Desire Under The Elms by Eugene O'Neill

by Eugene O'Neill, Patricia Robinson Jordan (Introduction)

Eben Cabot s future seemed assured when his mother, on her deathbed, secured her husband Ephraim s word that he would leave his fortune to her son. Ephraim gave his word, but the promise came at a price. Two sons from a previous marriage were cut out, making life in the Cabot household miserable while his dispossessed progeny hoped for a change of heart. But, when Ephraim brings home a new wife, Abbie, any plans Eben and his stepbrothers might have had for a carefree future grow dim. The brothers decide to depart for greener pastures; Eben s choice is to stay and fight for what is his. Abbie, however, only entered into the marriage looking to secure a livelihood of her own, and there is no room for Eben in her financial planning. Never loving Ephraim, she cynically begins an affair with Eben to undercut his opposition...and the two enemies find themselves in love. Soon after, she bears Eben s child. To prove she would never love anyone more than Eben, she hatches a plan leading to a tragic conclusion, worthy only of the ancient Greeks.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Classics, Theatre, Fiction, American, School

58 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1924

About the author

American playwright Eugene Gladstone O'Neill authored Mourning Becomes Electra in 1931 among his works; he won the Nobel Prize of 1936 for literature, and people awarded him his fourth Pulitzer Prize for Long Day's Journey into Night , produced in 1956.

He won his Nobel Prize "for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy." More than any other dramatist, O'Neill introduced the dramatic realism that Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg pioneered to Americans and first used true American vernacular in his speeches.

His plays involve characters, who, engaging in depraved behavior, inhabit the fringes of society, where they struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations but ultimately slide into disillusionment and despair. O'Neill wrote Ah, Wilderness! , his only comedy: all his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism.

Reviews

[Georgia Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not one for trigger warnings. They dilute the ink in our pens. I'd rather be knocked off my chair as a reader. And as a writer, I love when readers gasp. Yet, I recommend this with reservations. It's not for everyone. Something happens in it that is shocking and hideous.

The folksy accents can lull you into thinking all will turn out fine. Once you get the hang of the sound ("home" comes out as "hum") you are caught in O'Neill's trap.

Stephen King knows New England. The author of Peyton Place did, too. Put them together and that's Desire Under the Elms.

This is for those who appreciate playwriting with the precision of guillotines.

[Анастасія ꒰⁠⑅⁠ᵕ⁠༚⁠ᵕ⁠꒱⁠˖⁠♡ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ну таке

[Nandakishore Mridula · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love plays which transform the limitations of the stage into possibilities - and this is a great example of the art.

Ephraim Cabot is the quintessential patriarch: playing absolute dictator to his sons on his lonely farm, and lording it over man and beast alike. Simeon and Peter, his sons by his first wife and Eben, his son by his second, all fear and loathe him - but he keeps them tied to the farm by the sheer force of his personality. However, a third marriage to the shrewd gold-digger Abbie results in his elder sons abandoning him and the farm and moving away to California in search of gold. Eben, who believes that Ephraim stole the farm from his mother and it rightly belongs to him, pay them off with her mother's nest egg hidden under the kitchen floor-boards by his father.

Eben is all prepared to hate Abbie, and Abbie is prepared to seduce him to further her ends: but their lust, hatred and cupidity are trumped by the raw passion which arises between them. Abbie bears a son, ostensibly Ephraim's but Eben's in reality. The fierce patriarch is thus reduced to the status of a common cuckold. The equations between the characters keep on shifting kaleidoscopically as the play hurtles towards its disastrous climax: the ending, when it comes, is truly shattering. A tragedy in all its pristine glory.

What makes the play unique, IMO, is the stage setting. It does not change between acts: the audience sees the facade of the Cabot house, with the elms on both sides drooping on to its roof like live beings. All action is glanced through windows: the kitchen, Cabot's bedroom, the sons' bedroom and (towards the end) the parlour which is kept closed since the death of Eben's mother. As the characters move between the floors and rooms, we sense their tensions and their tenuous links to one another and the farm. It also provides a brilliant techniques to use "split-screen" onstage.

