Der Baum in Eugene O'Neills Theater

Der Baum in Eugene O'Neills Theater

Baum und Bäume haben in O'Neills Theaterstücken oft grosse Bedeutung. Einige Bemerkung dazu (noch unsystematisch) folgen.		Eugene & Carlotta 1929 © Electronic Eugene O'Neill Archive
Beyond the Horizon	Rezension
Desire Under the Elms	Rezension
More Stately Mansions (posthum 1962; Arbeitstitel: "Oh, Sour-apple Tree"), deutscher Titel: Alle Reichtümer der Welt

Regieanweisung zu Beginn von Beyond the Horizon:

From the center of this an old, gnarled apple tree, just budding into leaf, strains its twisted branches heavenwards, black against the pallor of distance.

Zur Einleitung III. Akt, 2. Szene, heißt es: "The apple tree is leafless and seems dead".

In Desire Under the Elms haben die hochgewachsenen Ulmen über dem Farmhaus eine starke symbolhafte Bedeutung. Schon in der einleitenden Szenenanweisung heißt es:

Two enormous elms are on each side of the house. They bend their trailing branches down over the roof. They appear to protect and at the same time subdue. There is a sinister maternity in their aspect, a crushing jealous absorption. They have developed from their intimate contact with the life of man in the house an appalling humaneness. They brood oppressively over the house. They are like exhausted women resting their sagging breasts and hands and hair on its roof, and when it rains their tears trickle down monotonously and rot on the shingles.

Die Ulmen dienen Abbie als Symbol für ihre Begierde und Ebens sexuelle Potenz.

Abbie zu Eben: "Hain’t the sun strong an’ hot? Ye kin feel it burnin’ into the earth—Nature—makin’ thin’s grow—bigger ‘n’ bigger—burnin’ inside ye—makin’ ye want t’ grow—into somethin’ else—till ye’re jined with it—an’ it’s your’n—but it owns ye, too—an’ makes ye grow bigger—like a tree—like them elums. "
Desire Under the Elms, II, 1

Ephraim Cabot hat eine merkwürdige Abneigung gegen das Farmhaus. Ihn zieht es immer in die Scheune zu den Kühen, nur dort findet er Wärme.

"Even the music can’t drive it out—somethin’. Ye kin feel it droppin’ off the elums, climbin’ up the roof, sneakin’ down the chimney, pokin’ in the corners! They’s no peace in houses, they’s no rest livin’ with folks. Somethin’s always livin’ with ye. . . .I'll go t’ the barn an’ rest a spell." Desire Under the Elms, III, 1

Anfang

Vormerkungen zu späterer Bearbeitung
Iceman "The days grow hot, O Babylon!/ 'Tis cool beneath thy willow trees!" aus: Ferdinand Freiligrath: "Revolution"
The Emperor Jones
Jones: "Trees an' me, we'se friends."; "enormous pillars of deeper blackness"; "sacred tree";
"Can't tell nothin' from dem trees! Gorry, nothin' round heah looks like I evah seed it befo'" (II).

Anfang