Beyond the Horizon

Eugene O’Neill’s Beyond the Horizon is a play that centers on the disaster that befalls two brothers when they choose to fight against their own natures. Realizing that they both love the same woman, each brother ends up pursuing the dream of the other with dire consequences.

Written in 1918, Beyond the Horizon was O’Neill’s first full-length work to be produced, although it wasn’t published and first performed until 1920, the same year that it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play draws heavily on O’Neill’s personal experiences of tuberculosis and his time at sea, as well as reflecting the American modernist movement that grew out of the struggle to understand change and the rejection of old ideas at the turn of the twentieth century. Although one of his early works, Beyond the Horizon explores several pessimistic themes that appear throughout O’Neill’s cannon, including dysfunctional familial relationships, dreams and disillusionment, and doomed romance.

This study guide refers to the text of Beyond the Horizon included in the 2001 Penguin Classics edition of Eugene O’Neill: Early Plays.

Plot Summary

Beyond the Horizon tells the story of the two Mayo brothers, Andrew “Andy” and Robert “Rob,” who realize that they are both in love with the same woman,

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