Mourning Becomes Electra by O’Neil is a play about wounded egos
Mourning Becomes Electra by O’Neil is a play about wounded egos. Undoubtedly ,”Mourning Becomes Electra is a Drama of Revenge and Passion’ .It is fated family which is called Manon , all the members of family have to tendency towards revenge and jealousy passion as well as egoistic .There is no doubt about that every man has passions in himself either goods or bad. In fact the Manons are mostly preoccupied with negative passions and egoistic .Every character wants to take revenge by each other. Actually, revenge passion is included in their DNA. Mourning Becomes Electra by O’Neil is a play about wounded egos Ezra and Christine’s hatred passion starts when Ezra does not have sex with Christine on first wedding night .Lavinia and Christine’s revenge and passionate attitude starts when Lavinia thinks about that she is insecure and she is not acceptable child of her parents as Christine herself informs her , they do not want to bear to you .
Mourning Becomes Electra by O’Neil is a play about wounded egos Adam wants to take revenge by the Mannons family because he is informed that his mother died by the Mannons carelessness. They are jealous and hate one another Mourning Becomes Electra is a modern rewriting of the Oresteia transposed from a Agga Mannon ‘s return to Orgoss after the Trojan War to Ezra Mannon return to the Mannon’s house in New England after the American Civil War. The play could have been a mechanical transference of the Greek plot to modern times. The story of mourning becomes Electra seems to resemble the facts of the original Greek trilogy which is also based on revenge and jealousy passion , or ‘ Mourning Becomes Electra Greek Tragedy ‘ particularly, ‘Homecoming’ is closest to its original. The General returns home form war the way Agamemnon did and is murdered by his wife the way Agamemnon was murder by Clytemnestra instigated by her lover Adam Brant (Aegisthus).The mother and daughter confront each other but there are certain differences, as well Christian and Adam do not stab .Ezra but poison him, in fact, Christine alone does it. Neither Ezra Mannon and Clytemnestra had.
Ezra seems more like a lonely old man than a conquering Hero. His guilt is also small as compared with other Agamemnon ‘s. He is not cruel and self willed or proud like Agamemon . His only fault being his inability to establish the sort of love relationship that Christine wanted .This is a puritanical failure Christine hatred is not as great as Clytemnestra’s was, nor is her love for Adam Brant as passionate as Clytemnestra’s was for Aegisthus. She seems more vindictive and poisonous and less heroic , she acts like a neurotic and her hatred of Ezra , too is that of an neurotic person .Even the Second play in the Trilogy .The hunted resembles the original Greek in many ways but Christine commits suicide. This suicide substitutes for the murder of the original Greek emphasizing the anti heroic nature of the modern protagonist . In case of Orin it the furies , in the Greek myth which have been substituted by the tortured consciousness of the modern hero centers upon the character of Electra rather than that of Orestes .It describes this character as the only heroic character ,this all makes this Mourning Becomes Electra by O’Neil is a play about wounded egos
It could have been merely a family case history from an analyst’s notebook .The meaning of the play is not dried from the plot, but from the opposition between the the psychological imperative and puritan ethics or elements can be found in “Mourning Becomes Electra” . Brant calls Lavinia has already been briefed by an old employee about this man and manages to provoke him into an admission of revenge passion that too, is the son of Mannon Who married a Canadian maid servant and was thrown out from home by his father, Lavinia’s grandfather.
CLICK HERE Puritanism Elements in Mourning Becomes Electra
Mourning Becomes Electra Oedipus complex click here
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The Mannons family revenge passion starts when Lavinia ,now ,has the picture clear in her mind. She expected her mother of having an affair with captain Adam Brant and followed her to New York Christine pretended that she went to New York to see her ailing father. Lavinia writes to her father and brother about the Town gossip about her mother. Captain Adam wishes to revenge on the Mannons the disgrace they caused to his mother.
Now the play takes on turn and we get to know that the daughter loves her father a great deal and this has caused of jealous and revenge between the daughter and the mother who reciprocates in equal measure and loves his mother. When Ezra Mannon returns, Christine does not manage to conceal her hatred for him as well as her revenge passion .When the retired General Ezra Mannon has a heart attack and asks for medicine ,Christine takes advantage of this opportunity and give him a poison drugs .She had already planned to kill Ezra in connivance with her lover captain Brant doing, Ezra tells Lavinia who happens to drop in that it was Christine who caused his death not the medicine. In the mean time Orin returns. Christine tries to poison his mind against Lavinia , she tries to do this as a precaution lest Lavinia should tell the truth regarding Mannon’s death and her affair with captain Adam .But Lavinia manages to convince Orin of the conspiracy hatched by Christine and Adam .Orin and Lavinia chase capital Adam where Christine has already gone to warn him of the impeding danger. Orin shoots captain Brant and thereafter they go on a long to China.
