The Elms, Blessed by a Woman and Oppressed by a Man: An Ecofeminist Study of O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms

ABSTRACT

This article offers an ecofeminist reading of Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms (1924), showing how the play constructs a shared field of domination in which women, nondominant men, animals, and land are intertwined as “Others” under a patriarchal-capitalist order. Using Karen J. Warren’s “logic of domination,” the article develops a four-part framework: the links between abuse of land, animals, and women; parallels between reproductive injustice and ecological exhaustion; gendered modes of engagement with the nonhuman (domination, displacement, care); and the role of other subjugated figures. Close readings of Ephraim Cabot, Maw absorbed into the elms, Abbie’s infanticide, Simeon and Peter’s westward fantasies, and the kitchen reveal how labor, inheritance, and spatial control naturalize hierarchies. The study situates these findings within O’Neill scholarship and ecofeminist debates, demonstrating how Warren’s framework can inform readings of modern drama and guide future studies of ecological and gendered oppression in American and transnational theater.