Myth as Tragic Structure in Desire Under the Elms

MYTH AS TRAGIC STRUCTURE IN DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS IT IS CUSTOMARY to point to the underlying Oedipal theme of Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the El1118 and to link this play with Mourning Becomes Electra as evidence of his consuming interest in the Oedipus theme, both as myth and complex. The use of myth, or classical source, in Electra is obvious, for O'Neill takes great pains to insure that no one misses the elaborate series of correspondences that his trilogy effects . Less elaborate, but equally effective, is his reliance on the Hippolytus of Euripides (and, perhaps, on Racine's treatment of the theme) in Desire Under the Elms. That the play is a tragedy, few will dispute (although early critics tended to see it as a mere shoddy domestic tragedy). It combines a traditional tragic theme (the Oedipus legend) with a dramatic reconciliation , in the interests of a higher virtue (Justice). Abbie and Eben, as they are reconciled to their fate (which they will), assume a dignity which approaches tragic stature. As they acknowledge their guilt and enter into the process of expiation, their characters tend to become generalized , and O'Neill manages to suggest something approaching the idea of universal justice. On the bare framework of a New England domestic tragedy, O'Neill has grafted a religious symbology, almost an iconography. The Biblical names, while "locally" motivated (a man like Ephraim Cabot could be expected to name his sons after characters in the Bible), seem to dictate at least some of the actions of the characters, and even take on the beginnings of a dialectic. Thus, Peter ("the rock") is associated throughout the play with rocks and stones: Here-it's stones atop 0' the ground-stones atop 0' the stonesmakin ' stone walls-year atop 0' the year.... (I,i) And it is Peter who first picks up a rock to cast at his father's house. Simeon, on the other hand, reiterates the idea of an eye for an eye (of the Indians which they will presumably meet on the way to California, he retorts that they will repay them "a hair fur a hair"), and in revenge on his tyrannical father, he threatens to rape his new wife. One recalls Jacob's ''blessing'' of his sons: Simeon and Levi are brothers; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. 0 my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united! for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall. 42 1962 MYTH AS TRAGIC STRUCTURE Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel. . . . (Genesis, XLIX,5) 43 In Desire, it is Simeon who "digs down a wall," tearing the gate off the hinges, abolishing "shet gates, an' open gates, an' all gates, by thunder!" The predominant features of his two eldest sons are combined in Ephraim: he is hard and stony, and embodies the ancient law of retaliation in kind. He is Ephraim, progenitor of the Tribes of Israel, the archetypal patriarch (and for O'Neill, the father-figure). His name ("the fruitful") may be an underlying source of irony by the end of the play, and it is significant that his "fruitfulness" is the greatest source of his hubris. He is also identified specifically with God, both in his harshness and his solitude. Like Ezra Mannon, he is the embodiment of that blighting New England Biblical tradition which represses life. Eben (Ebenezer? "store of hope") is a typical O'Neill son. The hope of the line (Simeon and Peter are patently unfit to carry on the name), he is condemned to be placed in constant strife with his father, denying his obvious resemblance to the man he hates. The rivalry is characteristically O'Neill: the father has usurped what the son regards as rightfully his own (the mother and the land). This pattern of rivalry and usurpation is repeated in the male Cabot's relationship with Min, the "scarlet woman"; first Ephraim claimed her, then Simeon, Peter, and finally Eben, who is enraged on learning that here too, they are "his...