Mourning Becomes Electra by O’Neil is a play about wounded egos, Mourning Becomes Electra is a Drama of Revenge and Passion its characterization, symbolism and tone are determined by O,NEILL interpretation of the puritan heritage by Freud and psychology. “Mourning Becomes Electra” is a play set in puritanical surroundings in the in midst of the puritanical people .The New England countryside, in which the action of the play takes place is full of barren and rocky countryside with barrend mountain range and with the people who are actually austere ,tough and thrifty. These are types of people, who feature in our play, they are cruel, revengeful.To think of death is the Mannon way of thinking. They are outwardly possess all the calvinistive puritanical virtue industry ,thrifty regular life and piety and no redemption was possible for a sinner against this code of life. In Mourning Becomes Electra this protein puritanism is only in appearance in actual life, they are jealous ,greedy and heartless, have feelings of revenge and jealousy. In the eyes of O ,Neill this Puritanism is represented every kind of suppression , hypocrisy and shame behaviour and elements in “Mourning Becomes Electra”. O’Neill uses these hypocritical attitudes in the texture of the play Mourning becomes Electra against the harsh geographical background and heart cored people the drama of love and lust of Christine’s Adam is played out to its tragic climax.But the playwright and audience see with their actions in a wider content that conflicts with,but also in some sense explains the revengeful mentality . Eventually, the Mannons are Puritans in approach but in practice they are dominated by hatred, passion and sex.Thus O’Neill tears apart the puritan facade of respectability and shows that puritan or not ,men are men and are led by passions .O’Neill hates puritan
CLICK HERE Puritanism Elements in Mourning Becomes Electra
Mourning Becomes Electra Oedipus complex click here
CLICK HERE Mourning Becomes Electra Freudianism or Psychological
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The Mannons house represents a hard tradition bound family. Mannons are conservative and class conscious their house appears like temple of hatred and revenge to Christine full of puritan ugliness ,monstrosity temple of hail and death. As it is suggested under below:-
“It was just like [your grandfather] to build such a monstrosity—as a temple for his hatred. “
Mourning Becomes Electra is a Drama of Revenge and Passion can be understood in this sense Uncle David fell in love with the Canadian nurse ,Mary Brantome and married her. For this crime he was thrown out of the house and his family portion was purchased at 1/10 of its price. Actually, Ezra does so because he also loves Mary and wants to marry but he finds out that his brother already has got marriage Mary he gets out his brother by his house in the passion of revenge and jealousy.
“It was just like [your grandfather] to build such a monstrosity—as a temple for his hatred. “
Even when Mary was dying of starvation Ezra does not give to reply to her letter for help. This hardheartedness and hatred exposes their so-called puritan piety Abb Mannon threw out David for loving and marrying a nurse a servant in the family . He could not tolerate that breach of property . He threw out David ,pulled down the house out of revenge and rebuild a new house a temple of hatred . Abb Mannon curse of hatred is inherited by his successor Lavinia and Orin. Lavinia hate love Christine derides her daughter for her prudish views. To Ezra bodies are ashes to ashes , dirt to dirt .But , in front, of his wife , he becomes passionate and implores her for love . Lavinia hates her mother’s sensuality but she herself loves Adam Brant and wants Peter have her
So the curse begins with David and ends with Orin, each committed suicide out of sense of guilt .The family tradition ,conventional behavior based on puritan standards ,ensures the perpetuation of the curse.The puritan code provides no resources for purging guilt, in fact, there guilt cannot be publicly admitted , for the Mannons
are “the elect” to all appearances. Their fall from grace cannot be mended because it cannot be confessed. This sense of disgrace seals the guilt up within the family.The Mannons are caught up in their private hell and the family circle draws around their mutual guilt as well as revenge.
In ONeill’s plays this character is consistently developed until Electra becomes the title figure. In changing Electra character from the original Greek O’Neill has also changed the dramatic conception of the play. Orin can find no absolution from the furies, which drove Orestes because Orin has accepted the the redemption of his evil nature and committed suicide. Electra is the only character the triumphs over the evil of her heritage by recognizing it clearly and by determining to live with it to the end .She says she is the last Mannon and she has got to punish herself she gets all the flowers thrown away lock yourself in a room with her families member learning fully to understand her on past and also how to cry or mourn for it. The modern Electra, Lavinia regains her humanity by suffering more than her and ancestors did. At the end of the play she seems to have begin her long day journey in tonight .She seems heroic and her mourning becomes So , at the end we can say that Mourning Becomes Electra is a Drama of Revenge and Passion
“ [God] twists and wrings and tortures our lives … until—we poison each other to death!”
CLICK HERE Puritanism Elements in Mourning Becomes Electra
Mourning Becomes Electra Oedipus complex click here
CLICK HERE Mourning Becomes Electra Freudianism or Psychological
CLICK HERE Mourning Becomes Electra Greek Tragedy