Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Desire Under the Elms, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Desire, Revenge, and Tragedy
Farming, Labor, and Poverty
Gender
Religion, Faith, and Suffering
Summary
Analysis
Simeon and Peter are finishing breakfast in the kitchen at dawn. Eben hasn’t touched his food—he feels it in his gut that Cabot is getting close. When Eben shares this, Simeon and Peter automatically get up to start work but then quickly remember that they’ve decided not to: if Even wants the farm, he’ll have to do all the work. Incredulous, Eben wonders if this means his brothers will sign the papers and hand over the farm to him. Simeon and Peter tease Eben that they might. Eben wanders outside and takes in the farm, thinking to himself it’s beautiful, and it’s his.
Eben’s emotionally charged desire for the farm seems to cloud his judgement, while Simeon and Peter are able to think more practically and carefully about their best course of action. As before, the characters emphasize that farm work involves a lot of perpetual, daily labor.
Themes
In the kitchen, Simeon and Peter kick up their feet and pour themselves some whisky. Feeling a little restless, they decide to get some fresh air. They wonder if this is their last day slaving to make stone walls before finding freedom and gold in California. They even decide to help Eben milk the cows, as the animals aren’t used to Eben tending to them. As the brothers turn to the barn, they see Cabot and his bride, Abbie Putnam, in the distance, riding towards them. Eben runs towards Simeon and Peter, breathlessly asking if they’ll sign the deed before leaving. The pair agree to sign, and Eben runs to get his bag of money.
Simeon and Peter are so used to working hard on the farm that they find it hard to relax, which again speaks to the constant labor that a farm requires. Most of the boys’ labor (digging up stones) is unfruitful: it doesn’t bring them crops and income, but merely traps them on the farm. The stones (and stone walls in particular) symbolize the idea that farm life is like imprisonment—it demands constant back-breaking effort but yields little freedom, happiness, or wealth in return. Eben continues exposing his impulsiveness: he throws all the money he has at Simeon and Peter for their shares of the farm as soon as he sees Cabot and Abbie approaching, even though it’s not clear that he will actually be able to inherit the farm now that Cabot has remarried.
Themes
Simeon and Peter hand over the signed deed, collect Eben’s money, and promise to send Eben a lump of California gold for Christmas. Awkwardly, they all say goodbye. Peter and Simeon decide to wait and see what Cabot’s new wife looks like. They grin, feeling free. They gleefully imagine the farm’s stone walls crumbling as they sail away into the sun. Their faces grow grim as Cabot approaches. Cabot is 75-years-old, with a hard face. He’s extremely short sighted and his eyes always look like they’re straining. Abbie is a vivacious, curvy, 35-year-old sensual beauty. She looks strong, yet untamed, much like Eben. Abbie’s excited that the farm is hers.
The imagery of crumbling stone walls represents Simeon and Peter’s freedom: they are finally free of the relentless, exhausting labor that brings them no wealth. This metaphor suggests that farm life (represented by the stones themselves) is overwhelmingly unrewarding. The substantive age and attractiveness differences between Abbie and Cabot, and her immediate excitement about owning the farm, suggest that Abbie married Cabot to secure the farm for herself, implying that she is cleverly manipulating him for her own purposes.
Themes
Literary Devices
Cabot wonders why Simeon and Peter are just standing there instead of working, and he introduces Abbie to them as their new mother. Abbie goes inside, cooing about her house. Simeon and Peter know that Eben will be unhappy to hear Abbie calling the house hers. Cabot commands Simeon and Peter to get to work. They gleefully tell him they’re going to California. They joke about burning down the farm and raping Abbie. Cabot swears, calling them sinful, as they whoop and yell about being free. In a sudden fit of rage, Cabot lunges at them, threatening to have them locked up in an asylum. Simeon and Peter slip away, singing about heading to California.
It's clear that Cabot works his sons very hard: his first reaction upon seeing them for the first time in months is to scold them for not working. But Cabot’s tough work-ethic ends up turning his sons against him: Simeon and Peter are visibly happy, suggesting that their ability to plan an alternative future for themselves (despite the years of labor they’ve dedicated to the farm) is liberating. Their comments about raping Abbie show, as before, that men have derogatory attitudes towards women in this society, and they typically reduce women to sexual objects.
Themes
Literary Devices
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Abbie leans out of a window, gushing about how pretty her bedroom is. Cabot says it’s their bedroom. She grimaces involuntarily. Abbie enters the kitchen and sees Eben. Noticing how good looking he is, Abbie introduces herself seductively, claiming that she wants to be friends. Sympathetically, Abbie tells Eben that she lost her mother, too, and then married a drunk who also died. Now, she’s finally free. Angrily, Eben says the farm is his; with a laugh, Abbie says that it’s hers. Mesmerized by her, Eben agrees. Then suddenly, he yells and storms outside. Outside, Cabot is cursing the poor state of the farm, saying that Eben will never be a real man.
Abbie’s grimace at the thought of sharing a bedroom with Cabot suggests that she is not attracted to him at all and even finds him repulsive. This, coupled with the brief backstory she gives Even, suggests that Abbie has devised a plan to secure her own future wealth by inhering the farm, after suffering a hard life. It’s clear that there’s a strong attraction between Abbie and Eben—their desire for each other is immediate and palpable, even though Abbie is now Eben’s stepmother. Abbie easily leverages this attraction to trick Eben into agreeing that the farm is hers, showing that she has a powerful hold over him—and likely Cabot, too. Cabot, meanwhile, berates his sons because he thinks they don’t work hard, which hints at his belief that people need to suffer and endure difficult labor to be good people.
Themes
