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tion and hischoice of Gothic style. August Bebel once said: “I must admit, to myself at least, the impression and experiences of childhood frequently controlled me like this. I foughtagainst them laboriously but I never got rid of them” (Bebel, 1965: 2), thus if we wantto study one’s mind, we must know something about his experiences, especially theexperiences of childhood and adolescence.O’Neill has a tragic family: his father is stingy and busy performing The Countof Monte Cristo, having no time to tend to him; his mother addicts herself to drugsbecause of great spiritual pain; his brother is a severe alcoholic, all of which havedeep psychological impact on O’Neill, thus he rarely feels happy or enjoys thewarmth of home; too much misery and pain accelerates the formation of hismelancholy character. In his early years, what leave in his mind are a series oftransient performance, endless waiting on the backstage, sitting in the filthy dressingroom, taking the stifling trains, or living in a seedy hotel. Such an unhappy childhoodwould surely leave O’Neill deep psychological trauma. What’s worse, in the 1920s,loss of his family members devastated him a lot. In 1920, his father died of intestinalcancer; in 1922, his mother died of constant stroke; in 1923, his brother Jamie died ofheavy drinking. The distress of loss of relatives badly upset him, and he could hardlyovercome this psychological trauma, which led to his abnormal emotional responsesand his sensitivity to outside world, even his deviant judgement and recognition ofthings. To some degree, Gothic tradition fits into his mind state, which pushes him tochoose this kind of creation skill. Stuck in the state of deep contradiction andsuppression, O’Neill extremely needs a way to vent and release his frustration,therefore, he applies Gothic techniques in his Strange Interlude. Apparently, Gothicstyle is absurd and irrational, but actually it is a good way to dig into and analyze thementality of characters, to reflect conflicts and contraction, to reveal the outrageousevil, death and darkness, to present his feelings to readers directly, to trigger their fearand uneasiness, and most importantly, to ponder over life and society through thesefantasy words.
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Chapter Three Gothic Plots.......18
3.1 Supernatural Grotesqueness.... 18
3.2 Mysterious Suspense....... 21
3.3 Horrible Death ........ 22
Chapter Four Gothic Characters ......26
4.1 Nina -- A Villain-hero ..... 26
4.2 Gordon -- A Yong Man Representing the Mysterious Force in Life....... 29
4.3 Marsden -- An Eccentric Man of Ambiguous Gender .... 32
Chapter Five Gothic Themes ....35
5.1 Revenge........... 35
5.2 Deformed Love ....... 38
5.3 Conflicts between Individuals and Society..... 40

Chapter Five Gothic Themes

By telling the events of revenge, love, rape, incest, murder, promiscuity, etc,Gothic writings try to present the conflicts between good and evil and make moralexploration. In classic Gothic works, the most prominent and permanent themes areconflicts between light and darkness, goodness and evilness, God and demon, whichpenetrate the whole history of Gothic works, and basically do not deviate from themain line of revealing the conflict between good and evil and making moralexploration. For example, Manfred and Theodore in The Castle of Otranto show thetypical conflicts between good a