Synopsis
Desire Under the Elms & The Great God Brown
$21.99
Published by Nick Hern Books
Desire Under the Elms (1924) and The Great God Brown (1926) were conceived and
developed in tandem, drawing heavily on the raw experience of the author's own
family relationships
The first deliberately echoes Ancient Greek tragedy with its story of incest, infanticide and father/son relations within a New England farming family
The second demonstrates O'Neill's expressionistic experimentation in its use of masks to emphasise the distinction between the two characters Dion Anthony and Brown, the one represent creative genius, the other worldly success