, Research Paper

The Land and What It SymbolizesThe land is the most indispensable plus to any husbandman. In the drama Desire Under the Elms, this is besides the instance. The land in the drama is the cardinal subject, it holds all of the elements of the drama together. It was the object of greed as good. The farm was the beginning of greed for three of the characters in the drama, Ephraim Cabot, his boy Eben, and his new married woman Abbie. Peter and Simon focused their greed on the Fieldss of gold in the West, chiefly in California. One of the ways in which Eugene O+Neill made the land symbolic in the drama was through the usage of rocks. Throughout the drama rocks, and the walls they created, are mentioned by both Ephraim Cabot and others. The land on this farm was really hapless from the descriptions Ephraim Cabot gives us. The land, from his history, was covered with rocks. In order for him to farm his land, he had to take all the rocks and decided to do walls with them. This was difficult work, but Ephraim Cabot did non mind the back-breaking work because he felt that God was difficult, and this was portion of His program. To Peter and Simon, the rock walls were symbolic in their ain manner. They represented a sense of parturiency and imprisonment. Ephraim Cabot was a adult male of small or no existent emotion. He was really difficult on his kids and his first married woman. As a consequence Eben, Simon, and Peter hated their male parent. They felt trapped into making his wants, and they saw no existent manner out. To Peter and Simon, the rock walls built around the farm by their male parent symbolized their imprisonment for life. This point is clearly shown when Peter and Simon leave to travel find gold in California. In their exultation upon go forthing they say, +The halter+s broke-the harness is busted-the fencing bars is down-the rock walls air crumblin+ an+ tumblin+ ! + ( O+Neill 1076 ) . Eben makes an interesting mention to the rock walls every bit good. He believes that the rock walls caused the deficiency of lovingness and emotion towards their female parent by Peter and Simon. He states, +An+ makin+ walls-stone atop o+ stone-makin+ walls till yer heart+s a rock ye heft up out o+ the manner o+ growing onto a rock wall t+ wall in yer bosom! + ( O+Neill 1069 ) . What he is truly stating is the fact that the many old ages of difficult work on the farm have made Simon, Peter, and of class their male parent Ephraim, immune to emotion or lovingness. All they knew was work, and it was work that had made them and their male parent non care about their first female parent. The land besides is symbolic in other ways as good. Peter, Ephraim, and Simon, as most husbandmans, see the land as a thing of beauty. This can be seen in several topographic points in the drama. O+Neill uses the beauty of the land to depict things wholly unrelated to the land. When Abbie tries to score Eben she uses nature to turn out her point by stating, +H+aint the Sun strong an+ hot? Ye kin experience it burnin+ into the earth-Nature-makin+ thin+s grow-bigger +n+ bigger-burnin+ inside ye-making+ ye want t+ grow-into somethin+ else-till ye+re jined with it-an+ it+s your+n-but it owns ye, too-an+ makes ye turn bigger-like a tree-like them elums-+ ( O+Neill 1081 ) . Eben uses the beauty of the land to depict Minnie, his girlfriend in the beginning of the drama. He says, +her mouth+s wa+m, her arms+re wa+m, she smells like a wa+m plowed field, she+s purty & # 8230 ; + ( O+Neill 1071 ) . Ephraim besides uses the land as a symbol to depict heaven. He describes it by saying, +The sky. Feels like a wa+m field up thar.+ ( O+Neill 1082 ) . Here Ephraim is depicting his old age and what he feels heaven would be like. Peter and Simon even imagine California as being non unlike their farm in New England. In the early portion of the drama they imagine California as +fields o+ gold! + and +Fortunes layin+ merely atop o+ the land waitin+ t+ be picked! + ( O+Neill 1067 ) . What is dry

here is that they imagine gold in California being merely like the rocks in the Fieldss of their father+s farm. In California they would be picking up rocks merely as they had done in New England.

Another portion of the landscape of the farm, and one of the most of import, are the two elm trees on each side of the house. The elms represent the spirit of Eben+s female parent. Ephraim gives a hint to this when he leaves his party and in the pace says, +Ye kin experience it droppin+ off the elums, climbin+ up the roof, sneakin+ down the chimney, pokin+ in the corners! They+s no peace in houses, they+s no remainder livin+ with folks. Somethin+s ever livin+ with ye. I+ll go t+ the barn an+ rest a spell.+ ( O+Neill 1094 ) . This statement has two really of import facets. First, it shows that the spirit of his former married woman is still in the house. Furthermore, it shows Ephraim+s close ties to the land, and illuminates the fact that he can non portion his life with other people. He feels that the animate beings in the barn can understand him better than any human since both the animate beings and Ephraim are close to the land, and neglect to demo emotion. The most of import facet of the land throughout the drama trades with greed. Ephraim Cabot is an highly genitive adult male. He even states that he would instead fire the farm to the land than give it off. Everyone in the drama wants the farm, despite the fact that when Ephraim foremost bought it, many people considered it worthless. He removed all the rocks from the Fieldss, planted them, and raised his animate beings. It is as a consequence of these old ages of difficult work that makes the farm so attractive to everyone, and is in fact the ground why everyone wants it. Ephraim felt that it was God+s will for him to hold to travel through adversities in working the land. God wanted him to be a difficult adult male. And Ephraim felt that it was non right for anyone to hold the luxury of having a farm when he had to construct it with his ain blood and perspiration. This was non what God wanted. And in the terminal of the drama, God did in fact win. Eben feels that he is the rightful inheritor to the land. Abbie, through prevarications and trickery, feels that she is the rightful proprietor of the farm. Ephraim feels that the land will ever be his, and non belong to anyone else. Peter and Simon felt that they were entitled to the land due to the old ages of blood and perspiration they had donated to the land and their father+s wants. In fact, Simon, Peter and Eben hope that Ephraim is dead when he leaves to acquire married in the first scene of the drama. And in the last line of the drama, even the sheriff admits that he would wish to hold the farm every bit good. It is this greed over land that effects every major character in the drama. The true importance of the land becomes really clear by the terminal of the drama. It is what drives all of the characters. It effects their feelings, emotions, and mentality on life. It is all that they know and attention for. Bing husbandmans, it is their support and a beginning of pride, at least for Ephraim. It can besides be used to demo beauty, every bit good as solitariness. The land is life, and the land is decease. The land understands the husbandman, merely as the husbandman understands the land. To the husbandman the land is touchable, while emotions and personal relationships may look immaterial. Throughout history, land has been a beginning of greed and power in many civilisations, and it can make societal position, as it is a limited trade good. Land is more than probably what brought Ephraim Cabot+s ascendants to America. They, as he, saw the true value of the land. But more significantly, the husbandman who lives off the land is in a place to understand it in a manner that is far deeper than it+s stuff value, and this true of Ephraim Cabot every bit good. For these grounds the land in the drama has a most important importance every bit good as a symbolic value.