An Analysis Of The Tragic Nature Of Desire Under The Elms

Desire under the Elms is a very important play in O’Neill’s artistic career. He hasbeen devoting himself to discovering the deep reasons behind an event and he will neverintend to analyze the tragic events at a superficial level. As an outstanding playwright, hekeeps on dealing with the problems in his times with frank and critical eyesight.This play has a high level of esthetic beauty and at the same time expresses thetragic beauty belongs to life that Nietzsche holds in esteem. The pessimistic beauty ofthis level has taken Dionysus as the prototype and it represents the indulgence andhuman’s natural power. Meanwhile O’Neill has also done a great job on reflectingpeople’s mental outlook as well as let people gain inspiration and enlightenment fromthis tragedy. The thesis analyzes the play from the tragic angle and discusses the tragiccolor of this play in a detailed way based on the ideological foundation ofO’Neill—Nietzsche’s philosophy and anti-Puritanism, which aims at exploiting theconnotation and value of this play based on summarizing the predecessors’ achievements.The thesis consists of an introduction, the main body and a conclusion. Its maincontent is as follows:The first part is the introduction. In the beginning of the introduction a briefdescription of the researches on this play at home and abroad is made, and then at thesame time the theoretical meaning and social value of the thesis are pointed out.The second part is the main body, which is composed of four chapters:ChapterⅠexpounds on ideological foundation of O’Neill—Nietzsche’s philosophyand anti-Puritanism detailedly. This chapter is separated into two sections. In the firstsection the tragic thoughts in Nietzsche’s philosophy are introduced in details. WhileNietzsche holds a critical attitude toward modern ration and regards that ration hascompacted people’s thoughts to some degree. In addition, Nietzsche has put forward thefamous superman philosophy. In Nietzsche’s opinion, superman possesses a completelynew morality that is quite different from the traditional and popular morality. Supermanis the strong person who can perfectly represent the life will. In the second section, thethoughts of Puritanism and O’Neill’s critical attitude toward it are mainly discussed. Theastriction of Puritanism is to constrain human nature and make the society become alienated.ChapterⅡ focuses on the reasons that shape O’Neill’s tragic outlook of life. Thischapter is separated into two sections. In the first section, the author’s own reasons of histragic outlook of life are discussed. O’Neill’s miserable family and his dubious attitudefor his religious belief have made great impact on him and they are also the key reasonsto create his tragic sense. His father, mother and brother are the most important personsthroughout his life and their various tragedies in life greatly affect his tragic creation. Inthe second section, the external causes of O’Neill’s tragic outlook of life are analyzed.And Nietzsche’s philosophy deeply influenced by Schopenhauer’s philosophy has laidthe foundation for O’Neill’s creative consciousness of his tragedies.Chapter Ⅲ concentrates on the protagonists’ character and analyzes the root causesleading to this family tragedy from their characters. This chapter is separated into threesections. In the first section, Cabot’s character is analyzed. He is selfish and cruel, with acontradictory character. He forces his family members to work and chase for wealth. Hishuman nature is oppressed and all his family members lead depressive lives due to hisPuritanism thoughts. He is doomed to fail due to his struggle against the worldly society.In the second section, Eben’s character is primarily analyzed. Eben is a character ofsharp-cut love and hatred, and it is just the incompatible side in his character that pusheshim into the tragic abyss. Abbie’s character is analyzed in the third section. The femaleprotagonist Abbie has left people a deep impression by her defiant character and bravepursuit for love. She is also one of the most successful female images O’Neill has evercreated. Her strong desire for the farm leads to her deviated behaviors and her finaldestruction.Chapter Ⅳ analyzes the main expressive techniques to represent the tragedy in thisplay. This chapter is separated into three sections. The symbolic techniques and themanners of exaggeration and deformation in this play are mainly analyzed in the first andthe second sections. O’Neill has created a great number of images to describe theprotagonists’ characters vividly and he also uses the symbolic techniques to reflect themythic and religious tradition of Puritanism. Contradiction between Apollonian spirit andDionysian spirit are also analyzed here. Nietzsche has referred to his understanding ofthese two spirits in his famous work The Birth of Tragedy and expresses his main opinion of praising highly of Dionysian spirit. In addition, he points out that the victory ofDionysian spirit is inevitable because it is the demand of social development as well asthe voice of the people under Puritanism. In fact, Apollonian spirit is exactly similar toPuritanism. The whole play reflects the necessary demand of social development andprogress of the times by the solemn triumph of Dionysian spirit. In the protagonists’self-destructions, the Dionysus with bold and uninhibited character regains the greathappiness of returning to the original nature and the meaning of transcending the tragedy.The final part is the conclusion, which makes a summary of the whole thesis and atthe same time the writing purposes and actual meaning of the thesis are emphasized.O’Neill’s tragedy Desire under the Elms has its own unique esthetic value. O’Neill hasgiven formidable psychic support to the people who lead tough lives in the real world. Heencourages people to accept their fate and confront with their lives with a frank attitude.In addition, people should be brave enough to break the traditional ideological system.The analysis of Desire under the Elms can show modern people an attitude of respectingreality, loving life and facing up to life frankly.