty associated with change poses an existential peril in American Drama. The paper will try to review and investigative the association between the change and existential dilemma in the plays of Eugene O’Neill with special reference to Long Day’s Journey into Night. The study aims to examine change from different perspectives: personal, social and psychosocial to demonstrate that the relationship between change and existential threat can be ascribed to change per se, as the same cannot be restricted or limited to a precise sphere. It will discuss the role of existential concerns in confrontation with the personal appearance of change and aging, and examine how the desire for resisting change as well as desperately craving for it permeates the play. The study will conclude that Eugene O’Neill play is an illustration of ordeals and suffering of mankind confronted with change and uncertainty, leaving him with no hope or illusion.