Desire Under the Elms by Eugene O'Neill (Questions with Answers)

How does O'Neill brings out the image of women in Desire Under the Elms.

    O’Neill presents women as victims of male’s greed and cruelty and at the same time it is women who are driven by a desire for property. They are shown as lustful too. To bring out this image of women O’Neill resorts to myth, symbol and the technique of naturalism. Women are sufferers and objects to be enjoyed and used for the benefits of men. Ephraim Cabot had married Eben’s mother mainly because of farm. He didn’t care for her in other ways. She worked hard but her husband didn’t treat her as an equal partner. She suffered a lot because of him. Her death can be blamed on him. It shows that the old Cabot married her and used her only as a means to get the farm. Read More...

    Samuel Beckett: Endgame       Beckett’s play Endgame belongs to the theatre of the Absurd as it views life as meaningless and beyond human rationality to understand. It shows the influence of existentialist philosophy Read More...

    Arthur Fugrad: The Master Harold ::: and the boys     Athol Fugrad’s Master Harol…. and the boys is written in South African context and the issue of apartheid is central in the play. Read More...

    Marsha Norman: Night, Mother       Marsha Norman’s one act play Night Mother is basically about Jessie, who is preparing for suicide which may have been provoked by her relation with the other people and the failure of communication and lack of understanding in that relation. Read More...

    Anton Chekov: The Cherry Orchard    The history of the early twentieth century Russian society is the history of social transition, transformation. The late 19th century Russian society was struggling to be free from the shibboleth of the dying feudal aristocracy. Read More...

    Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest     A comedy is a play with happy ending and aims at making people laugh at certain follies, vanities, hypocrisies and weaknesses of people for reforming society. Read More...

    William Congreve: The Way of the World     Restoration drama had to depict the contemporary times. There was a moneyed class with a search for pleasure. Money became the main concern of the people. Read More...

    William Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream     Shakespeare explores the issues of inconsistency in human nature and relation by creating a world of dream where the characters behave in an irrational way by running after dreams, fantasies and romance that lead to anarchy, chaos, and confusion. Read More...

     William Shakespeare: Hamlet       Hamlet is a revenge tragedy written in the line of Roman senecan tragedy. It is the tragedy of reflection and moral sensitivity. The protagonist is very reflective and too sensitive thus unfit for taking revenge throug action. Read More...

    William Shakespeare: The Tempest     The play’s major focus is on Prospero’s quest for perfection, knowledge and power. He devotes himself to learning even to the extent of neglecting his duties as a ruler. Read More...

    Sophocles: Oedipus Rex       Oedipus Rex vividly dramatizes the tension between individuals and their interdependences as well. As the city of Thebes has been paralyzed by a plague the people expect something from the king to end their suffering. Read More...

    Aristophenes: Lysistrata     Aristophanes takes up the issue of war in the cities of ancient Greece and satirizes war for the loss of life and property it has caused. Through a conflict between the sexes he exposes the futility of war and the devastation it has brought about. Read More...

    Lady Gregory: The Rising of the Moon     Lady Gregory’s The Rising of the Moon is an explicitly political play dealing with the relation between England and Ireland trying to fight for freedom from English rule. Read More...

The Tempest as a play about colonialism.

    Colonialism began much earlier with Columbus’ discovery of America. It was a big issue during Shakespeare’s time. The opening up of new frontiers and new land being discovered stimulated European information. Shakespeare’s imagination has taken this in to account. Exploration of new geographical spaces and control of those lands by the explorers is basically what we know by colonialism. Read More...

The Tempest as a Renaissance Drama.

    The play’s major focus is on Prospero’s quest for perfection, knowledge and power. He devotes himself to learning even to the extent of neglecting his duties as a ruler. Use of magic is a weapon through which he can attain perfection. He attains to the status of God on the island assigning roles to the people, commanding and punishing them whenever they go wrong. The act of Antonio’s usurpation of power gives us insights into the evil that was apart of Renaissance politics. Read More...