Hailed as the “Father of American Modern Drama”, Eugene O’Neill
got the Pulitzer Prize four times and a Nobel Prize for his work. His masterpiece
Desire under the Elms tells a tragic story of a family who struggled for the
ownership of a farm in a small New England town. The play portrays characters
with a strong desire for material possession and love, and presents a closed
world of alienation to the readers. Based on Marx’s theory of alienated labour,
this paper analyzes four types of the alienated labour interspersed in Desire
under the Elms. This play reflects the alienated state of people at a time when
materialism is prevalent. In their frenzied pursuit for material, they neglect the
cultivation of spirit and emotions, thinking that the possession of material will
fill the spiritual void.