Mourning Becomes Electra


Mourning Becomes Electra is a play cycle written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. The play premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on 26 October 1931 where it ran for 150 performances before closing in March 1932, starring Lee Baker, Earle Larimore, Alice Brady and Alla Nazimova. In May 1932, it was unsuccessfully revived at the Alvin Theatre with Thurston Hall, Walter Abel, Judith Anderson and Florence Reed, and, in 1972, at the Circle in the Square Theatre, with Donald Davis, Stephen McHattie, Pamela Payton-Wright, and Colleen Dewhurst.

Characters and background

; Main characters
; Chorus of townsfolk –
The story is a retelling of the Oresteia by Aeschylus. The characters parallel characters from the ancient Greek play. For example, Agamemnon from the Oresteia becomes General Ezra Mannon. Clytemnestra becomes Christine, Orestes becomes Orin, Electra becomes Lavinia, Aegisthus becomes Adam Brant, etc. As a Greek tragedy made modern, the play features murder, adultery, incestuous love and revenge, and even a group of townspeople who function as a kind of Greek chorus. Though fate alone guides characters' actions in Greek tragedies, O'Neill's characters have motivations grounded in 1930s-era psychological theory as well. The play can easily be read from a Freudian perspective, paying attention to various characters' Oedipus complexes and Electra complexes.
Mourning Becomes Electra is divided into three plays with themes that correspond to the Oresteia trilogy. Much like Aeschylus' plays Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides, these three plays by O'Neill are titled Homecoming, The Hunted, and The Haunted. However, these plays are normally not produced individually, but only as part of the larger trilogy. Each of these plays contains four to five acts, with only the first act of The Haunted being divided into actual scenes. Thus, Mourning Becomes Electra is extraordinarily lengthy. In many productions, the length is cut for the sake of practicality, and the chorus of townsfolk cut from productions due to the expense, leaving only the eight main players.

