A Seminar Presentation Note

O'Neill's Desire under the Elms: The Mores of

Desire under American "Elms"©

Desire is the driving force behind every action of the drama Desire under the Elms. Each and
every character has certain desire and they spend their every effort to fulfill these desires. The mores
of desires that we get from the characters are namely freedom in case of Simeon and Peter, lust for
body and revenge of Abbie and Eben, fanaticism of Cabbot, where greed for property stands common
for all.

Attention will be given on how these desires are still prevalent proving the test of time.
Special focus will be on the desires of now and then American life in general, which is pretty much
instinctive of them that lead people to think of something that he needs, is to be brought under focus.

Desire, an abstract idea, which has given life, has been made concrete through the activities
and dialogues of the characters externally and internally. All the actions of the characters are driven
by desire. Desire forwards the plot and characters would stand still; there would be no action if there
was no such desire. Old Ephraim, obsessed and possessed with land, dedicates and devotes whole life
to the stony and unfertile land to make it grow corps. What is more, he makes every other member of
his family work hard and he does this without considering anything better for the family members
except dying for land.

None of his family members like him because of his obsession. He does not value anything
like good relationship among his family members. He considers them no better than his worker born
to follow his ends. We first hear about Cabot from his sons. Simeon and Peter have nothing but utter
dislike for him. Simeon and Peter wish their father dead and declared by the court crazy. How fanatic
a man could be! He is Puritan in heart and believes in hard God. He is hypnotized by desire and hence
is almost blind for his land. In the last Part of the play, the dramatist shows the complex working of
Cabot’s psychology when, after Abbie and Eben were sent to jail, he decides to lose his cows and
burn his farm house and thus not let anybody make use of land and cattle.

Cabot: I have turned the cows an' other stock loose!

I have druv'em into the woods, I will set fire t' house an' barn and watch 'em burn.
(3.126)

Simeon and Peter both feel the farm land as their prison house where they have been
oppressed and suppressed mentally and physically. So they want no longer to stay with their father.
They feel the urgency of freedom much better than anything else. They are treated like slave. All
kinds of freedom of them are changed with whimsical and ironical rule of their rude and stony father.
At the very outset of the drama, we see that Simeon and Peter are working hard for the farm. They are
confined to the stony walls like animals. The stage direction reads: “Their bodies bumping and
rubbing together as they hurry clumsily to their food, like two friendly oxen toward their evening
meal” (1.1.21-2).

Both the brothers are labouring much in the farm and trying hard to make it productive. They
are so maltreated by their father that they consider themselves animals. Their relationship with the
stock of the farm gives light to that matter.

Peter: An’ the hosses, an’ pigs, an’ chickens. They don’t know him much.
Simeon: They knows us like brothers- an’ likes us! (1.4.43)

Being deprived of basic human rights they decide to migrate to California. This migration
paves the way for their freedom and fortune.

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 Peter: They’s gold in the west- an’ freedom, mebbe. We been slaves t’ stone walls
here. (1.4.42)

We find a fine pen-picture of ecstasy when they are freed from the farm.
Simeon: We’re free, old man! (He cuts a caper)
Peter: Free! (He gives a kick in the air.) (1.4.50)

The most striking fact about Eben is his keen hatred for the cruelty of his father. His mother,
the owner of the farm, is laboured to death. She is the victim of Ephraim’s ruthless behaviour. Eben is
determined to take revenge upon his father on his mother’s behalf and to possess the entire farm
house. He fumes, “An’ sooner ’r later, I’ll meddle. . . . I’ll see t’ it my Maw gits some rest an’ sleep in
her grave” (1.2.27)!

Knowing, however, that his step brothers will claim their share to the farm, he offers them six
hundred dollars if they sign an agreement transferring their share to him. Afterwards, he tells Abbie
that the farm originally belonged to his mother and that he is now fighting against his father over his
claim to the farm on that ground. However, at no point in the play such claim of Eben is either
confirmed or denied. Old Cabot disputes this claim and later he imposed a condition upon Abbie, that
is, giving birth to a child for him can preserve her heir to the property. At one point in the play the old
man mockingly says to Eben, “You can never be a more than half a man.” Cabot also describes him as
a “soft headed. Like his Maw” (2.4.90).

Desire for security and social recognition prevail in Abbie. Being shelter-less, She is badly in
need of shelter and social recognition. That’s why she marries Ephraim Cabot─an old man of Seventy
five. Her intention is crystal cleared by her utterance to Eben: “Waal─what if I did need a hum? What
else’d I marry an old man like him fur” (1.4.56)?

Her initial desire is to get a home. When she becomes successful, and then proceeds to the
next desire─possessing the whole property. She, like all other characters, leaves no stone unturned to
possess the farm house. She devises a way of having a child for Cabbot, that is, to tempt Eben for
gratifying her intention. So she has managed him to do the thing she wanted. Here a noticeable matter
is that Eben could not resist his natural instinct though at first he was unwilling to do such thing.

America as a nation earned its independence in 1776 from the British. In the “Declaration of
Independence”, certain human rights are guaranteed. A part of it reads,

We hold these truths to be self–evident, that all man are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness. (Encyclopedia 283)

The very phrase “pursuit of happiness” is sufficient to describe the typical American dreams and their
desires. Their sole motto is to be successful by hook or by crook. Cheating, lying, stealing, oppressing
are deep-rooted in every American. For the sake of personal happiness, they can do whatever is
needed without concerning the morals and ethics. Each and every character in the play reflects this
attitude. Cabot is devoid of affection. He is religious but holds a different view. Both Abbie and Eben
are amoral. Their act of incest is forbidden in every religion and society. Thus, the desires of Cabot
family “under the Elms” represent the typical American characteristics.

American roles and activities in two World Wars, in Vietnam, in Nicaragua, and what they
have recently done in Afghanistan and Iraq are the outcome of their unlimited desire. Their unbridled
desire to possess every thing, emanating from land, is wonderfully woven in the plot of the play
Desire under the Elms by O'Neill. The playwright seems to suggest that desire brings destruction, as it
was brought on the Cabot family, focusing on the very mores of desires under a nineteenth century
American setting.

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 Work cited

O'Neill, Eugene. Desire under the Elms. Dhaka: Friends' Book Corner, 2006.
“The Declaration of Independence 1776.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 15th ed. 6. Chicago: 1998.

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Presenter: Numan Ahmad 2005236014

©
This is one of the seven papers presented in the Seminar titled “Recontextualizing Post-World War American
Theatre: Desire and Death under Democracy” under the supervision of Dr. Shahed Ahmed, Asst. Professor of
English. Dr. Md. Ati Ullah, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of English, SUST was the Chief
Discussant in the Seminar held at Room no. E 328, SUST on 24 June, 2010.

Seminar Paper 1 4 Dept. of English, SUST

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