On The Family Ethics In Desire Under The Elms

Desire Under the Elms is one of the masterpieces of the famous American drama master,Eugene O’Neill.The work is hailed as "the first great tragedy in the United States." Through the tragic story of the farm family,the work reflects the rapid transformation of the economy from the leadership of physiocratism to mercantilism in the United States in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries.The rapid expansion of the economy triggered a change in social relations.The ethical norms of abstinence and the social norms of money supremacy advocated by the Protestantism of mainstream thinking collide with each other.Under such a social atmosphere,the internal structure and ethical relationship of the family have changed and alienated.Through the analysis of the major family relationships in Desire Under the Elms,this paper elaborates the root cause of family alienation.Cabot,as the owner of the farm and a devout Puritan,led his family to migrate to the New World,trying to realize his personal desire through the land.Due to the change in spiritual order and loneliness brought about by the displacement of social space,old Cabot pursued wealth accumulation through the opposite path,that is,the possessive desire of his wife and sons to increase the glory of God,and to fill the spiritual vacancy.In the new land,his wife and sons worked ceaselessly in order to be recognized.It’s a woman’s bounden duty to provide labor for family reproduction,and the son’s responsibility is to stick to the land and create wealth.The life attitude of Cabot,which is "Only God is your close friend",has led to the alienation of the family.Land,wife and sons constitute the natural form of physiocratic production.It only exists the productivity attached to the land,that is,the actual labor force.In spite of it,no other use value of products are able to increase the wealth of the farm.Therefore,only by the continuous production of labor and the strengthening of the son’s restless work will the wealth accumulate.The independence of wealth power was realized by Cabot’s third wife,Abbie,who wanted to own the farm by "producing sons".The son of Cabot’s second wife,Eben,wanted to occupy the farm through inheritance,he tempted his half-blooded brothers to leave the farm with "gold rush".It separated the father-son relationship and decomposed the internal economic structure of the physiocratism.The dispute over the ownership of the farm has led to the disintegration of family relations.Literary works are the epitome of the times,and it is a historical category since the content they reflect is historical.In different eras,family ethics are not the same,and any kind of family ethics is a reflection of social relations.As Marx stated on the relationship between family and society,"the relationship between men and women is the most natural relationship between people and human beings",women’s awakening and social progress will lead to the disintegration of the old family model,thus,the discussion of feminism is also a perspective in analyzing the disintegration of family.At the same time,this paper also compares the traditional Chinese concept of family and its changes with the modern Western family concept,and it intends to form a co-examination with the contemporary Chinese family revolution and put forward its own reflection on how Chinese families go modern.