The play bears a Biblical message of doom in its womb. Ephraim Cabot is the true patriarchal god, and his children are his weak subjects who keep on trying to break their shackles. Their is also the temptress Abbie, and we can even sense the ghost of the second Mrs. Cabot (an invisible serpent in this twisted garden of eden?). Biblical references and quotes are peppered throughout, albeit in local lingo. The playwright has succeeded in creating a vast religious canvas on the microcosm of the proscenium stage.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A acção da peça decorre numa casa de lavoura, na Nova Inglaterra, em 1850.
As personagens principais são: um fazendeiro septuagenário, casado, recentemente, com uma mulher com menos quarenta anos e o enteado desta com vinte e cinco anos. Esta boda origina uma tragédia mais terrível do que as de Shakespeare.

O teatro de Eugene O'Neill tem uma característica incomum neste género literário: são descritas (entre parênteses) todas as expressões e movimentos das personagens e o resultado é como se estivéssemos a ler um romance com muitos diálogos.


_____________
Prémio Nobel da Literatura 1936
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill nasceu nos Estados Unidos da América (Nova Iorque) em 16 de outubro de 1888 e morreu nos Estados Unidos da América (Boston) em 27 de novembro de 1953.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Desire Under the Elms by Eugene O’Neill was first produced in 1924; like other O’Neill plays, such as Mourning Becomes Electra, it is an attempt to graft the structure and some themes of classical Greek drama in a (more) contemporary setting with autobiographical elements. This one was particularly inspired by Euripedes’ Hippolyta. Set in Victorian New England, the play features a tough, relentless 75-year-old farmer, Ephraim (think Lear or Oedipus), who has three sons (Eben, 25; Simeon, 39, and Peter, 37) from previous marriages, who all hate him. They have worked all their lives for him and want the farm, but have no indication they will get it. The latter two decide to head out west for the Gold Rush. Eben wants to stay.

Meet Abbie, Ephraim’s new (hot) wife, aged 35. She promises him a baby, kind of as a way of cementing her inheritance of the farm. She does this baby-making, as promised, but she doesn’t say with whom (think Oedipus)! This act and its revelation sets off a tragic sequence of events (think Medea) worthy of the classics, and with enough selfish/greedy back-stabbing to make a decent country-western song.

I listened to a version of it and wasn’t a fan of the production. I grew up in a period when I used to see the goofy/dopey Orson Bean on quiz shows. That he plays Ephraim in this production is annoying, and the nineteenth century New England accents are so strong that they get in the way, almost comic. I have to take 1.5 stars off for these things, and some of it feels a little cartoonishly cliched at times, but I did see it once on stage and it was powerful, and on the whole it has power and passion (see title) in it. Is Abbie an Eve figure? Maybe, but the more disturbing character in this play is the unbending Ephraim. No character is really likable, but O’Neill works to help us understand each of them, at least. This is one of O’Neill’s plays where he is working out issues about his relationship to his father.

[Shanae · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only words I can use to describe Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms are: shocking and disturbing. The play is very well written and the characters are so well developed that, as a reader, I felt like I really knew them. I understood Peter and Simeon's bond and their desire to make a life for themselves; I felt Eben's desire to own something and avenge his mother's death, pay Ephraim back for all he had done; I admires Ephraim's hardness and determination to succeed; and sympathized with Abbie's gold digging ways - her desire to come up should not be ignored (lol). These characters are so fascinating alone, but then O'Neill throws in some jealousy, desire, adultery, trickery, murder, and a few Freudian issues and before you know it, you're so into the play you don't want to put it down ever. I'm afraid this story will haunt me and I probably shouldn't have read it so late into the night, but I just couldn't help myself. I will be watching the 1958 film version with the lovely Sophia Loren later...I want to see how the director captured the drama in this play. I truly see Desire Under the Elms fast becoming one of my favorite literary works. It's so amazing.

