Greed and passion in Eugene O'Neill's Desire under the ELMS

In studying and analyzing a literary work, students do not merely enlarge their vocabulary and grammar. They may gain many advantages from studying literature. For example, literature can bring pleasure in their lives so that they may not feel bored because of the monotonous days. Their experience also broadens and deepens for literature communicates important experience. Literature adds their knowledge and outlook on both life and world as well. The writer has chosen drama as the subject matter of her study because the language of drama or play is more natural and put in the appropriate context. Eugene O'Neill is chosen in this study because he is one of the American greatest playwrights. He had already won four Pulitzer Prizes for literature and a Nobel prize. Desire under the Elms is one of the famous plays that Eugene O'Neill ever wrote. There are two problem statements that lead the writer to analyze greed and passion on the Desire Under the Elms: (1) which characters represent Greed and passion? (2) How are Greed and Passion revealed in this play? To answer the first and second questions the writer collects some utterances from the play of Desire under the Elms that show greed and passion. After that, the writer begins her analysis. She analyzes the main characters (Ephraim, Eben, and Abbie), the plot and then the setting. Considering that the nature of this study is qualitative literary analysis, consequently, the writer in this study does not only act as the data collector but also as the instrument of the study. In this case the writer uses her skill and competence to understand the play entirely and to analyze the greed and passion. The data is taken from Eugene O'Neill's play, Desire under the Elms. To answer the questions the writer collects some utterances from the play of Desire under the Elms that show greed and passion. After analyzing Eugene O'Neill Desire under the Elms, the writer finds that there are two characters that represent greed. They are Ephraim Cabot and Abbie Putnam. They portray greed when Ephraim and Abbie seize the farm without consideration for needs of other people. As a father Ephraim never thinks the welfare of his family, he prefers burning the farm to giving it to his sons or his wife. Abbie marries Ephraim just for getting wealth, Ephraim's farm. This drama also describes passion when hatred turns into love. Through all the analysis, there are two characters portraying passion. They are Eben Cabot and Abbie Putnam. Eben's wish to possess the farm is the passion that Eben has before having affair with Abbie. His passion toward the farm is clearly seen when Eben knows that the farm actually belongs to his mother, he fights as hard as he can so, till it well become his. Therefore, when Eben suspects that Abbie will steal the farm from him Eben hates Abbie severely. Nevertheless this situation is not getting longer when Abbie could behave as a lover and a mother for Eben, hatred turns into love