American Theater History - Essay Example

American Theater History American Theater History Introduction Eugene O’Neill was an excellent playwright. Desire under the Elms is one of the key stories about Eugene O’Neill that discusses his life in details. The story relates to his personal life as evidenced by the video that shows his biography. This paper seeks to establish the connection between Desire under the Elms and the personal life that O’Neill had. The paper presents an extensive analysis of the main themes explored by the book. Arguably, one of the persistent issues is the fact that O’Neill’s life was not joyful. The fact that most of his works, although exemplary, were pessimistic discusses a key feature about this personal life as well. Question one O’Neill was an exceptional playwright. Arguably, he is one of the best playwrights that received acclaim as a Nobel laureate. As such, his works were not only exceptional and crafty but also largely relatable. One of the key features about the author was his way with words. What I really love about O’Neill’s works is that he explains emotions in detail, to an extent that one would assume that he felt exactly what they felt. His concentration on descriptions depicted by his plays made most people in the audience relate with characters within his works. O’Neill understood how to express himself, his troubles and his daily adventures to the audience using his plays. It is evident that from his biography that O’Neill loved being at sea. Most of his plays have a sea as a setting, which shows how he was able to share his passion with audience. Likewise, the same feature about his way of expression made him reveal to the world the various problems that he was undergoing. For instance, in one of his epic plays, Desire under the Elms, O’Neill shares the troubles that he went through with his family at home. As such, as an author, I believe that O’Neill was a very loveable author and his works were very intriguing. Regardless, O’Neill was not a good person outside the realm of literature. In my opinion, O’Neill used literature to satisfy his hungry soul. This is visible from the fact that he was an abusive father who received no love from his children or wife at all. In addition, ONeills children eventually became drug addicts, and one of his sons actually committed suicide and said that he would never want to see his father again. Themes One of the key features about great playwrights is consistency. Most of the playwrights who have achieved greatness in their careers have had a consistency in their works and similarity in most of the themes presented. Primarily, most of O’Neill’s works hinge on tragedy and a rather pessimistic individual. As such, family failures, broken love, hatred, jealousy and other similar themes were prevalent in his works. Additionally, marriage is another common theme discussed in his works. Looking deeper into his thought process, one can argue that O’Neill was plagued by desire, but constrained by the institution of marriage. As evidenced in his life, he eventually divorced his wife to marry an attractive actress, which devastated most of his children. The combination of expressionism and realism, which is a characteristic of several other works by O’Neill that makes his works, seems spectacular. One of the themes that have been widely discussed in O’Neill’s works is the fact that he seems to conquer the entire premise of religion greatly. Arguably, one of the key ways through which the concept of religion and morals has been explored throughout the play, Desire under the Elms is the entire premise of the story. Desire is a vice according to religion, giving in to the desire is one of the major themes discussed in the story. When Eben’s father and Eben become attracted to Abby, they end up in desire, and eventually bear a son. O’Neill explores various themes pertaining to aspects such as religion and individual desires, exploring aspects such as violence and tragedy exclusively in his works. For instance, in Desire under the Elms, Ephraim is a violent father who beats his children mercilessly to a point that his children plot the death of their father to take over his ranch. In this context, it is arguable that the author concentrates more on the key details of the violence as opposed to its resolution. As such, O’Neill is more inclined to sustaining violence all through the book. Abby kills her child to please Eben, which was not a necessary scene, but with O’Neill’s affinity for violence, the author chose to include it in the book. O’Neill’s collection discusses the theme of violence in detail throughout other plays. The Great God Brown is one of the plays that explore domestic violence throughout the play as well. Cruelty is a key trait in most of O’Neill’s works. Domestic violence perceptibly stems from love. Dion is initially a cruel person who is