[Mohammad Javad · Rating 4 out of 5]

زایش تراژدی.

طبق بعضی نظریات در یونان باستان تراژدی دستآویزی برای غلبه بر ترس بود:

جهان مغاک تاریک است و انسان چون نمی‌تواند بر این تاریکی چیره بشود در رنج است. از این‌رو قهرمان تراژدی هم مدام در تقلاست، به درون خلاء چشم می‌دوزد و دست آخر پایش می‌لغزد و سقوط می‌کند، چرا که محکوم به شکست است، اما همین تلاش و تقلا او را تعالی می‌بخشد.

تراژدی ابدی انسان در ستیز باشکوه اما خودویرانگر برای غلبه بر نیروهای حاکم بر حیات آدمی‌ست، تقدیر وسرنوشت، تنهایی و ... . به‌گفته‌ی اونیل تنها چیزی که ارزش نوشتن دارد همین است، که انسان می‌خواهد این نیروها را به خدمت خودش دربیاورد و مانند حیوانات موجودی رام در پهنه‌ی این جهان نباشد.
اما اونیل برای بیان تراژیک‌ش از دگرگونی مدرنی استفاده می‌کند، او عرصه‌ی تقلای انسان را از آسمان‌ها و نیروهای بیرونی برای فهم جهان و مقابله با او به سمت درون معطوف می‌کند و شکل جست‌و‌جویی مالیخولیایی برای نفوذ به دالان‌های تاریک روح به آن می‌دهد.

زایش مدرن ادیپ، هیپولیتوس و مده‌آ در کشمکشی ملودرام با غنا و پیچیدگی همان تراژدی‌ها.

[Comfortably · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ο μεγάλος Ο’Νηλ δημιουργεί το νέο αμερικανικό θέατρο (το εργο γράφτηκε το 1924) και μεγαλουργει με ένα συγκλονιστικό έργο που πραγματεύεται το θέμα της ιδιοκτησίας, τις ανθρώπινες σχέσεις και την καθοριστική αλλοίωση τους λόγω υλισμού, τη σχέση του θεού με τον άνθρωπο, το μοντέλο ενός σκληρού Θεού και τον άνθρωπο καθ'ομοίωση του. Το έργο βασιζόμενο σε δομικά στοιχεία από την αρχαία ελληνική τραγωδία, είναι πολύ πιο σύγχρονο απότι φαντάζει. Η κάθαρση και η αναγέννηση μέσω της καθόδου και της νέμεσις οδηγεί το έργο στην κορύφωση του και ο Ο'Νηλ, ψυχαναλυτής και πολιτικός συζητητής μαζί, φτιάχνει ένα καταπληκτικό συμβολισμό πάνω στην καταδυνάστευση του ανθρώπου από το αμερικάνικο όνειρο που πρέπει να καταστραφεί ως έχει και να ξαναγεννηθεί σε νέα θεμέλια, με άλλη μορφή.

Καλή ανάγνωση.

[Jaksen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lust, greed and revenge. Rage, desire and loathing. This thing reads like a Greek tragedy. Oh, wait! That's the whole point, as it's a more modern interpretation of the myth involving Phaedra, her husband Theseus and stepson Hippolytus.

Every now and then I just want to read a play. Enjoy what's mostly dialogue. Sometimes it's a play I've never read (or seen) before; other times it's one I have. I've seen the movie version of this one, but that was years ago, and plus...

Well, I read it in a few days. There's not a lot more to say than this: Two sons who hate their elderly, widowed father, a farmer, leave home. Youngest son remains believing the farm will eventually be his. Father goes off and returns with a new, young bride. Young bride would rather have stepson in bed rather than fusty old farmer...

Then there's betrayal and murder and long lines of somewhat repetitive dialogue written in vernacular. Get used to 'ye' and 'yew' and lots of apostrophes where letters are dropped - and you get the picture. In literary circles this play was once a 'big deal.' It is still? Not sure about that.

