ABSTRACT

Desire Under the Elms of Eugene O’Neill sets the unique character of the “absentee”, which represented by Eben's mother. This image’s textual meaning is not only provide the story development clue for the whole script but also includes the impact of the fate of the present characters and traits, rendering the hazy atmosphere for the works, etc . And this image is also given rich symbolic meanings: The representative of the ordinary people by the Puritanism ideas constraint and oppressed by capitalism and the women was alienated and placed on the edge of he male society ’s true portrayal.Under the influence of modern expressionist literature, but also has a unique symbolic connotation . Desire Under the Elms is the American dramatist Eugene O’Neill’ s early tragic work also is one of the best works, It was known as the United States’ the first Greek tragedy and the first real American drama.Which created a series of highly representative characters: marblehearted old Ephraim Cabot,young and charming Abbie Putnam ,Eben,who was indulge in the desire, mediocre and silly Simon and Peter.In addition, it also includes the image ,which terminology is"absentee" that never appeared - Eben's mother, Simon and Peter's mother and prostitute Minnie. Behind these absent characters have hidden meanings and symbolic connotation by O'Neill 's carefully arranged .

Keyword: Desire under the Elms ; absence ; textual meaning ; symbolic meaning

CONTENTS

摘要

Abstract

1. Introduction-4

1.1 The definition of absentee-4

1.2 About the author-4

1.3 About the play-5

1.4 About the characters-6

1.5 Thesis-9

2. On the Absence of Mother in Desire Under the Elms-9

2.1 The image of Eben’s mother-10

2.2 The influence of Eben’s mother on him-11

2.3 The textual meaning of the image of Eben’s mother-12

2.4 The symbolic meaning of Eben’s mother-14

2.5 The symbolic implication of Eben’s mother-15

3. The causes of the absent mother-16

4. A contrastive study on the female images between the absent Eben’s mother in Desire Under the Elms and other female characters in Eugene O’Neill’ s works-17

5. Conclusion-18

5.1 Summary of this paper-19

5.2 Personal understanding-20

References-22

Acknowledgements-23