How does O’Neill Deal with the Desires in Desire Under the Elms

O’Neill Deal with the Desires in Desire Under the Elms

Desire is the driving force behind every action of the drama Desire Under the Elms. In the play we find Cabot’s desire for property, Abbie’s sexual desire for Eben, Eben’s desire for the farm and revenge on us father, and Simeon and lieger s desire for freedom and gold. The clashes of the desires of the central character are responsible for their tragedy.

 

 

Ephraim Cabot is obsessed with land. He dedicates and devotes his whole life to the stony and unfertile land to make it grow good crops. He makes every other member of his family work. So, none of his family members likes him because of his obsession. He does not value good relationship. Simeon and Peter dislike him and wish their father dead and declared by the court crazy. He is a Puritan in heart and believes in hard God. He is hypnotized by desire and is almost blind for his land. He does not want to pass the farm to any of his sons. Because of his obsession with the farm, he always feels lonely and does not find any comfort in the house. In the last part of the play he has set his cows free and wants to burn his farmhouse so that none can possess them. But it is the tragedy of his life that he is fated to live on the farm alone when Abbie and Eben are taken into custody. 

Simeon and Peter consider the farm land as their prison house where they have been oppressed by their father. Their father treated them like animals and made them work hard. They desire to enjoy freedom. They also want to possess their shares of the farm. When Cabot marries Abbie, they realize the futility of their hope and goes to California in search of gold selling their shares to Eben. 

The word ‘desire' also refers to Eben’s longing to become the sole owner of the farm. It also suggests the long cherished dream of Eben to take the revenge on his father who was, he thinks, responsible for the death of his mother. Eben suffers from mother’0n. He hates his father because his mother received ill-treatment from his father. In order to take revenge on his father, he makes love to Abbie who is the wife of his father, Cabot. Because of his illicit relationship with Abbie, she gives birth to a son after she kills the child, he feels genuine love for her and shares the punishment with her. So, his desire for revenge causes his tragedy. 

Desire for security and social recognition prevails in Abbie. After the death of her first husband she marries Seventy-five years old Cabot only to get shelter and economic security. When she becomes successful to get shelter and economic security, another desire arises in her heart the desire to possess the entire farm of Cabot. Cabot promises to give her the entire farm if she produces any son by him. So, she devises a way of having 'a child for impotent Cabot by Eben. She leaves no stone unturned to victimize Eben to her passion. But at last her passion is transformed into true love and kills her child to prove her love for Eben and for the murder of her child, she is to face her tragic end. 

Thus, the clashes of desires of the central characters are responsible for their tragedy.