But I do know this, if you watch the movie - or attend a live performance - you'll probably leave with a sense of despair. Nary a kind or joyful word is spoken here and when it is - it's followed by anger, distrust, and all things dark and ugly. Not upbeat by any means.

Three stars

[e.]

rip to freud you'd love this play

[HR Habibur Rahman · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It's a Jim-dandy farm, no denyin'. Wished I owned it!"

The never-ending circle of life, the never-ending circle of desire, the neglected lesson that comes from unchecked passion, the desire to be loved, flirting until it becomes obvious, then going back to the first phase and starting over as a new one without giving much heed to the history, makes us human.

Good luck with Eugene O'Neill's "Hum, Purty, Fust, Mebbe, Waal", and many other sound-based words. O'Neill is famous for using local sounds as words. Where he focuses on sounds and makes words from them. For example, Pretty becomes Purty, Home becomes Hum, First becomes Fust, Well becomes Waal.

Desire Under the Elms is a tragedy that deals with, as its title suggests, DESIRE: the desire of love, the desire of land, the desire of gold, the desire of wealth, the desire to be loved, the desire of passion, the desire of forbidden things. Too much desire is destructive, and it's proven throughout the ages. But who cares! No one knows why actually something happened and they don’t tend to know, as O'Neill has shown at the very last line of this book.

This plot and characterization are so beautifully interwoven by O'Neill that you will feel emotional alteration in every page of this book. Some characters will be hated by you, some you will love for a short period of time, some will tell you to be sympathetic with them but you won't, some will make you feel like crying inside out.

One thing is clear for sure that what is wrong is wrong in every sphere of life, in every age of humanity, it will burn you to the ashes no matter how pure you think your doings are.

This book will show the sheer desire for life's commodities. The hidden truth of desire is anger, stubbornness, trying to prove something. At one point we think we cannot live without some particular thing but at another point we feel that's just not worth it. Even so, we seek for another desire and this cycle goes on and on. To break down this part, according to this book, it can be said about almost every character. The way Ephraim Cabot wanted to keep the farm, for which he even desired to live 100 more years; the way Eben Cabot also wanted this farm as his own; and even Abbie Putnam tried for the same thing. The plot faced so much plotting that, even incest couldn’t be spared.

Overall this is a book that can make you, while reading, think about life's harshness, the meaninglessness of once desired things, and think about the reality that everyone wants to avoid. Nothing is your own, not even those things or persons that you feel are yours. As someone said, what you can sell is yours, nothing else is. The never ending cycle of wanting, desiring to make something or someone one's own, will be in this world as long as this world breathes. We will know, understand, see, but we won't stop thinking something as ours, we will quarrel, fight, even die for that cause but never take lessons from history or our discovery. This is one conspiracy with mankind. 

Be a rider of reality-based, uncomfortable feeling giver the most beautiful book "Desire Under the Elms".
 

[W]

Movie Review

One thing is for sure,Eugene O'Neill wrote about some uncomfortable subjects.It has an incestous theme,a young man's lust for his old father's new young wife.

It is also about dysfunctional family dynamics,how property can become a bone of contention and how family members can end up hating each other.

Interesting movie and the presence of Anthony Hopkins and Sophia Loren helps as well.

3 stars for the movie.

[emonorwid]

i simply Did Not vibe.......freudians probably had a field day with this one but i'm not a fan of dealing with daddy issues like that < / 3 rip to eugene o'neill but i'm different

[Anastasia · Rating 2 out of 5]

*Read for class.

I don't really have anything to say. Wasn't very impressed. It was just fine, I don't understand the greatness of O'Neill. Maybe I need to read more from him.

[Clinton Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 30-40 years I need to find a production of "Desire Under the Elms" and play Ephraim. This is one of my two dream roles at the moment, though I will have to wait a while to get to try this one on. (The other dream role is Renfield in any adaptation of "Dracula", my more immediate acting aspiration.)
"Desire Under the Elms" is a masterpiece. The blending of Greek tragedy with Modern Realism works beautifully and helps make the characters sometimes outlandish motivations seem very real and immediate. The characters are clearly defined, the motivation is rooted in the emotional life of the characters, and the conflicting intentions of the characters combine for Maximum Drama. The use of the dance party gives a realistic motivation for a chorus of characters outside of the main plot to comment on the action and bring some levity before Eugene O'Neill brings down the hammer and hits you in the gut. This play pulls no punches and speaks to the deeper desires that push ordinary people to do horrifying things.

