Distorted Gender Relations in Desire Under the Elms

• Main Authors: Li-Jung Wu, 吳麗蓉
• Other Authors: Nanette Jaynes
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 1999
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/32293292944963673950

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 西洋語文研究所 === 87 === In Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms, the Cabot members are alienated from each other. No one is happy in this family. To the Cabot family, the only goal of their life is to grab the farm. The distorted gender relations make the Cabots produce hatred for each other and without love any longer. The alienated relationship between husband and wife, the suspicion between father and son, and the rivalry between brothers, show the alienation in this family. Superficially the Cabot family is controlled by men, and women who work hard without attaining economic domination are laborers without voices. As a matter of fact, the latter decide the fate of this family and change everyone's lives, especially Abbie and Eben's dead mother. As a matter of fact, there is no difference between man and woman, for we are humans. Love and sharing let people value themselves and those who love them. Someone who insists on absolute individual economic selfhood will be lonely forever.