O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms is a tragedy. The play is inspired and modeled after ancient Greek tragic plays by Euripides and Sophocles—Hippolytus and Oedipus Rex, respectively. Like Hippolytus and Oedipus Rex, Desire Under the Elms centers on the plot of a stepmother falling in love with her stepson, and in the case of Oedipus Rex, an unknowingly incestuous relationship. These are both tragic plays that end in suffering and death for the characters.
The genre of tragedy, specifically in the Western tradition, stretches from its origins in ancient Greek theater through Shakespeare’s time to the modern day, including 20th-century dramas such as Desire Under the Elms. The tragedy genre is a type of drama focused on the exploration of human suffering, most often without a happy ending. Tragedies explore how people react to bad—often realistic—situations, exploring the complexities of human emotion. Ultimately, tragedies seek to ask existential questions about humanity and our role in the world. Desire Under the Elms is a tragedy that ends with death. Its plot closely resembles the ancient Greek tragedies that it is inspired by, as well as the long history of Western theatrical tragedies.
