usts no one. His strong desire for power turns him into a lonely old man. Through Cabot, O’Neill shows that greed for land destroys love and human warmth.

Desire for Love and Security: Abbie Putnam’s desire begins with need, not love. She marries Cabot to get a home and safety. But soon, her heart fills with desire for Eben. She says, 

“Let me kiss ye, Eben! I’ll be everythin’ she was t’ ye!” 

Her longing turns to passion and guilt. To prove her love, she kills her baby. She says:

“I killed him, Eben.”

 O’Neill shows how her desire becomes sin. Yet Abbie’s final act makes her love pure through pain and punishment.

Desire for Revenge and Mother’s Love: Eben Cabot’s desire comes from hatred. He wants to take revenge on his father for his mother’s death. He says proudly, 

“She may’ve been his’n—but she’s mine now!” 

At first, his love for Abbie is revengeful. He uses her to hurt Cabot. But later, his heart changes. He finds true love mixed with guilt. O’Neill shows how revenge and love live together in Eben’s heart, transforming his desire into tragedy.

Desire and the Natural World: O’Neill connects human desire with nature. The elm trees bend over the house like women’s arms. The stage direction says, 

“They appear to protect and at the same time subdue.” 

The elms seem alive, holding the house in their shadow. They symbolize both passion and control. Beneath their branches, human desires grow and burn. Nature becomes part of the story, watching silently as people sin and suffer. Through this, O’Neill shows desire as both natural and destructive.

Desire Leading to Tragedy: All desires in the play ultimately lead to pain. Cabot loses his peace, Abbie loses her child, and Eben loses his freedom. Yet, through suffering, they find truth. At the end, Cabot says, 

“God’s lonesome, hain’t He? God’s hard an’ lonesome!” 

This line shows the emptiness left by human desire. O’Neill suggests that when desire becomes too strong, it destroys what it seeks. The tragedy of the play lies in this endless struggle between love, greed, and guilt under the shadow of the elms.

In “Desire Under the Elms,” O’Neill deals with desire as the central force of human life. Desire gives energy but also brings sin and pain. Each character burns with a different longing—power, love, or revenge—and suffers for it. O’Neill shows that uncontrolled desire turns into destruction. Under the dark elms, human hearts find both passion and punishment.