[أحمد · Rating 4 out of 5]

إنه عبقريّ ولا يزال، ولكن .. كان السؤال الذي ظل يدوي في أذني خلال الصفحات الأخيرة الفاجعة من هذه المأساة، هو .. لماذا؟!، لماذا؟!، لماذا؟!، وأنهيتها ولم أرغب في قراءة المقدّمة التي تجاوزتها وطويت المسرحية ونهضت، ولم استطع أن أجمع تركيزي لفترة في شيء آخر سوى هذه اللماذا؟!، فقمت إليها مرة أخرى، لأقرأ تلك المقدمة إياها، وصراحة!، شعرت بالندم لأنني لم أقرأ مقدّمة د. علي الراعي، والتي بالتأكيد مع جمالها لا يُنصح بقراءتها قبل قراءة المسرحية!، ثم أنه في هذه المقدمة طرح ذات اللماذا!، وأجاب عنها إجابه جميلة إلى حد ما، ولكن الأمر كله لا يزال ناقصًا!، فما زلت لا أصدّق هذه النهاية أبدًا!، أو أحسب إنها لم تُنسج أسبابها بشكل مقنع خلال الفصول السابقة عليها!، أو مثلما استشهد كاتب المقدّمة بقول الناقد الأمريكي "جون جاسنر" عن أن يوجين أونيل هنا:

يدفع شخصياته دفعًا مبالغًا فيه نحو مصائرها المحتومة ويسمح لعواطفها أن تنفجر بلا كياسة أو رشاقة، فيجلب بهذا على نفسه تهمة الميلودراما

وإن لم أحس بهذه الميلودراما إلا في الأسطر الأخيرة الدامية!، فهي ومع ذلك مسرحية فاتنة!، مع ترجمة بديعة

[وائل المنعم · Rating 3 out of 5]

مسرحية امريكية نموذجية لهذه الفترة وهذه الأجواء، شخصيات عنيدة وقوية تستمد جبروتها من الظروف الصعبة التي تعيشها، رغبات مجنونة تتجاوز المالوف، وصراع ينتهي بخسارة كل الأطراف. أونيل أستاذ في التشويق ودفع الأحداث للأمام، تستولي المسرحية على ذهنك بعد قراءة أول مشهد وحتى النهاية، شخصية الأب من أعظم الشخصيات الدرامية وأتفهم دوافعها تماما، الابن كذلك رسمت شخصيته بحنكة، أما الزوجة فكانت نقطة الضعف لأن وجودها يبدو كمحرك للأحداث أكثر منه وجود مستقل.

المسرحية مترجمة للغة العربية ولكن حتى وإن كانت إنجليزيتك متوسطة فبقليل من الجهد يمكنك قراءتها بلغتها الأصلية - كحال أغلب المسرحيات - وهذا أفضل مئات المرات من أي ترجمة.

على هامش المسرحية: في عام 1981 قدم رأفت الميهي فيلم مقتبس من المسرحية تحت عنوان (عيون لا تنام) قام فيه بتغيير النهاية أظن بسبب مزاج المشاهد المصري، نهاية جعلت جانب الحب يتوارى أمام جانب جبروت الأب.

[Theo Logos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Desire Under The Elms was an attempts by O’Neill to translate Greek tragedy to an American setting. A kind of mashup of Oedipus and Medea, it is tragic enough. Yet, unlike Greek tragedy, there are no noble characters. Every character is low and mean. The tragedy lacks the impact it could have had if any of the characters had been even marginally sympathetic. I was unimpressed.

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Themes: Greek tragedy - power and pride, love and loss, incest and infanticide. Style: naturalism. Setting: rural America.

