An early simile is key to establishing the central symbolic role that the elm trees play in Desire Under the Elms. In the very first description of the farmhouse at the beginning of the play, O’Neill writes a dramatic and vivid description of the elm trees surrounding the house, comparing them to “exhausted women”:
They are like exhausted women resting their sagging breasts and hands and hair on its roof, and when it rains their tears trickle down monotonously and rot on the shingles.
This is an incredibly significant simile that sets up many of the themes and symbols throughout the play. Established here, the elms represent the oppressive maternal energy of Maw and Abbie. This is made evident by this first simile, comparing the elm trees to old “exhausted” women who place their “sagging breasts and hands and hair” on the roof and whose tears damage the house. This simile evokes an oppressive and sad image of the elms, presenting them as both protective and oppressive forces. This also speaks to the theme of gender in the play, as the elms are given a specific gender and are seen as both positive and negative. Therefore, this early simile is key in developing the themes and symbols of the play, as well as for setting the somber, depressing mood.
In Part 3, Cabot hosts a party at the farmhouse, becomes inebriated, and decides to start dancing alone in front of the crowd, yelling at the townspeople for being too soft. In this awkward scene, O’Neill vividly describes Cabot’s erratic dancing and, in doing so, uses a simile:
Then he begins to improvise, cuts incredibly grotesque capers, leaping up and cracking his heels together, prancing around in a circle with body bent in an Indian war dance, then suddenly straightening up and kicking as high as he can with both legs. He is like a monkey on a string. And all the while he intersperses his antics with shouts and derisive comments.
In these stage directions, O’Neill uses a simile to describe Cabot’s drunken, “grotesque” dancing. While this is a pivotal scene in the play, the use of a simile to describe Cabot “like a monkey on a string” is significant beyond just describing his dancing: this simile directly refers to how he is being manipulated by Abbie and, to some extent, Eben. Abbie is literally pulling his strings, manipulating Cabot for her own gain by tricking him into believing that the new baby is his son.
Furthermore, this scene reveals how Cabot is disliked and even hated by most of the townspeople, who laugh at the knowledge of Abbie’s infidelity with Eben. They all mock Cabot, especially the Fiddler, and his dancing is seen as embarrassing.
