Three Plays Summary
Eugene O'Neill

Three Plays Summary

This collection of plays by one of America's best known and most acclaimed dramatists explores variations on the central theme of family. Epic in both length and emotional scope, all three plays (written in the early years of the 20th Century) broke new ground in their explorations of sexuality, relationships, and theatrical storytelling. In doing so, they also explore secondary themes relating to the corruptible power of both love and revenge, and the complicated relationship between past and present.

The first of the three plays is Desire under the Elms, set in rural New England in the mid-1800s and written with a style of dialogue that carefully and deliberately evokes the lack of education of its characters. The narrative traces the struggle of Eben, youngest child of hard-edged farmer Ephraim Cabot, to retain what he believes to be his rights to the farm brought by his now dead mother into... View more of the Three Plays Summary