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"Mourning Becomes Electra" by Eugene O’Neill





Eugene O'Neill's setting of the Electra tragedy at the end of the American Civil War is a sprawling work of quite exquisite poetry, yet it is also flawed. Howard Davies' production lifts this play into an extraordinary and memorable night in the theatre minimising the problems and emphasising the greatness of this drama. Helen Mirren, a star draw, heads the cast as Christine Mannon, the Clytemnestra equivalent character. From the moment the audience enters and sees the majestic set, a large colonial mansion with Greek revival pillars, the spacious veranda, the underside of the portico covered with a faded and fraying version of the stars and stripes of the American flag, they know that they are about to witness the grandeur of a special dramatic event. 

"Mourning Becomes Electra", a trilogy by O' Neil, is the recreation of Greek tragic play "Oresteia". The play, giving rise to the grave psychological debates over human nature and sexual urges, was then written by the legend playwright Aeschylus. In the lines of Sigmund Freud's "Oedipus Complex", the play features murder, incest and revenge. "Mourning Becomes Electra" can be called a modern tragedy of "Oresteia" where Neil has not only changed the names of characters as well as the story but also altered the prime Greek belief that human actions and destiny are modelled and moulded by fate. Though they are influenced by fate to a certain extent, yet O' Neil's characters are to be held responsible personally for their psychological problems and immoral sexual impudence. "Home Coming" is the first part of the trilogy of "Mourning Becomes Electra". 

With "Oedipus Complex", Sigmund Freud originated the theory that children of ages up to 5 are sexually desirous of the parent of opposite gender. During this phase, the kids respond with a certain level of jealousy and rivalry. With the psychological transition to a new phase, usually the child is able to repress the incestuous desire due to superego, a moral factor and forerunner of the maturity and growth of human mind. However, Carl Jung, a student and collaborator of Sigmund Freud, propagated the "Electra Complex" to present the psychological intricacies of female child's daughter and mother competition for possessing the father psychosexually. To Freud, emotionally, a girl's negative Oedipus complex is much intense as compared to a boy. The parents' psychological handling of a female child becomes of extreme importance. Failing this may lead to a girl becoming a woman either too submissive or continually strives to dominate men. 

Following the Freudian model of negative Oedipus complex, if "Mourning Becomes Electra", is a tale of incestuous love, hatred, jealousy and adultery, then, in the first place, all such may be attributed to Lavinia and her mother Christine. Lavinia's love for her father is so deep rooted that she is wilful in rejecting the genuine love of Peter saying: "I can't marry anyone, Peter. I've got to stay home. Father needs me". Peter counters her "He's got your mother" and she "sharply" reacts: "He needs me more!" We may agree that her mother, Christine, has been cheating on her father but the tone in which she speaks is enough to reveal the deep psychosexual jealousy of Lavinia. Shortly she comes across her mother and the playwright comments: "For a moment, mother and daughter stare into each other's eyes. In their whole tense attitudes is clearly revealed the bitter antagonism between them". Probably, Lavinia is the result of the maltreatment and ill-nourishment on the part of her mother. 

Lavinia "was born of" her mother's "disgust" of her father, the man she hated. Lavinia explains the horrors of her childhood "ever since I was little--when I used to come to you--with love--but you would always push me away! I've felt it ever since I can remember--your disgust!". Lavinia is also aware of the adulterous acts of her mother in New York with Adam. "I knew you hated me", says Christine to Lavinia but she doesn't know that there has been jealousy besides the deeds of adultery on Christine's part. Though Lavinia is in love with her father, yet she wants her mother to take care of him. She wants him to stop cheating on her father. But Christine can't because she is "the wife of a man" she "hated"...

Read more at: http://www.risenotes.com/electra/Mourning-Becomes-Electra-Oedipus-Complex.php

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