[Bere Tarará · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un relato de un autor poco conocido en español, un drama que recuerda a Steinbeck

[Miranda Marquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

WHAT THE WHAT? 😭 how tragic! Jesus I didn’t expect the baby murder at the end. And the whole new mother/lover thing had me making faces on the treadmill. I liked it more than I thought though, I liked the male characters in this wayyyyy more than the main guy in Anna Christie. Again, love a good morally grey character, but WOW. Eugene O’Neill was really going thru it or something. Enjoyable audiobook listen.

[رضوى · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't enjoy it at all

[Elsa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Freud estaría orgulloso

[M.Mercè · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una Fedra del segle XX. Passió, obsessió i poder.
Cal destacar el llenguatge, ja que la traducció ha intentat ser fidel a l’original i incorpora una llengua dialectal i col·loquial, gràcies a l’ajuda del doctor Pere Navarro, un savi de la nostra riquesa lingüística.

[عدنان العبار · Rating 5 out of 5]

Desire Under the Elums is one of the greater dramas of the past century. A tragedy about love, lust, seduction, infidelity, tribulation, anger, anguish, betrayal, and desire.

Ephraim Cabot is an old man with a great farm, and among his children who wish to inherit it (Peter, Simeon, and Eben) there is a tension about to whom the farm belongs. Eben claims having the right, because in the marriage contract his mother signed, it was specifically written that she would claim it as her dowry. Peter and Simeon claim that they also have a claim, being his elder siblings. But Ephraim is a strong man, who although knows his end is coming, knows also of his strength and vitality. At the old age of 75, he has survived all his friends and has still strength of strenuous manual labour at the farm. Peter and Simeon know that there would be a slim chance of inheriting the farm since their father has recently married a woman a hair less than half his age. He buys from them their share (300 US dollars) so that he removes all disputes and they go to California for the Gold (the play seems to be set during the Gold Rush era). Now, there is a strong contender for the inheritance; that is, if they can survive the old man.

Abbie, his new wife, is a succubine willing to inherit the farm at any cost and makes it apparent to the man and the boy, to which both are not willing to forego the farm for her. The drama ensues, and here, O'Neill brilliantly shifts the air of hilarity to foreshadow a tragic downfall. Irony dominates the drama and we start to see Abbie's attractions overcoming young Eben.

This is a story of the ages. It is so wonderful. I shall not spoil it any further, but want to comment on Ephraim, my favorite character of the play. Ephraim is full of vitality, and yet, he recognizes that no one has proved his worth to earn the farm. He does not even offer the farm, but upon knowing he will have a new son, is willing to give it to the new child in prospect of shaping the child to his image. The farm rightfully belongs to Ephraim, (if we disregard him giving it to his late wife), and even though no one wants to acknowledge that, he really does and he is frustrated that no one wants to acknowledge his ownership of the farm. This issue is central to the play, and absolutely beautiful. He would rather it burn than hand it down to his sons who he thinks do not deserve it.

I just love this play so much, from the style of writing (characteristic of O'Neill), blending the solemn and official, often poetic, English, with the North Eastern dialect of New England. Especially that the word Elum substitutes Elm. At first, it's a bit hard to read, but then it becomes very natural. What a beautiful book altogether.

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Desire Under the Elms by Eugene O’Neill
10 out of 10


‘Thank God for small mercies’ – for some days now I have been tracking the National Channel number Three, which has on every evening, without exception, a theater production at eight o’clock and for an annoying time, play after play has been either compromised by acting, directing or both – Caligula by Albert Camus is a case in point - http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/06/c... - or in a few instances, it was the work itself that did not promise much and delivered even less – The enigma in the will, based on graves by Mihail Sadoveanu is an example in this sense http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/06/t...

