The Tragic Effect in Autumn Fire and Desire Under the Elms

Abstract

During the winter and spring of 1924, two modem dramatists, both highly regarded in their own countries, turned their minds to the same problem. Each was writing a new tragedy and by chance each decided on basically the same plot: the story of an elderly widower who brings into his farmhouse a young wife only to find within a year that the new bride is more attracted to her new stepson than to her husband. Each finished his play during the summer of that year. Eugene O'Neill offered his, entitled Desire under the Elms, to the Provincetown Players; T. C. Murray sent his, called Autumn Fire, to the nearby Abbey Theatre. Since that day both works have enjoyed steady popularity.