Mourning Becomes
Electra” is a continuation of the Greek tradition with Freudian unconscious and
Puritan heritage of 19th century in New England setting. It is rare to find both
“Electra” and “Oedipus” complexes in a single work of art. But here we have
both as parallel themes. Set in a modern milieu, the plot, the
characterization, and the story-line are all reflective of the ancient
traditions. In the words of Lawrence A. Johnsen,
“Mourning becomes
Electra is a tale of ancient hatreds, illegitimacy, revenge, family secrets and
murder.”
Eugene O’ Neill
intentionally changed names and sequence of events to serve his purpose. The
substitution shown with the main characters resemble the dramatis personae of
Aeschylus’ Oresteia: Ezra Mannon – Agamemnon; Christine – Clytemnestra; Lavinia
– Electra; Orin – Orestes; Captain Adam Brant – Aegisthus; Captain Peter Niles
– Pylades. Instead of the Trojan War, we have the American Civil War in the
background. Like Clytemnestra who found a lover in the form of Aegisthus,
Christine has cuckolded Ezra Mannon. But Christine is far more venomous than
Clytemnestra. Whereas the latter had some grievance because her spouse had
sacrificed their daughter Iphigeneia to get favourable wind for his fleet;
Christine had no such anger to be redressed. Having fed up with one Patriarch,
she wanted to experience the ecstasy of love. Up to this point the story
follows Greek play. What happens next is Eugene O’Neill’s own interpretation.
In this case the daughter Lavinia too is in love with the mother’s paramour and
hence an opponent. Then, there is a strong psychoanalytical stance in the play
since Livinia is obsessively preoccupied with “Electra” complex. She is
consumed by love for father and is expressively involved in revenge for his
death. Lavinia tells Ezra explictly:“You are the only man I shall ever
love. I am going to stay with you.”
Alongside with
Lavinia’s Electra complex, there is another incestuous complex namely
mother-son Oedipal complex, both in Orin and Brant. Based on Freudian
unconscious, the involvements of Mannons are quite predictable: Adam loves his
mother and Christine; Orin loves her mother and Lavinia; Lavinia loves her
father, Adam and Orin; Ezra loves both daughter and wife; Christine loves both
her son and Adam. Reciprocally, Lavinia hates her mother and Marry Brantome,
the rivals of her love; Orin hates his father and Adam Brant, and Adam hates
Ezra, Orin and his own father David Mannon, the rivals of his mother’s love.
Adam tells Lavinia:
“You are like your
mother in some ways. Your face is dead image of hers. And look at your hair.
You will not meet another in a month of Sundays. I only know one other woman
who had it. You will think it strange when I tell you. It was my mother.”
Christine too is
pre-occupied with Lavinia’s Electra complex. She reminds Lavinia: “You have always tried to become wife of your
father and mother of Orin. You have always schemed to steal my place.”
Thus both Orin’s
Oedipus complex and Lavinia’s Electra complex remain at the core of the story.
Orin’s mother complex is developed at some length. He is his mother’s love and
his baby. Orin’s love for his mother is always reverential. His greeting on
their first encounter in the play has curious juxtaposition: “Mother! God it is good to see you.” Christine deals with him in seductive terms,
emphasising physicality in their relationship: “You are a big man now, are not you? I cannot
believe it. It seems only yesterday when I used to find you in night-shirt.”
According to Freudian
hypothesis each Mannon is drawn by unconscious impulse towards the parent of
opposite sex. In Orin and Lavinia this impulse has grown into fixation. The
most obvious instance of Freudian complex is Orin’s fixation at her mother.
While away at war, Orin dreamt of his mother as an Island of Peace. Supplementary
to this dream was the illusion each man he killed at the front resembled his
father. The desire to posses his mother and kill his father give him classical
Oedipal symptoms. This incites him to
kill Adam and the brunt of his hatred falls on his father’s figure. Christine’s
presence always has softening effect on him. When he witnesses Christine’s
disintegration as a result of Adam’s murder, he pleads her: “Mother do not moan like that! How could you
grieve for your servant’s bastard.”
After Christine’s
suicide, Orin’s life is shattered. Lavinia takes him to the Islands of East.
After a year the reader finds them taking the roles of their father and mother
as Orin tells Lavinia: “Are not you see I am
in father’s place and you are mother?”
Orin’s complex is made
explicit when he makes incestuous proposal to Lavinia: “I love you now with all the guilt in me–the
guilt we share. Perhaps I love you much Vinnie…How else can I be sure you will
not leave me? You would feel as guilty as I am!”
By keeping Lavinia,
Orin’s desire to possess his mother will be accomplished. When Lavinia shouts
at him that he should commit suicide, he hears his mother’s voice: “Yes that would be justice–you are mother now.
She is speaking through you…Death is an Island of Peace–mother will be waiting
for me there.” Orin’s suicide is
return to his mother–death is to peace; it is passage into oblivion.
After Orin’s death,
Lavinia’s puritan heritage reclaims itself. Although she tries to break away
from the tradition and escape with Peter but her dream crumbles down as she
calls Peter ‘Adam’ in a Freudian slip. Afterwards she accepts her fate with
Puritan spirit of resignation and locks herself in Mannon house to live with
the ghosts of dead in expiation for all their crimes. The Mannon catches
Lavinia in the end–being born was starting to die. The Mannon house is sepulchre and her life is
living death henceforth.
The play “Mourning
Becomes Electra” has much in common with the grand style of ancient Greek
tragedy. It is the suffering of human beings that results in an ennobling
effect. The characters have complex psychological hang-ups which contribute
towards their doom. On the Greek pattern we have a trilogy with three parts:
The Homecoming, The Hunted, and The Haunted. Whereas in the Greek cases, the
psychological aspect is disguised and barely identifiable, in O’Neill it
constitutes the essence of drama.