Beyond the Horizon

Beyond the Horizon was O'Neill's first major full-length play and its release is considered a significant turning point in the history of American theater. Its main characters are two twentysomething brothers, Rob and Andy, who have both spent their lives on the family farm and have quite opposite dispositions: Andy is excruciatingly practical and hopes for little more in life than to take over the farm and make it successful; whereas Rob is something of a bookish dreamer who hopes to see what life is like "beyond the horizon." He gets this opportunity when his uncle invites him to come along on a three year trip to South America and Asia, but the night before their departure, a woman with whom both Rob and Andy are in love professes her love for Rob, causing Rob to stay behind to marry her while Andy, unable to bear the idea of living alongside the new couple, takes Rob's place on the trip. The bulk of the play deals with the long-term consequences of this one night in which the brothers ignored their callings in life. As is often the case in O'Neill's plays, the premise is fairly simple and unoriginal and the development of the plot is relatively predictable, but the intensity with which the characters are developed is excellent and truly memorable. We see in Rob the same sort of futile hope that O'Neill would develop so well some years later in The Iceman Cometh, and the despair of the other characters is quite moving. At times, the pathos in the play can almost be over-the-top (and I imagine that in live performances this might be something that the actors have to be all the more careful to avoid), but O'Neill manages to avoid going into the realm of melodrama and create very real, touching characters. O'Neill would, of course, go on to write many other deeply emotional plays, a number of which are still better known than this one. Beyond the Horizon shows us many of the talents for which O'Neill is now universally recognized, and the almost-universal acclaim that it received upon its 1920 premiere seems equally apt today.

Beyond the Horizon is the story of 2 very close brothers, Robert and Andrew, who choose opposite paths in life. Each unfortunately, chooses a path better suited for the other. The deeper meaning in this play is what happens to a man's soul when he doesn't follow his dreams.