Ah! Wilderness by Eugene O'Neill

First published: 1933

Subjects: Coming-of-age, family, love and romance, and sexual issues

Type of work: Drama

Type of plot: Domestic realism

Time of work: July 4 and 5, 1906

Recommended Ages: 15-18

Locale: A small seaport town in Connecticut

Principal Characters:

• Richard Miller, a nearly seventeen, idealistic teenager who is iconoclastic in his choice of books, politics, and values
• Nat Miller, Richard’s father, a newspaper editor who patiently deals with Richard’s behavior
• Essie Miller, Richard’s somewhat indulgent mother
• Muriel McComber, Richard’s naïve sweetheart
• Sid Davis, Essie Miller’s alcoholic brother
• Lily Miller, Nat Miller’s “spinster” sister
• Belle, a prostitute who fails in her attempt to have sex with Richard

Form and Content

Ah! Wilderness is a domestic comedy in four acts, centering on Eugene O’Neill’s nostalgic memories of turn-of-the-century family life in New England. The play is structured around the growing-up experiences of Richard Miller as he rebels against small-town morality in his reading, politics, and idealistic romance. Strong family ties and patient parental attention help Richard to resist temptation and accept the positive qualities of his domestic situation.

The action takes place over a two-day period, beginning on the Fourth of July, 1906. In act 1, as family members prepare to celebrate the holiday, Richard is at odds with the others as he lashes out, idealistically, against capitalism and quotes passages from authors considered to be “racy” and avant-garde. His reading is the springboard for the play’s development. When some quotations that Richard has shared with his sweetheart, Muriel McComber, are discovered by her father, Mr. McComber not only tries to prevent Muriel from further contact and communication with Richard but also demands that Mr. Miller discipline Richard harshly.

Richard’s reaction to his father’s reprimand and the break-up with Muriel constitute idealistic martyrdom. In act 2, during the family meal—with comic relief from the interactions of the old suitors, Sid Davis and Lily Miller—Richard maintains his pose of disdain and pessimism about life. He rebelliously looks forward to a forbidden night out with one of his brother’s friends and the chance to be with a “fast” woman.

In act 3, at a saloon with a prostitute, however, Richard only succeeds in making himself foolishly drunk. Although he kisses Belle, he resists the temptation of going upstairs to a room together. Richard’s drunken return to his house is met with parental severity, but Uncle Sid, recognizing that Richard is really ill from the side effects and himself used to the impact of too much drink, escorts Richard to bed.

Although discipline is threatened the next day, in act 4, Essie, Richard’s mother, begins to feel sorry for her son. Richard, moreover, receives word that Muriel still loves him and was forced to write the break-up letter. Ever the romantic, Richard ignores his parents’ wishes once more, sneaking out the next night for a secret meeting on the beach with Muriel. In this contrasting scene to the saloon meeting with the prostitute, Richard and Muriel commit themselves to an undying love and innocently exchange a kiss. When Richard returns home, his regret about his night at the saloon and his commitment never to drink again or get involved with “fast” women are so sincerely convincing that his father settles the issues with advice about how to live a good middle-class life. The play ends with Richard’s acceptance of his need to attend college before he and Muriel can marry.

Critical Context

Although not primarily intended for young adults, Ah! Wilderness can be enjoyed by this age group because of its sensitive depiction of adolescent and parental interactions. Perhaps for young readers the most accessible of O’Neill’s plays, the drama effectively reveals the positive qualities of American nostalgic family comedy and provides an interesting comparison to other works in the genre, including such plays as Clarence Day’s Life with Father (1920) and John Van Druten’s I Remember Mama (1944) and such television shows as Happy Days or The Waltons. What sets Ah! Wilderness apart from many other American nostalgic family comedies, however, is O’Neill’s refusal to allow the work to become overly sentimental. By including Sid’s unrelenting alcoholism and its codependency effect on the other family members, O’Neill keeps the tragic elements that are so pervasive in his other plays close to the surface of this comedy and keeps the drama from becoming hopelessly maudlin. O’Neill’s tragedy Long Day’s Journey into Night can be profitably read as a contrasting but parallel play about a family (O’Neill’s own) whose members fail to come to grips with relationships in the constructive manner portrayed by the Millers.

Bibliography

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Bloom, Harold, ed. Eugene O’Neill. New York: Chelsea House, 1987.

Brietzke, Zander. The Aesthetics of Failure: Dynamic Structure in the Plays of Eugene O’Neill. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2001.

Manheim, Michael, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Eugene O’Neill. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Moorton, Richard F., Jr., ed. Eugene O’Neill’s Century. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.

Ranald, Margaret Loftus. The Eugene O’Neill Companion. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1984.

Robinson, James A. Eugene O’Neill and Oriental Thought: A Divided Vision. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1982.

Sheaffer, Louis. O’Neill. 2 vols. Boston: Little, Brown, 1968-1973.

Sheaffer, Louis. O’Neill, Son and Playwright. 2 vols. New York: Cooper Square Press, 2002-2003.

Törnqvist, Egil. Eugene O’Neill: A Playwright’s Theatre. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2004.

Wainscott, Ronald H. Staging O’Neill: The Experimental Years, 1920-1934. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1988.