Desire Under the Elms appears sublime, a performance worthy of a Tony Award in comparison, albeit this is largely due to lowered expectations – once you are witness to a series of exaggerated, preposterous, shouted, barked, howled representations, when you are blessed with acting and directing that approach the normal, restrained, decent, cerebral, subdued renditions you feel you have reached heaven- and we can look forward to this evening’s offering, The Deputy by Rolf Hochhuth, in the program as The Vicar - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deputy
although I have seen this play in 1917 and remembered vaguely the characters and anticipated some of the events - http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/04/n... - much of the plot was obscure though and there is a feeling that I am reading too much for the feeble capacity of this brain, which has increasingly the tendency to forget a book written not long ago…well, Desire Under the elms has some traits that may be forgettable and others that we can see shared with other works – the marvelous author, Eugene O’Neill, ‘attempts to adapt elements and themes of Greek tragedy’

The opening scenes remind me of Stumbling Upon Happiness by Harvard Professor Daniel Gilbert http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/06/s... - in which we find about some popular Myths, which include the idea that if I get tenure, or this man or woman would be elected president I would be blissfully happy and then there is the California or Caribbean island myth – we tend to say that if I were to live in California, this Caribbean island – even Santorini seems to be enough for the undersigned in some of his happiness exercises which is suggested to include Imagine the Best Possible future or a version of that Imagine the Best Possible Self – I would be elated…the truth of this has been tested and it is contradicted by the phenomenon called Hedonic Adaptation – once we get to the west Coast or that idyllic island, we adapt to the palm trees, the splendid weather – which occasionally includes hurricanes, or severe draughts that had affected Californians to the point where in various places baths were forbidden, grass was dried and painted green for use of precious water was limited – and then start to see the shortcomings, major traffic jams, on the islands, huge bills for electricity and many other things, power cuts and thus the anticipated paradise becomes just another location…

Simeon and Peter talk just about this California Dreaming, though in their case it could well work, for it is not just a question of lamenting about the place where they are and anticipating just a major difference made by weather, or the simple move, their travelling to the West coast looks like a transformation of their life, because they had lived in what looks like servitude, obeying their cruel and overbearing father, Ephraim Cabot, now seventy five, a man with an obsession for property, selfish to the point where he would say to his third wife, Abbie Putnam, that when he dies, he wants to still…keep his property, which will still be his if he gives it to the one he thinks of as his son, who, having his own blood will perpetuate this idea that he will own everything even when he will be six feet under…
Simeon and Peter are the sons from the first marriage of Ephraim Cabot and they mock, Eben, probably we could consider him the main character, the hero of this play, who is twenty five and offers to pay for the share of the departing step brothers, who treat him with contempt, move on to speak of his habit of seeing Minnie, apparently a woman that has had sex with all, first with Simeon they say, then with Peter, only to remember that there is Ephraim, and he was the first…Eben, who is pure, innocent, moral and vulnerable when compared with his step brothers and indeed, the other few personages, takes the side of Minnie.

He would do so again, in a quarrel with Abbie Putnam, accusing the latter of being a liar and a cheat, worse than the whore, for that one is open and honest about her business, while Abbie has deceived him, trapping the young man – her step son at that point – into a vicious scheme through which she will have gained the property she is so obsessed with – at least this is the feeling, nay, certitude he has after confronting his old, but still vicious, selfish, property obsessed father, who boasts about the fact that he had come fifty years before and they all laughed when he got this land with rocks and they kept saying that wheat does not come from rocks and look at what he has made out of this farm…His Farm!
All three sons are wondering where the old man has disappeared, for he had left two months ago and they have no news of him since – maybe he died somewhere they wonder – but none of them seems to consider his thereabouts with affection, on the contrary, as the father himself says, they hate him – Eben is sure that Ephraim is the one who killed his mother, overworking and treating her with such monstrous indifference and tyrannical demands that the exhausted woman died as a consequence – now he is sure the farm is his, but one of the step brothers is amused – ‘tell him about that and I bet he will laugh for the first time in his life’

