"Desire Under the Elms" takes place on the Cabot farm in rural New England. The people in the play are low on the social ladder and not of noble birth or royalty. The subject matter is not mythological and the plot is serious and complex and throughout the play there is evidence of harsh and cruel treatment of the individuals by the Puritan society. The play shows unity of action and the events follow in a logical sequence. The play is based on the struggles of family members possessed by greed and revenge. Each of the characters believes that they are entitled to the farm. Eben strengthens his rights to the farm by offering his brothers money he steals from his father. The arrival of Abbie on the farm is the starting point of the conflict. Her greed and sexual desires present her as a threat to both Eben and Ephraim. Complications develop when Abbie has an incestuous relationship with Eben. Abbie wants a son as insurance that the farm will remain hers. Abbie to prove her love for Eden supersedes her desire for the farm and murders the child. When she tells Eben what she has done he is shocked and in horror goes to the sheriff. In the final scene Eben is convinced of her love, and accepts punishment and Epharim is left alone on his farm. The setting is realistic and presents a vivid picture of the 19th century New England farmhouse. The story takes place in three days and is structured according to seasons (summer, autumn, spring) over a period of three years. Of unity of action, time and place, only the action is patterned after Greek tragedy. The plot of "Desire Under the Elms" resembles many of the tragic incidents of the old Greek myths. As in Oedipus, the son fights with the father and commits adultery ince... ... middle of paper ... ...hooses death, after discovering the truth of their love. Eben's willingness to accept Abbie's sin and die with her is a noble act. Eben experiences recognition, acknowledges his shared responsibility for the murder of their child, and thus Eben becomes a tragic hero. Eben realizes who he is, he realizes his love for Abbie and will follow her to death. He and Abbie are set free by the recognition of their guilt and responsibility for the tragedy. Although Abbie and Eben have lost worldly and material possessions, they manage to find fulfillment in their relationship and perhaps they do escape from the hard and confining life on the New England farm. In "Desire Under the Elms," Eugene O'Neill, for the most part, works within the framework of classical tragedy with some variations in structure and content. He changed the tragic plot to an American setting.
The story takes place in Annadel, a rural town seated in Justice County of southwestern West Virginia, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The author does a fantastic job bringing the reader to the setting through the story being depicted by four different characters’ self narrated stories, which effectively puts the reader in the character’s shoes. In addition, a unique trait is added, with the dialogue being written in a presumably region and period specific style southern dialect. This feature not only makes the reader feel as though they are there at that time and place, but also provides for a more interesting read. While the unique style added to the dia...
“Winter lies too long in country towns; hangs on until it is stale and shabby, old and sullen” (“Brainy Quotes” 1). In Edith Wharton’s framed novel, Ethan Frome, the main protagonist encounters “lost opportunity, failed romance, and disappointed dreams” with a regretful ending (Lilburn 1). Ethan Frome lives in the isolated fictional town of Starkfield, Massachusetts with his irritable spouse, Zenobia Frome. Ever since marriage, Zenobia, also referred to as Zeena, revolves around her illness. Furthermore, she is prone to silence, rage, and querulously shouting. Ethan has dreams of leaving Starkfield and selling his plantation, however he views caring for his wife as a duty and main priority. One day, Zeena’s cousin, Mattie Silver, comes to assist the Frome’s with their daily tasks. Immediately, Mattie’s attractive and youthful energy resuscitates Ethan’s outlook on life. She brings a light to Starkfield and instantaneously steals Ethan’s heart; although, Ethan’s quiet demeanor and lack of expression causing his affection to be surreptitious. As Zeena’s health worsens, she becomes fearful and wishes to seek advice from a doctor in a town called Bettsbridge giving Ethan and Mattie privacy for one night. Unfortunately, the night turns out to be a disastrous and uncomfortable evening. Neither Ethan nor Mattie speaks a word regarding their love for one another. Additionally, during their dinner, the pet cat leaps on the table and sends a pickle dish straight to the floor crashing into pieces. To make matters worse, the pickle dish is a favored wedding gift that is cherished by Zeena. Later, Zeena discovers it is broken and it sends her anger over the edge. Furious, Zeena demands for a more efficient “hired girl” to complete the tasks ar...
After her grandfather’s death in 1687, 16 year-old Kit feels that she must leave and sail to the only relatives she knows of, her uncle and aunt in Wethersfield, Connecticut. She desperately travels there on a ship called the Dolphin, where she meets a gentleman named Nat. She and Nat have a very playful relationship, Nat always has a mocking grin on his face and Kit occasionally flirts with him on the boat. When she arrives in Wethersfield, Connecticut, she is taken by surprise at the dull landscape and endless fields. Kit meets her uncle, a strict and sometimes grumpy man named Matthew Wood, her aunt, a sweet and caring woman named Rachel, her cousin Judith, a picky and vain young lady who’s otherwise kind, and her other cousin Mercy, a tender and loving girl who lost one of her legs when she was young due to a fever. Judith likes a rich boy named William, but one day at church, William sees Kit in her fancy clothes and starts liking Kit. Judith then decides to go for John, a very caring young man who secretly likes Mercy. Mercy also secretly likes John. Soon, Kit is comfortable wi...
