| Description |
Desire Under the Elms (1923), in which Eugene O'Neill shapes an American myth, marks the emergence of the American theater from the tutelage of Europe and of O'Neill as a mature playwright. Myth-shaping art appropriates archetypal characters and scenarios, around which communal and individual identity forms, from the repertoire of a community's stories. In Desire Under the Elms, O'Neill draws from three sources--classical and contemporary European, American, and autobiographical--to recreate a myth pertinent to the American search for identity. O'Neill rewrites the Hippolytus myth, after Euripides and Racine, but does more than "update" the story with a New England locale. The classical scenario becomes American by fitting its elements into the archetypes of the American folk drama of the 1920's. Settings and symbols are similarly transformed. The expressionist sets of O'Neill's earlier plays are replaced by a realistic, New England set and symbols emerge as characters make symbols of elements of this American setting (rather than imposing symbolism through forced stage devices) . Transformations In scenario, setting, and symbols facilitate the three major themes of Desire Under the Elms: Puritan theology, naturalism, and the Freudian Oedipal conflict. The mixture of these themes and the tension between them illustrate the concerns particular to the American search for identity and offers archetypal figures in that search. By transforming classical myth, molding contemporary European principles of set design and symbolism to a historic New England milieu, and painting archetypes for identity, O'Neill's play becomes the product of a uniquely American theater and demonstrates the dramatic maturity of its playwright. |
