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Plot-Summary
In Days Without End, the dual selves do not wear masks, but each half of the same man is played by two different actors. At the end of the play, the better self kills the other and falls on his knees before The Crucified. In this play, O’Neill returned to a conventionally expressionistic style. Here, he is concerned with contemporary man’s Godliness. The loss of faith forces a split in the hero’s personality; he is characterized as two people, each one presenting a different side of his psyche. The hero’s uncle, a Catholic priest, leads him back to religion, and a spiritual rebirth occurs; this immediately solves the dramatic conflict.
Critical Analysis
Days Without End describes the hero’s quest for true faith in the modern world. O’Neill has made a serious attempt to probe the sickness of today. It is an autobiographical play. The ending of the play is quite unconvincing. O’Neill dramatizes the struggle between good and evil in this play. The play is the weakest and least successful of O’Neill’s mature period.