Desire Under the Elms as a psychological play
Question: Consider “Desire Under the Elms” as a psychological play.
Introduction
“Desire Under the Elms” (1924) is a modern tragedy written by Eugene O’Neill (1888 – 1953). The time setting and the place setting of the play is gradually1850s and a farmhouse of New England. The writer tries to show the psychological aspects of human behavior by creating some fantastic characters.
Psychological play
“Psychology is the summary of a person’s characteristics including how they think, feel, or behave.” From the sentence, we come to know that psychological play deals with human feelings or emotions. We get a touch of it in the play.
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Emphasis on the mind game
Emphasis on mind games is one of the important features of psychological play. A psychological play must emphasize the mind game of the characters. The writer uses this term in the play especially by the characters of Abbie Putnam, the heroine of the play, and Eben, the hero of the play.
Abbie marries Cabot, 75 years of age just for getting her security. She sets her mind on getting sole ownership of the farm. She always thinks about the farm as her own farm.
Eben thinks that his father kills his mother, Maw by work hard tendency. So, he wants to take revenge upon his father. He always thinks about revenge. He thinks of his step-mother Abbie as a competitor of sole ownership of the farm. This type of mind game develops drama.
Loneliness
Loneliness is a well-known aspect of psychological play. The account of Cabot’s past life to Abbie shows that he is an orthodox believer in God and hard work. According to him, God will be gotten by working hard in a stony land. His wives and sons do not understand his attitude to hard work or his own hardness. This is why he is the alien in his family. As a result, he feels always lonesome. Cabot’s loneliness compels these characters’ thinking psychologically.
Intrigues of the characters
Intrigue is also a striking feature of a psychological play. The intrigue of a character drives another character of the play into deep psychological belief. Abbie plots against Eben to drive away from the farmhouse. She wishes to sex with Eben for getting a son. Abbie convinces Cabot in this way that if she gets a son, all property will be for the new baby and Eben will be finished.
She convinces Eben to have sex with her and to take revenge with Cabot for the ill behavior with his mother. Eben sleeps with her because he feels that the spirit of his dead mother encourages him. Eben cannot understand the intrigue. Later he comes to know why she slept with him. This intrigue develops his psychological thoughts.
Stubborn relationship
The stubborn relationship is an important aspect of psychological play. The relation between Abbie and Eben is a kind of wild sexual relation. Later Abbie truly falls in love with Eben and abandons the desire of the farm. She kills her son to get love from Eben. She wants to prove that nothing can come in between their love.
Cabot, Simeon, Peter, and Eben have slept with a local prostitute named Minnie. Simeon philosophically comments about the relation between Eben and Minnie that “Dog’ll eat dog!”. He means to say that Eben will destroy their father.
Eben comments on Abbie that she is like Minnie, a local prostitute. He says that Minnie gives her body for money and Abbie gives her body to Cabot for the farm. Minnie does not harm anyone but Abbie harms Eben because the farm is taking away from him. As a result, he gives the superiority of Minnie over Abbie. This is nothing but deep psychological thought.
Dramatic irony
Dramatic irony plays a vital role in the psychological play. Dramatic irony means an incident that knows the audience but the performer does not know that incident at all. There is an example of dramatic irony:
Sexual relation between Abbie and Eben is dramatic irony because the audience knows that Abbie makes the relation for getting a son and being the owner of the farm. But Eben does not know the fact.
Conclusion
From the light of the above discussion, we get that all the features of psychological play are packed up in the story. So, we can say that this is a perfect modern psychological play.
