Mourning Becomes Electra
MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA
American playwright Eugene O’ Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra is a continuation of the Greek tradition. Joseph Wood Krutch is of the opinion that “Mourning Becomes Electra has all the virtues… which one expects in the best contemporary writing”. It is rare to find two principal complexes “Electra” and “Oedipus” in one work of art. Here one observes both as parallel themes. However, it’s set in a modern twentieth century milieu. The characterization, the story line, the plot are all reflective of the ancient traditions, only the names and sequence have been modified intentionally.
The back ground Trojan War is replaced by the American Civil War. O’Neill’s Agamemnon is Ezra Mannon, a hard unbending New Englander, who has been off to the Mexican War in his youth, who has studied law, been a skipper, achieved great success in business and served as Mayor of the small town in which his family is outstanding. His Clytemnestra is Christine, a foreigner who has long been out of love with her husband and who has now come to hate him. Christine is far more venomous than Clytemnestra. For her it was a simple case of husband change. Having got bored or fed up with one Patriarch, she wanted to experience the ecstasy of love. Up to this point the story may be taken as a recasting of the Greek myth. What happens ahead is O’Neill’s own interpretation.
Their children, Lavinia and Orin are the Electra and the Orestes. While old Ezra Mannon has been away from home, winning the praise of General Grant for the military abilities he has shown as a brigadier general in the Civil War, his wife has had an affair with a Captain Adam Brant, the Ægisthus of the play.
Lavinia, who has also been in love with Captain Brant, follows her mother to New York, learns of her infidelity to her father, and resolves to break off the affair. She confronts her mother, makes her promise to see no more of Brant and prepares to welcome her father and
American playwright Eugene O’ Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra is a continuation of the Greek tradition. Joseph Wood Krutch is of the opinion that “Mourning Becomes Electra has all the virtues… which one expects in the best contemporary writing”. It is rare to find two principal complexes “Electra” and “Oedipus” in one work of art. Here one observes both as parallel themes. However, it’s set in a modern twentieth century milieu. The characterization, the story line, the plot are all reflective of the ancient traditions, only the names and sequence have been modified intentionally.
The back ground Trojan War is replaced by the American Civil War. O’Neill’s Agamemnon is Ezra Mannon, a hard unbending New Englander, who has been off to the Mexican War in his youth, who has studied law, been a skipper, achieved great success in business and served as Mayor of the small town in which his family is outstanding. His Clytemnestra is Christine, a foreigner who has long been out of love with her husband and who has now come to hate him. Christine is far more venomous than Clytemnestra. For her it was a simple case of husband change. Having got bored or fed up with one Patriarch, she wanted to experience the ecstasy of love. Up to this point the story may be taken as a recasting of the Greek myth. What happens ahead is O’Neill’s own interpretation.
Their children, Lavinia and Orin are the Electra and the Orestes. While old Ezra Mannon has been away from home, winning the praise of General Grant for the military abilities he has shown as a brigadier general in the Civil War, his wife has had an affair with a Captain Adam Brant, the Ægisthus of the play.
Lavinia, who has also been in love with Captain Brant, follows her mother to New York, learns of her infidelity to her father, and resolves to break off the affair. She confronts her mother, makes her promise to see no more of Brant and prepares to welcome her father and