Plot

;Homecoming
Act I
It is late spring in front of the Mannon house. The master of the house, Brigadier-General Ezra Mannon, is soon to return from the Civil War. Lavinia, Ezra's severe daughter, like her mother Christine, has just returned from a trip to New York. Seth, the gardener, takes Lavinia aside. He warns her against her would-be beau, Captain Brant. Before Seth can continue, however, Lavinia's friend Peter Niles and his sister, Hazel, arrive. Lavinia stiffens. If Peter is proposing marriage to her again, he must realize she cannot marry anyone because her father needs her. Lavinia asks Seth to resume his story. Seth asks Lavinia if she has noticed that Brant resembles members of the Mannon family. Seth believes Brant is the child of David Mannon and Marie Brantôme, a couple expelled from the house due to fear of scandal and public disgrace.
Suddenly Brant himself enters from the drive. Calculatingly, Lavinia derides the memory of Brant's mother, who died of starvation in her son's absence as Ezra never replied to a message she sent for help. Brant explodes and reveals his heritage. He tells Lavinia that her own grandfather also craved his mother and thus cast David out of the family. Brant has sworn vengeance.
Act II
A moment later, Lavinia appears inside her father's study. Christine enters indignantly, wondering why Lavinia has summoned her. Lavinia reveals that she followed her to New York and saw her kissing Adam Brant. She accuses her mother of adultery. Christine defiantly tells Lavinia that she has long hated Ezra and that Lavinia was born of her disgust for him. She loves Lavinia's brother Orin because he always seemed to be hers alone, and never Ezra's. Lavinia coldly explains that she intends to keep her mother's adultery a secret for Ezra's sake. Christine must only promise to never see Brant again. Laughingly Christine accuses her daughter of wanting Brant for herself. She claims that Lavinia has always schemed to steal her place. Christine ostensibly agrees to Lavinia's terms but later proposes to Brant that they poison Ezra and attribute his death to his heart trouble.
Act III
One week later, Lavinia stands stiffly at the top of the front stairs with Christine. Suddenly Ezra Mannon enters and stops stiffly before his house. Lavinia rushes forward and embraces him. Once she and her husband are alone, Christine assures him that he has nothing to suspect with regard to Brant. Ezra impulsively kisses her hand. The war has made him realize that they must overcome the wall between them. Christine assures him that all is well and there is no wall between them. They kiss and, for the first time in many years, share a bed.
Act IV
Toward daybreak in Ezra's bedroom, Christine slips out from the bed. Ezra, waking, bitterly rebukes her. He knows Christine awaits his death to be free. She deliberately taunts him that she is Brant's mistress. He rises in fury, threatening to kill her but falls back in agony, clutching his heart and begging for his medicine. Christine retrieves a box from her room and gives him the poison instead. After taking the poison, Mannon realizes her treachery and calls out to Lavinia for help. Lavinia rushes into the room. With his dying breath, Ezra indicts his wife: "She's guilty — not medicine!", he gasps, and then dies. Her strength gone, Christine collapses in a faint, and Lavinia falls to her knees in anguish.
;The Hunted
Act I
Peter, Lavinia, and Orin arrive at the house. Orin disappointedly complains of his mother's absence. He jealously asks Lavinia about what she wrote him regarding Christine and Brant. Lavinia warns him against believing their mother. Suddenly, Christine hurries out, reproaching Peter for leaving Orin alone. Mother and son embrace jubilantly.
Act II
Orin asks his mother about Brant. Christine explains that Lavinia has gone mad and begun to accuse her of the impossible. Orin sits at Christine's feet and recounts his wonderful dreams about the two of them in the South Sea Islands. The islands represent everything the war was not: peace, warmth, and security, or Christine herself. Lavinia reappears in the room and coldly calls Orin to view their father's body.
Act III
In the study, Orin tells Lavinia that Christine has already warned him of her madness. Calculatingly, Lavinia insists that Orin certainly cannot let their mother's paramour escape. She convinces Orin of their mother's treachery, and proposes that they watch Christine until she goes to meet Brant herself. Orin agrees.
Act IV
The night after Ezra's funeral, Brant's clipper ship appears at a wharf in East Boston. Christine sneaks out to meet Brant on the deck, and they retire to the cabin to speak in private. Lavinia and an enraged Orin listen from the deck. Brant and Christine decide to flee east and seek out their Blessed Islands. Fearing the hour, they painfully bid each other farewell. When Brant returns, Orin shoots him and ransacks the room to make it seem that Brant has been robbed.
Act V
The following night Christine paces the drive before the Mannon house. Orin and Lavinia appear, revealing that they killed Brant. Christine collapses. Orin kneels beside her pleadingly, promising he will make her happy, that they can leave Lavinia at home and go abroad together. Lavinia orders Orin into the house. He obeys. Lavinia tells her mother she can still live. Christine, glaring at her daughter with savage hatred, sarcastically repeats the word "Live?" She enters the house. Lavinia determinedly turns her back on the house, standing like a sentinel. A gunshot is heard from Ezra's study. Lavinia stammers: "It is justice!"
;The Haunted
Act I, scene 1
A year later, Lavinia and Orin return from their trip abroad. Lavinia has lost her military stiffness and resembles her mother, even wearing a green dress like that her mother was seen wearing at the beginning of the play. Orin has grown dreadfully thin and bears the statue-like attitude of his father.
Act I, scene 2
In the sitting room, Orin grimly remarks that Lavinia has stolen Christine's soul. Death has set her free to become her. Peter enters from the rear and gasps, thinking he has seen Christine's ghost. Lavinia approaches him eagerly. Orin jealously mocks his sister's warmth toward Peter, accusing her of becoming a true romantic during their time in the South Seas.
Act II
A month later, Orin is working intently at a manuscript in the Mannon study. Lavinia enters, and with forced casualness, asks him what he is doing. Orin insists that they must atone for their mother's death. As the last male Mannon, he has written a history of the family crimes, from Abe's onward. He then observes snidely that Lavinia is the most interesting criminal of all. She only became pretty like their mother on the islands they visited where the native men stared at her with desire. When Orin angrily accuses her of sleeping with one of them, Lavinia assumes Christine's taunting voice. Reacting like Ezra, Orin grasps her throat, threatening to kill her. It becomes apparent that Orin has taken Ezra's place as Lavinia has that of Christine.
Act III
A moment later, the scene switches to Hazel and Peter in the sitting room. Orin enters, insisting that he see Hazel alone. He gives her a sealed envelope, warning her to keep it safely away from Lavinia. She should only open it, if something happens to him, or if Lavinia tries to marry Peter. Lavinia enters from the hall. Hazel tries to keep Orin's envelope hidden behind her back, but Lavinia rushes to Orin, beseeching him to make her surrender it. Orin complies, after Lavinia admits she loves him, and agrees to do whatever he wants. Orin then tells Hazel goodbye forever and tells her to leave.
Orin then tells his sister she can never see Peter again. A "distorted look of desire" comes into his face and he tells her he loves her. Lavinia stares at him in horror, saying, "For God's sake—! No! You're insane! You can't mean—!" Lavinia wishes his death. Startled, Orin realizes that his death would be another act of justice. He thinks Christine is speaking through Lavinia.
Peter appears in the doorway in the midst of the argument. Unnaturally casual, Orin remarks that he was about to go clean his pistol and exits. Lavinia throws herself into Peter's arms. A muffled shot is heard, as Orin commits suicide in the other room.
Act IV
Three days later, Lavinia appears dressed in deep mourning. A resolute Hazel arrives and insists that Lavinia not marry Peter. The Mannon secrets will prevent their happiness. Hazel admits she has told Peter of Orin's envelope. Peter arrives, and he and Lavinia pledge their love anew. Surprised by the bitterness in his voice, Lavinia desperately flings herself into his arms crying, "Take me, Adam!" Then, horrified, she breaks off their engagement and sends Peter away.
She realizes she is forever bound to the Mannon dead. As there is no one left to punish her, she must punish herself. She must live alone in the old house with the ghosts of her ancestors. She orders Seth to board up the windows and throw out all the flowers – then she enters the dark house alone and shuts the door.