Ephraim Cabot arrives with a major surprise – albeit if you know someone capable of anything, then nothing he does should surprise you – a woman of thirty five comes with him, Abbie Putnam, and she is the wife that exchanged vows with such an old man in order to get the house – however, when she says my house, he corrects her – ‘ha, it is my house, my room…at best, our room’ – in conversation with her step son, Eben, Abbie tries to reason and threaten him at the same time, explaining that she understands, but they are similar in that they have suffered, she has had a terrible life and now she wants this to be her house, her kitchen…

It will all get complicated, for is she first tries to accuse Eben unfairly in front of his father, for an attempted rape or abuse he has not had in mind – he just said to her repeatedly go to the devil, at least in translation, the production we had last night on television was in the local language – then she loves the younger man to the point where she loses it all, maybe…

[Ali · Rating 2 out of 5]

A satiric play,also tragic, critical and full of movements,
هوس زیر درختان نارون، نوعی بازگویی اسطوره ی (یونانی) فدرا، هیپولیتوس و تزه است. افراییم کابوت، مزرعه اش در نیوانگلند را به دست سه پسرش که از او متنفرند، رها می کند و می رود. "ابِن"، جوان ترین و با هوش ترینشان مزرعه را حق خود می داند چرا که در واقع به مادر او تعلق دارد. پس سهم نابرادری هایش، پیتر و سیمئون را با پولی که از پدر دزدیده، می خرد. برادران به کالیفرنیا می روند. اما بعد از مدتی سر و کله ی افراییم با همسر تازه اش که دختر زیبایی به نام "اَبی"ست، پیدا می شود. اَبی و اِبِن در خیانت به افرائیم، هم آغوشی می کنند و اَبی حامله می شود. او برای آن که آواره نشود، طوری وانمود می کند که از افرائیم آبستن شده. افراییم چنان به خود مشغول و مغرور است که متلک همسایه ها را هم که او را دیوث و بی غیرت می خوانند، در نمی یابد. اَبی که سخت عاشق اِبِن شده، وحشت دارد چیزی این رابطه را خدشه دار کند، پس بچه را در شکم خود می کشد. اِبِن او را تحویل کلانتر می دهد، اما پیش از آن، به عشق عمیقش به اَبی اعتراف می کند و می گوید که او را بخاطر فرزندکشی نمی بخشد.
این نمایش نامه به نام هوس زیر درختان نارون به فارسی ترجمه شده است، توسط کدام مترجم؟ چه انتشاراتی؟ به خاطر ندارم. شاید هم بخاطر دیدن فیلمی هالیوودی که از روی این نمایش نامه ساختند و سال ها پیش در ایران هم نمایش داده شد، این تصور در ذهن من باقی مانده که نمایش نامه ترجمه شده است.

[Nikola Korbuc · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be quite frank, the more appropriate rating would be 3.5-3.8 or thereabouts. The only major qualm I have with this play, though well-crafted and containing finely written dialogue in respect to its overall setting, is that it simply ain't tragic enough. The ending, in particular, could have been executed far better, the atmosphere being just a tad bit too vaguely saccharine - though indeed tragic - thereby taking away, somewhat, from the gloomy passion-imbued darkness that overarches the whole of the drama, much like the two brooding elm trees that loom over the Cabot house. Still, the hick-distilled symbolism, psychology of the characters, and the general ambient make for an interesting read, I'll concede. I should believe this work to be far superior when actually acted out, of course, and I may even raise its rating up a notch if I get the chance to see one of its better reproductions (thereby perchance assuring myself of its tragic virtù).

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone is tragically crazy here. That's the biggest impression I got from this play.
At first it was a bit difficult to read because of spelling and grammar and nonsense, but after couple of pages it got easirer(the trick is, you don't need to understand every word).
Everything is a big mixup, everyone fucks up(pardon my French) and there is Oedipus complex involved, and old dudes who think they can make children at 75... well, crazy.

[Jim Leckband · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another play where O'Neill is working out his angst over his domineering father. The odd dialect is weird since it is rural New England, not known for *that* much of a need of a dialect. I thought it distracted from the main issues and did not illuminate much except that these were farm folk. The elms were meant to be symbolic, but they were left with not much to do.