1. Teaching Methodolody
1.1. Top-down approach
1.2. Bottom-up approach
1.3. Interative approach
1.4. cultural schema
2. Promote reading
2.1. Extensive reading
2.2. Intensive reading
3. The criteria of choosing text
3.1. suitability of content
3.1.1. When Desire Under the Elms was first performed in 1924, the cast was arrested and tried for obscenity. After all, it portrays adultery, child murder, prostitution, and alcoholism.
3.2. Exploitability
3.3. Readability
4. Concepts discussed in class
4.1. Symbolism
4.1.1. Consider the sun symbolism in Desire Under the Elms. It begins and ends important scenes, as well as the play as a whole. Sunrise/sunset is a repeated cycle that goes on whether or not the human characters notice it. At the end of the play, the sun represents Eben and Abbie’s willingness to go toward their deaths, having been satisfied with a life lived.
4.2. Realism
4.3. Expressionism
4.4. Melodrama
4.5. Tragedy
5. How it impacted your teaching
5.1. Impact (Change)
5.1.1. Pure pleasure for reading
5.1.2. Moral lesson
5.1.3. Universal theme
5.1.3.1. Desire
5.1.3.2. Love
5.1.3.3. Possession
5.1.3.4. Wealth
6. Pick at least one play
6.1. Uncle Tom's Cabin
6.2. Desire Under the Elms
6.2.1. theme of rivalry between father and son
6.2.1.1. Further, the theme of rivalry between father and son for the possession of mother/woman shape many of his other plays.
6.2.2. The most interesting story
6.2.2.1. Catharsis
6.2.2.1.1. The action of the play will affect the audience’s intellectual and emotional response as the hero moves from ignorance to knowledge as a result of his misfortune
6.2.2.2. Character
6.2.2.2.1. Flat character (x)
6.2.2.2.2. Round character (o)
6.2.2.3. Plot
6.2.2.3.1. After reading Desire Under the Elms by Eugene O’Neill, I can definitely say that the play was an interesting avenue I have not explored before. The writing of the 20th century had caught my interest in a way that ancient Greek Dramas or contemporary productions did not- there was a slow, rich setting accompanied by a simple plot. The story follows the story of Eben, who despises his father and hopes to reclaim the farm that was once his mother’s. However, Cabot has remarried and brings home a woman called Abbie. Unfortunately, she possess charms that draw Eben and the two soon develop a sexual connection. The story ends when it is revealed that Abbie and Eben had a child (who Cabot thinks is his), but due to Eben’s mistrust of Abbie’s intentions, the latter kills the baby in an attempt to prove her love.
6.2.2.4. Character development
6.2.2.4.1. I enjoyed the character developments in this play, although for almost all the characters, the development was negative. Eben turned from a determined young man to a spiteful soul who fell for a horrid person- Abbie. Abbie meanwhile started out with antagonistic traits and never improved. Cabot was the only character in the story who began with negative traits and ended the story with a positive gain- he is no longer bound by spite but only the realization that his time has passed, and so he continues to work on the farm. The extensive stage directions provided a clear description of the action for readers, and I could almost see the action in my head. The mystery and suspense that follows the characters is also fantastic because it is predictable. The dramatic irony experienced by the audience provides a deeper insight into the story when some characters were unable to know what the readers knew.
6.2.2.5. Morals and desire
6.2.2.6. Definitely, O’Neill is showing interesting morals with his play Desire Under the Elms. He throws a theme of lust, greed, and sin through the actions of the characters. The plays is a tragedy that depicts human sin at its base. I can say with certainty that I enjoyed reading O’Neill’s play.
6.2.2.7. Greek Tragedy
6.2.2.7.1. Degradation of tragic hero
6.2.2.7.2. Difference between Greek Tragedy and Desire under the elms
6.2.2.7.3. O’Neil not only adapt the myth, but also the classical idea of tragedy
6.2.2.8. Mirror of American society
6.2.2.8.1. All in all, Desire Under the Elms is a mirror of American society. It denounces the disastrous impacts of the myth of a material prosperity and the life-denying Puritanism on Americans through the story of the New England family, the Cabots. It also exposes O’Neill’s gifted creating power, by which he recreated the Greek tragic spirit in this play. This play reveals his revulsion from American greed and indicates the kind of punishment meted out to the avaricious accumulators of wealth: moral and spiritual impoverishment. It was this play that brought the American drama into it real sense. It was his serious concern over the social issues and excellent theatrical technique shown in this play that brought the American drama into a real sense.