cruel to his wife. However, in time when Margret realizes the true self, she finds out that Dion is actually sensitive and a caring person. Just as is the case in Desire under the Elm Trees, O’Neill introduces an anti-climax where Brown wears Dion’s mask and becomes a violent and cruel person too. Brown presumably kills himself, since he assumes a very different character. Another key theme in most of O’Neill’s works is love. O’Neill loves creating love triangles in his stories. Love triangles might entail divorce, in which the ex-wife is persistently pursuing the main character, or are also presented as two characters fighting for one woman. In Desire under the Elms, O’Neill introduces a love triangle between Eben and his father, who both love Abby. In The Great God Brown, Brown and Dion are both in love with Margret, but Margret chooses to be with Dion, only to later marry Brown. In Anna Christie, Chris and Mat Burke both fall in love with Anna, but Anna is more in love with Mat, which leads Chris into a frantic fury against their union. Eben’s Family and O’Neill’s Actual Family As mentioned in the introduction, O’Neill has a way of communicating his deep and real feelings with the audience using his plays. In this case, Desire under the Elms is a perfect depiction of O’Neill’s family at home. From the autobiography, it is evident that O’Neill was not as happy as a person was, as one would expect him to be. Arguably, one of his greatest weaknesses was the fact that he was cruel to his children. The cruelty to his children is unexplainable, but as the documentary argues that, he was quite an unhappy man. Eben’s father is visibly a cruel and distant father who beats Eben, Simeon, and Peter mercilessly during their childhood. Eben recalls a time when his father beat him and locked him inside a closet. Similarly, O’Neill was rather an abusive father. O’Neill was not only a distant father but also abusive towards his children. As mentioned previously, O’Neill was so cruel that all his children hated him. One of his sons committed suicide and wrote a note denouncing his father. All his children had a difficult adolescent and most became heavy drug users and great addicts (Youtube, 2010). Additionally, it is evident that most of his children were violent as well in their other relationships. Secondly, Eben’s father, Ephraim quickly marries a younger and attractive woman by the name Abbie. Abbie and Ephraim want to live a happy life together but Eben is in love with Abbie and comes in between their happiness. Eben also wants to defend his mother’s piece of land and hence chooses to stay. Simeon and Peter move to the west after selling their share of land to Eben (O’Neill, 2010). This sequence of events, although not identical, is very similar to the case of O’Neill’s family. For instance, O’Neill had distant relationships with his son Eugene O’Neill, who committed suicide and was too much into alcoholism and drug abuse. In relation to Simeon and Peter who moved west, these characters could relate to his Daughter, Oona, and son Shane, who became a heroin addict, and he eventually divorced both of them. The Love story of Eben and Abbie The author depicts Eben as a caring individual who has a protector’s personality, hoping to protect his mother’s piece of land from his uncaring father. As such, Eben is very distant from his father and even his brothers. After the death of his mother, Eben makes reserving the land his mother has left within the family his main purpose in life. He even buys his brother’s share to protect the land. However, his concept of love is not to be realized until he meets Abbie. Abbie changes Eben’s life when he kills the baby that his, but Ephraim had assumed that the baby belonged to him. Eben understands the meaning of love, in that love can at cause one the most pain and also cause them to be the most humble and loving individuals. The step that Abbie took infuriates Eben, to the extent that he decided to revenge by reporting her to the police. However, after a few days of having the issue cause him mental trauma, he decides to go to the police and confess that he too was involved in the murder of the child. Although Eben had nothing to do with the child’s murder, he felt that he had to help his loved one in sharing the burden. As such, Eben does come to understand the meaning of true love. Understanding the importance of love in this context means knowing both the good and the bad sides of love. Although his love for Abbie was purely on possessive terms, making him jealous of his father, Eben sooner came to realize that love is all about sacrifice and doing good. References Youtube. (March 18, 2014). PBS American Experience & Eugene ONeil. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v9b8ibcArM&list=PL-rAfkThJyKVl6sCPaFEztwGKEqJrrJz8 ONeill, E. (2010). Desires under the Elms. New York: DArts Pub. Read More