A Comprehensive Study on the Plays of St. John Ervine as a Playwright

1.圣约翰·欧文一直被认为是英国传统的剧作家，有着他的出身和地方色彩，因为他是一位北爱尔兰作家，到目前为止还很少被人考虑。然而，与基督教信仰有关的严肃主题，特别是他早期戏剧《混合婚姻》、《宽宏大量的情人》和《橘子人》中描绘的天主教徒和新教徒之间的教派冲突表明，他作为北爱尔兰剧作家的地位在今天非常需要重新评估。虽然欧文给我们的印象是一个彻头彻尾的工会主义者，但他以一种批评的、甚至是责备的方式描绘了一位绝望地迷恋着僵化的工会主义的老父亲，这一点与他在婴儿时期失去自己父亲的传记有关，这一点相当值得注意。第一次世界大战期间，欧文在都柏林的阿比剧院担任经理9个月，他的政治思想和戏剧观点与阿比演员的完全不相容，导致了不可避免的摩擦，这在一定程度上导致他离开爱尔兰加入工会。因此，从爱尔兰戏剧史的角度来看，这一断裂值得更多的关注和审视。埃尔文戏剧的主题主要表现为代沟/性别鸿沟和个人与社会之间的冲突。从整体上看，欧文与年轻一代和独立的女性角色站在一起，这一点在第一部《弗雷泽夫人，罗伯特的妻子》和《朋友与关系》中可以看出。埃尔文的写作风格既善于交流，又在含蓄和意义的阴影中非常微妙，忠实地坚持日常对话的实际流动，没有或过度修饰。

1. St. John Ervine has been regarded as a traditional English playwright with his origin and local color as a Northern Irish writer paid little consideration so far. However, serious themes concerning Christian faith, particularly denominational conflict between Catholics and Protestants depicted in his early plays like Mixed Marriage, The Magnanimous Lover and The Orangeman indicate that his reassessment as a Northern Irish playwright is badly needed today.2. While Ervine has been giving us an impression as an out-and-out unionist, he depicted an old father desperately spellbound with rigid unionism in a critical, even reproachful way, which is quite noteworthy in connection with his biographical fact that he lost his own father as a baby.3. When Ervine was manager of Abbey Theatre in Dublin for nine months during the First World War, his political ideas and views of drama were totally incompatible with those of Abbey actors and led to produce inevitable friction, which partly caused him to leave Ireland for unionism. This rupture, therefore, deserves more attention and examination from a point of history of Irish theatre.4. Subjects of Ervine's plays are mainly characterized by generation/gender gap and conflict between individual and society. On the whole, Ervine sides with younger generation and independent female characters, as can be seen in The First Mrs. Fraser, Robert's Wife and Friends and Relations.5. Ervine's style in writing is at once communicative and very subtle in its implication and shades of meaning, sticking faithfully to the actual flow of everyday dialogues which is devoid or excessive frills.