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Library's collection Library's IT development CancelThis thesis is an analysis of pessimism in O'Neill's
Marco Millions. It deals with the life of the main
character, Marco Polo, in facing his conflicts. In the
analysis, I am curious to know what the causes and
effects of Marco Polo's pessimism are. In this analysis,
I am going to use the concept of the term pessimism.
Besides, I use literary theories, that is the theory of
characterization and conflict as well as the
psychological theory of defense mechanism. Through the
analysis I find out that Marco's pessimism is caused by
the disharmony between the ideal thought and the reality.
Marco, who is romantic, idealistic, humane, and sociable,
has to face that reality is not like what he thinks. The
old values that he has already had before are crushed by
the reality of being a merchant. Moreover, Marco is very
naive in facing the reality. Therefore, he is shaken by
the fact that people crush his values. He then turns to
be a pessimistic person. Furthermore, he uses defense
mechanism in order to overcome his conflicts.