Greek and Roman theatre have a tremendous impact on Desire Under the Elms, which is grounded on Greek mythology and Roman tragedy. The characters in this play find themselves self-indulged concerning their father’s New England farm, and an adulterous affair. Eugene O’Neil’s catastrophic play is established on the idea of Euripides’ Greek tragedy, Hippolytus. He intentionally embeds a Greek myth initiated on an American historic background in order to give his play a greater prominence. In this play the author stresses the importance of the tragedy Euripides’ Hippolytus not only in the direction but also in the title of the play itself. Anything that took place in the tragedy, coming from many different desires, is occurring beneath the elms;
