Combining Realism and Expressionism

O'Neill combines elements of realism a style that makes things look like they would in real life and expressionism a style that distorts things to look like they might come from the point of view of the characters in The Great God Brown. Expres-sionistic plays often employ masks to either hide the characters' inner emotions or reflect them. The masks used by the main characters in the play objectify the public images they want to portray and at the same time hide their inner psychological and emotional turmoil. The masks also work effectively to isolate the characters from each another. George H. Jensen, in his article on O'Neill for Dictionary of Literary Biography, writes, "The mask is a defense, a pose, a lie that a character presents to the world to protect the vulnerable self beneath it. Only rarely can a character feel secure enough...