Adaptations

In 1947 the play was adapted for film by Dudley Nichols, starring Rosalind Russell, Michael Redgrave, Raymond Massey, Katina Paxinou, Leo Genn and Kirk Douglas. It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role and Best Actress in a Leading Role.
In 1967, the Metropolitan Opera gave the world premiere of an operatic version, composed by Marvin David Levy to the libretto of William Henry Butler. Both film and opera retain O'Neill's title.
In 1978, a five-hour television miniseries was produced for and shown on PBS' Great Performances, which starred Bruce Davison, Roberta Maxwell and Joan Hackett. It was well received by the critics, with Hackett, in particular, being highly praised for her portrayal of Christine.

Themes

There are literary readings that classify Mourning Becomes Electra in the naturalism movement. This is based on O'Neill's focus on violent emotional states of men to emphasize the subconscious and inner spiritual forces as well as man's inability to escape the cyclical pattern and outcomes of human action. Like the Oresteia, the play explored the theme of revenge, where the crime of the past determine the actions and the suffering of the protagonist in the present. For this theme, some observers note that O'Neill's approach is more similar to William Shakespeare's outlook in Hamlet than Aeschylus' in Oresteia.
O'Neill also differed with Aeschylus on the theme of fate and the role of the gods in the lives of men. In Oresteia, as was the case in the classical Greek tragedies, the divine is part of the environmental forces that humans cannot control but determine their fate. In O'Neill's interpretation, these forces are eliminated in favor of Freudian and Jungian psychology.

Awards and nominations

;Awards