... harsh and tragic. Similarly, Hodgins symbolizes a life full of hardships in Portuguese Creek with the death of Elizabeth, for she had been the only good thing that had come out of the war. The positives of the families and communities working together were ultimately overshadowed by the negativity of these same families and communities falling apart; only further showing readers that new beginnings are not a chance for a better life, but center stage for one that is worse.
As he slouches in bed, a description of the bare trees and an old woman gathering coal are given to convey to the reader an idea of the times and the author's situation. "All groves are bare," and "unmarried women (are) sorting slate from arthracite." This image operates to tell the reader that it is a time of poverty, or a "yellow-bearded winter of depression." No one in the town has much to live for during this time. "Cold trees" along with deadness, through the image of "graves," help illustrate the author's impression of winter. Wright seems to be hibernating from this hard time of winter, "dreaming of green butterflies searching for diamonds in coal seams." This conveys a more colorful and happy image showing what he wishes was happening; however he knows that diamonds are not in coal seams and is brought back to the reality of winter. He talks of "hills of fresh graves" while dreaming, relating back to the reality of what is "beyond the streaked trees of (his) window," a dreary, povern-strucken, and cold winter.
The book is again set around the house of Dies Eddington Drear, in a current year. The surrounding property and underground tunnels on premises play major roles in defining the plot and motive for the characters bizarre actions.
The Story begins with a description of the house. The house in itself is a symbol of isolation women faced in the nineteenth-century. The protagonist describes the house as isolated and miles away from the village, but also described as “the most beautiful place” (Gilman 217). During the nineteenth-century, women were in a sense isolated from society, just like the house. The role of the women was to stay home and tend to the
Traditions demonstrate a set of social norms that have been followed and adapted to for an elongated amount of time. In each of the plots, Medea, The Piano, and The Age of Innocence, the standard set by society was broken and the consequences imposed took form in varying degrees and shapes of violence. Whether it was outright murder as in Medea, or a more subtle but intense struggle as in The Age of Innocence, these consequences serve as the community's opinion of this breach of its expectations for its members.
...e village represents the strictness of Puritan society, while the forest symbolizes the wildness of the human heart. The wildness of the human heart is revealed once it is removed from the strict Puritan society. Overall, the edge of the forest is the boundary between civilization and repression to truth and human emotions.
Clements, Victoria. Introduction. A New-England Tale. By Catharine Maria Sedgwick. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Second, what is the mood of this story trying to portray with the setting. The setting c...
The setting used throughout the novel Wuthering Heights, helps to set the mood to describe the characters. We find two households separated by the cold, muddy, and barren moors, one by the name of Wuthering Heights, and the other Thrushcross Grange. Each house stands alone, in the mist of the dreary land, and the atmosphere creates a mood of isolation. These two places, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange differ greatly in appearance and mood. These differences reflect the universal conflict between storm and calm that Emily Bronte develops as the theme.
Throughout the tale, one sees clearly the binding ties between house and inhabitants. What was once a proud family mansion is reduced to a crumbling house, whose inhabitants are scarcely less changed. From the wasting disease of the lady Madeline, to her brother's nervous affliction, one discerns a tangible connection with their dark family home. As it weakens, so also do both brother and sister diminish, until both finally perish in a horrible demise no less fantastic then that of their house. And it is these singular features which have contrived to brand the tale upon the mind of the reader, and so inspired generations of both readers and writers. There can be no doubt that future readers will also be inspired by this tale of the horror and mysterious connections between a house and its inhabitants, “The Fall of the House of Usher.”
Two of the main characters, Jack and Algernon, strive to be "Ernest" and "Earnest" in the play, yet they both deceive others to escape lives which they grow tired of. They both hope to marry the girls that they love, yet they are starting the relationship based on false pretence and lies. It is ironic that they both call themselves "Ernest," a name that suggests honesty and sincerity, yet they both create stories to escape something or the other. Jack creates a brother called "Ernest" in the city that he uses as a scape goat' to leave his prim and proper, respectable country life, whereas Algernon creates a friend by the name of "Bunbury" to escape his aunt's high class society parties. He shows his lack of interest in such social events when he tells Jack.
I decided to write on my essay on Eugene O’ Neill because he has contributed so much to the field of theatre. Eugene O'Neill's greatest plays, was presented by the National Theatre in 2003 celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the playwright's death. A reworking of the “Oresteia” trilogy by Aeschylus and the Electra tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides, O’Neill’s epic American tragedy of hatred, passion, jealousy and greed is set in New England after the Civil War. Using Freud’s theories, as O’Neill had done earlier in “Strange Interlude,” he now views classical drama (as had Freud) as a rich field for exploration of character motivation.