DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS
Week #15

You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.

Mark Twain


  1. Right from the start you know that the play is centered around the mother or feminine principle. How so?

  2. In general how do Cabot and Eben relate to the feminine?

  3. How do the motifs of soil and stones symbolically function in the play?

  4. What is the significance of Simeon's line:
    "No one never kills nobody. It's always somethin' that's the murderer?"

  5. In the case of a repeated dream, it is often explained that the unconscious is trying to emphasize the importance of the dream message to the dreamer. Similarly in a play, a repeated idea--a motif--ususally suggests something of considerable importance. We have just seen that Cabot and Eben are opposites and yet what is the significance of the following "dead spit'n image" motif?
    p. 852
    Simeon: Like his paw.
    Peter: Dead spit an' image
    Simeon: Dog'll eat dog.
    For other examples of this motif, see pp. 854, 856, and 859.

  6. So in what way, then, are Cabot and Eben alike?

  7. What is the significance that:
      Eben is associated with being far sighted (whereas)
      Cabot is associated with being near sighted?

  8. Does Eben resolve his "mother complex" during the parlor scene?

  9. When does Even break free from the stranglehold of the feminine?

  10. Eben's confrontation with his father and the death of his son all dramatize his enlightenment. But where do we really see beyond a shadow of a doubt that he liberates himself from his mother-bound condition--from his mother complex?

  11. What is the symbolism of the child in the play? Is this symbolism similar or different from Buried Child?

  12. Initially Eben is mother-bound and Cabot is father bound, but what changes do the the characters undergo?

  13. What is the significance of the "queer motif?"

  14. Vince ends up like Dodge in Buried Child. Does Eben end up like Cabot in Desire Under the Elms?

  15. What is the significance of Cabot's dancing scene?

  16. What is the significance of the fact that the play takes place:
      in 1850
      in New England

  17. What are the seasonal shifts in the play? What are the symbolic associations of the different seasons?

  18. What is the irony of the last line of the play?

  19. What is the significance of the sun imagery?

GOT AN IDEA FOR A
GREAT DISCUSSION QUESTION?

SUBMIT A POTENTIAL DISCUSSION QUESTION
AND IF YOUR QUESTION IS SELECTED:

YOU'LL WIN 5 POINTS,
EQUAL TO 1 PERFECT QUIZ GRADE.


SEND YOUR WINNING DISCUSSION QUESTION NOW!

WANT TO HAVE FUN, NOT WORK?


CLICK HERE ... FOR FUN AND GAMES

Go back to TOP of page
Go back to PREVIOUS PAGE

BACK to: MAIN MENU

Total number of accesses since page first created: .