O'Neill's desire under the elms : a tragedy of extreme desire

Abstract EN

Most critics agree that Eugene O'Neill )1888-1953( appears with an instinctive perception of what modern tragedy should be.

Essentially, he is recognized as a great American playwright whose vision of life was tragic.

Most of O’Neill’s plays are powerful tragedies though they are not tragedies in the Aristotelian sense.

Their themes may have certain features in common with those of his predecessors but their forms and interpretations are different.

They are essentially modern tragedies which deal with problems that are concerned with human desires and beliefs.

Not in acts, O'Neill completed Desire Under the Elms )1924( in three parts each with four scenes as a modern transformation of Greek tragedy with highly American overtones.

It represents the first of O'Neill's explicit attempts to write an American tragedy using the basic plots of ancient Greek tragedy.

O'Neill borrows from the stories of three well known Greek heroes: Oedipus, the man who engaged in killing his father and incredibly married his mother; Phaedra, the woman who lusts for her stepson; and Medea, the mother who kills her own children.

The study explores the play with the extremity of desire in passion, sin and redemption.