Marco Millions

by Eugene O'Neill

1927. Generally agreed to be one of the most significant forces in the history of the American theater, O'Neill is a three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. O'Neill writes in the foreword that Marco Millions is an attempt to render poetic justice to one long famous as a traveler, unjustly world-renowned as a liar, but sadly unrecognized by posterity in his true eminence as a man and a citizen-Marco Polo of Venice. The failure to appraise Polo at a fair valuation is his own fault...Even in his native Venice, he was scoffingly nicknamed the millionaire or Marco Millions...This has moved me to an indignant crusade between the lines of this book, the bars of his prison, in order to whitewash the good soul of that maligned Venetian. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

Genres: Plays

Paperback

First published January 1, 1925

About the author

American playwright Eugene Gladstone O'Neill authored Mourning Becomes Electra in 1931 among his works; he won the Nobel Prize of 1936 for literature, and people awarded him his fourth Pulitzer Prize for Long Day's Journey into Night , produced in 1956.

He won his Nobel Prize "for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy." More than any other dramatist, O'Neill introduced the dramatic realism that Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg pioneered to Americans and first used true American vernacular in his speeches.

His plays involve characters, who, engaging in depraved behavior, inhabit the fringes of society, where they struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations but ultimately slide into disillusionment and despair. O'Neill wrote Ah, Wilderness! , his only comedy: all his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism.

Reviews

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

A poetic satire on the West’s arrogant materialism: “He has lusted for everything and loved nothing.”

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This play ridicules the American perception of success and modern man's pursuit for material goals. It is an illuminating revision of the Western business ideal where Marco serves as a pictogram for big business.

The play is a satirical representation of the capitalist class. Marco's values and his political philosophy are a lampoon of he American businessman's ideology. He stands for a characteristic American businessman who represents materialism and is the archetype of dishonesty and insatiability.

This play shows, in actual fact, the tragedy inherent in the American culture. It exposes those who seek money at the cost of truth and beauty to 'make' their lives. Marco is known for his spiritual impotency and is the pigeonhole of the utilitarian, commercial artist.

‘Marco Millions’ is divided into two parts: --

a) The first half of the play belongs to Marco, and
b) The second half, to the great Khan

The first part develops the comedy of Marco Polo in terms of wide satire, and then the tragedy of Kublai Khan in terms of poetic mysticism. The two halves of this play not only dramatize diverse characters, but use diverse techniques.

**The first act deals with the material enlargement of young Marco Polo, and narrates the travels to the Orient. The early scenes of the play skip from Venice, where the young Marco is scorned for writing a love poem to Donata, to gradually learning the ways of the world and to repress his romantic idealism. In a climatic scene, he, with impetuous poise, confronts Kublai Khan and drives a good bargain for the privileges of trading in his realm.

**In the second act Marco with time, instructs the Khan in ways of Western materialism, while the Khan's gorgeous granddaughter, Kukachin, wretchedly falls in love with this "strange, mysterious dream-knight from the exotic West". Meanwhile Kukachin romantically intercedes for her Western dream-knight; and, at her request, old Khan permits Marco to return with his wealth to Venice, on the provision that on the way he delivers Kukachin to the Shah of Persia to be married. But Marco instructed that every morning he must stare profoundly into her love-lorn eyes, but can perceive only the symptoms of bilious fever. Impermeable to love and beauty, he returns to Venice with his millions.

**The third act, which portrays the spiritual development of old Kublai Khan, tells of his progressive disenchantment and tragedy.

**In the final act the Great Khan hears from Persia that Kukachin is dying of a broken heart. Meanwhile Marco, who has returned to Venice, is about to wed his fat Donata.

In this play, O'Neill represents his assessment of American covetousness and crudity, through both a realistic and an expressionistic procedure. He satirizes America's numbing optimism and go-getting through the character of Marco. The playwright employs an equivalent structure in setting and character to signify his incongruous theme of western moral and spiritual bankruptcy.

It’s wonderful. Most recommended.

[Jim Leckband · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has to be by far the most atypical play O'Neill wrote, though he did write a lot of diverse one-acts before his major plays. No drunken patriarchs or uppity sons or fighting about money/land/whiskey. Instead we have a Rotarian Marco Polo fresh from learning his Mason handshake teaching Kublai Khan about his evil Western Ways.

O'Neill does re-use one character type that he has used before (Anna Christie), the doomed but honorable woman. In "Marco Millions" it is the grand-daughter of the Khan (or Kaan) who falls in love with the oblivious Polo. O'Neill does a remarkable job in illuminating unrequited love and how much it hurts the unrequitee while the unrequiter is not even touched. As the venerable Wikipedia informs us, 98% of us have suffered this. Marco instead is in love with his millions and his childhood girl - who is little more than just an idea as he's in China for most of his life.

As the boat takes the Khan's grand-daughter to her arranged marriage in Persia and Marco takes her (for the bounty, not her company) we can imagine that she keeps pleading "Marco, Marco ...." across the water but there is no one to reply "Polo, Polo..."