Ah, Wilderness!

Ah, Wilderness!, Eugene O'Neill's only comedy, is both characteristic of and wildly different than the majority of his other work. The story follows the exploits of a Connecticut family, specifically a 17-year-old named Richard, on the Fourth of July, 1906. The play takes its name from a line in the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, “Ah, wilderness is paradise now!” which is one of Richard's favorite poems. The play contains many themes that are present in O'Neill's other works, but are presented here in a gentler, sometimes comedic tone, in contrast to the way they are usually implemented as catalysts for or results of tragedy. So different was the mood of this play that critic George Jean Nathan called it “the tenderest and most amusing comedy of boyhood in the American Drama.”

Characters

Nat Miller

Owner of the Evening Globe, important community member. Lives with his wife, children, sister, and wife's brother. A tough man, but not unloving, and not unreasonable.

Essie Miller

Nat's wife, committed to her family though sometimes prone to hysterics when she is worried about them.

Richard Miller

Son of Nat and Essie, loves reading poetry and philosophy. Thinks himself much wiser in the ways of the world than others because of these things.

Sid Davis

Essie's brother, somewhat of an alcoholic. Close to Nat but sometimes gets himself into trouble.

Lily Miller

Nat's sister, somewhat romantically linked with Sid, although perhaps that's mostly due to their situation being the only unmarried adults in the house.

Arthur Miller

The eldest Miller child, a student at Yale. Doesn't really do much other than appear briefly in the first act. Serves mostly as a foil to Richard and a way to introduce Wint.

Mildred Miller

Nat and Essie's only daughter. She is the one who delivers the real letter to Richard.

Tommy Miller

The youngest Miller, serves mostly as comic relief; reveals Essie's lies about the bluefish.

David McComber

Father of Richard's girlfriend Muriel, is concerned for his daughter's reputation.

Muriel McComber

Richard's girlfriend, who writes him a note saying she no longer loves him (later revealed to have been forcibly written by her father).

Wint Selby

A classmate of Arthur's at Yale who takes Richard to a bar.

Belle

A lady of ill repute Richard meets at the bar.

Norah

The Miller's housekeeper of Irish descent.

Bartender

Works at the bar where Wint takes Richard.

Plot Synopsis

The basic storyline of Ah, Wilderness! involves Richard Miller, the 17-year-old son of Nat and Essie Miller, pillars of their seaside community in Connecticut. Richard is a young romantic with a steady girlfriend in Muriel McComber, and the action of the play really begins when Muriel's father confronts Nat Miller about their children's relationship. McComber is concerned that Richard's love for books and the writings of adventurers and sailors and explorers may lead him to have inappropriate thoughts about, or even worse, engage in inappropriate actions with his daughter. Nat defends his son, but by the end of the conversation he is given a note to give to Richard, from Muriel, about how they can no longer see each other. We find out later that she was forced to write this by her father, but at the time, Richard is crushed. He is convinced by an older friend of his, Wint, to go with him to a bar and meet some girls. He does, has a few drinks, and nearly commits some dishonorable act with Belle, who is implied to be but never strictly identified as a prostitute, but after having a few more drinks gets himself thrown out of the bar. He eventually reunites with Muriel after discovering the true nature of the letter, and they decide to wed, share their first kiss, and dream of their life together. This story is interwoven with family drama present in the Miller household, most of which unfolds due to Essie's deception of Nat about unimportant matters, the antics of their four children, having two in-laws living with them, and Fourth of July festivities. We learn in Act II as Essie is preparing the food for dinner that Nat has a distaste for bluefish, and the he refuses to eat it. We learn shortly thereafter that he has actually been eating it for years, whenever Essie cooks fish, and she simply doesn't tell him. When Tommy lets this slip at dinner, Nat is not amused, but is talked down by Sid before he does or says anything very mean.

Themes

Like many of O'Neill's other plays, much of the content of this one is derived directly from the man's own life. This is the childhood and coming of age he wished he had had, unlike the unhappy family life he depicted in previous plays such as Beyond the Horizon, Desire Under the Elms, and later in Long Day's Journey Into Night. Similar to these plays though is the role of the father figure who is feared by his son, usually a son who is for one reason or another considered inferior to his brother(s). In this case, Richard is younger and less worldly than Arthur, who is at Yale and in, it seems, a much more sturdy relationship with his paramour. The contrast here is that even despite making his father angry, Richard reconciles with his father and Nat is painted as an altogether sympathetic character. Even after the incident with the bluefish, Nat is feared and respected by all, but never because of anything overtly mean-spirited on his part that we can see. The entire bluefish debacle is also a great example of the misogynistic tendencies exhibited by O'Neill in almost all of his plays, and even the female characters in this one are not exempt. Essie is not ashamed by the lies she tells her husband so much as she is amused by them, and although she is not painted in a villainous light in this play, this is easily identifiable as the same duplicitous streak running through many O'Neill women.