Adapted from the plot of Euripides and Sophocles’s ancient Greek plays, Desire Under the Elms takes place in 1850s New England on a family farm. Specifically, it is set during the California Gold Rush (which took place between 1848 and 1855), when thousands rushed to move west in an attempt to quickly get rich by mining newly found gold in California. This time period is significant because it was right before the Industrial Revolution, when farm labor was not industrialized and thus more labor intensive. This setting is unique because O’Neill chooses to adapt a grand, tragic plot from ancient Greek plays to a less glamorous, more realistic setting: a farmhouse.
The play's action takes place in the farmhouse and on the farm itself. Nature and the physical world play important symbolic roles in the play, including the elm trees and the stones embedded in the farmland. This is evident from the first physical description of the house in the stage directions:
The house is in good condition but in need of paint. Its walls are a sickly grayish, the green of the shutters faded. Two enormous elms are on either side of the house. They bend their trailing branches down over the roof.
All of the action, the characters' motivations, and the plot are rooted in the farm and farmhouse itself. The physical setting is what motivates the characters to go to such lengths to get control of the farm, destroying their lives in the process. Eben and Abbie both seek to inherit the farm and farmhouse for themselves, and Cabot has shaped his entire life around working the difficult farmland believing that he is working in God’s will. Therefore, the setting itself is key in progressing the plot. Furthermore, it demonstrates the characters’ complicated relationships with this land and house that has long been their home, for better or for worse.
