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Mourning Becomes Electra | Introduction

Mourning Becomes Electra is considered O'Neill's most ambitious work. In the play, he adapts the Greek tragic myth Oresteia to nineteenth-century New England. Generally, critics praised the play as one of O'Neill's best. Even though performances ran almost six hours long, audiences seemed to agree; it ran for 150 performances.

Like Oresteia, O'Neill's play features themes of fate, revenge, hubris, adultery, and honor. Many critics note that the play reflects his recurring concerns about the unsuccessful struggle of an individual to escape a tragic fate and the dark nature of human existence. The play is structured as a trilogy, with three different plays—The Homecoming, The Hunted, The Haunted—comprising the story.

Mourning Becomes Electra Summary

Homecoming: Act I
In a small New England seaport town a group that functions as a Greek chorus—Seth Beckwith, Amos Ames, Louisa, and Minnie—sit in front of the Mannon home. They explain that the patriarch of the family, Ezra Mannon, serves as a general in Grant's army. A wealthy man, he is expected to return soon to rejoin his wife, Christine, and his two children, Lavinia and Orin.

As the scene progresses, Peter Niles asks Lavinia for her hand in marriage, which she refuses. Lavinia discloses that she followed her mother to New York, where she was carrying on an adulterous affair with Adam Brant. Seth, the family's elderly gardener, implies to Lavinia that Adam is David Mannon's son. The Mannon family disinherited David, Ezra's uncle, after he ran off with a French-Canadian nurse of humble origins, Marie Brantome.

Adam's arrival... » Complete Mourning Becomes Electra Summary

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1. Mourning Becomes Electra: Introduction
2. Mourning Becomes Electra: Summary
   1. Homecoming: Acts I - IV Summary
   2. The Hunted: Acts I - V Summary
   3. The Haunted: Acts I - IV Summary
3. Mourning Becomes Electra: Eugene O’Neill Biography
4. Mourning Becomes Electra: Themes
5. Mourning Becomes Electra: Style
6. Mourning Becomes Electra: Historical Context
7. Mourning Becomes Electra: Critical Overview
8. Mourning Becomes Electra: Character Analysis
   1. Captain Adam Brant
   2. Lavinia Mannon
   3. Brigadier-General Ezra Mannon
   4. Orin Mannon
   5. Other Characters
9. Mourning Becomes Electra: Essays and Criticism
   1. Mourning Becomes Electra and Oresteia
   2. "The Legacy of Melville's Pierre: Family Relationships in Mourning Becomes Electra"
   3. "Eugene O'Neill's Paradise Lost: The Theme of the Islands in Mourning Becomes Electra"
   4. "Mother and Daughter in Mourning Becomes Electra"
   5. "Insular Typees: Puritanism and Primitivism in Mourning Becomes Electra"
   6. "More Shakespeare and Less Aeschylus in Eugene O'Neill 's Mourning Becomes Electra"
   7. "Our Electra"
   8. 1931 Review of Mourning Becomes Electra
10. Mourning Becomes Electra: Compare and Contrast
11. Mourning Becomes Electra: Topics for Further Study
12. Mourning Becomes Electra: Media Adaptations
13. Mourning Becomes Electra: What Do I Read Next?
14. Mourning Becomes Electra: Bibliography and Further Reading
15. Mourning Becomes Electra: Pictures
16. Copyright

Related Topics

1. Eugene O'Neill

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