Again with O'Neill on Tragedy:
Hate-Revenge as a Tragic Reality
in Mourning Becomes Electra
"Mourning Becomes Electra" is a play by Eugene O'Neill. It was written in France where O'Neill was living between September 1929 to April 1931. It was published on 2 November 1931 by Horace Liveright, New York and in 1932 by Jonathan Cape London.
"Mourning Becomes Electra" consists of three parts or plays, those are HOMECOMING, THE HUNTED, and THE HAUNTED. Most of the action takes place in or outside the Mannons residence in New England, in either spring or summer of 186501966 after civil war, except for act IV of THE HAUNTED; its action occurs in the sea port.
HOMECOMING refers to Ezra Mannon who is coming from the civil war. The play begins with a conversation among several town people who tell the audience that the war is coming to an end, and Ezra will come home that the Mannons will soon be reunited. They also reveal who Ezra is: a judge, a general, and a successful businessman. Yet, tension has already existed within the family. Christine, Ezra's wife, is often left and neglected by the husband, does not love him anymore and has got another lover. Lavinia, the daughter who has been rejected by Christine since she was born, hates her mother. Hatred soon develops between mother and daughter, especially when Lavinia finds that Christine's new lover is Adam Brant, is the son of David, one of the Mannons who was expelled because he took a servant (Brant's mother) as his wife. The situation becomes more complicated as Lavinia actually also loves Adam Brant. Then, with he reason of defending her father's honor and trust, Lavinia wants a promise from Christine that Christine will not see Adam Brant anymore. Christine does not keep her promise; she even plots Ezra's murder with Adam Brant. Tension between the two women becomes less when Ezra comes home; but suspicion becomes more. And the pitch of violence comes when Christine murder Ezra, and Lavinia, having know that her mother is a murderess, want to take a revenge.
THE HUNTED refers to Lavinia's effort to involve Orin, her brother and the second child of the family, in her plot against Christine. Orin, being separated from his mother and sent to the war by his father for two years, now comes home to see his mother. Yet, Lavinia believes that Orin will not tolerate the idea of his mother having a love affair with Adam Brant. Therefore, Lavinia is going to deceive Orin to satisfy her desire to take revenge upon Christine. But Christine has tried to convince Orin not to believe in what Lavinia has said to him. However, Lavinia has succeeded in proving to Orin what Christine has done with Adam Brant by taking Orin to the ship where Christine meets Adam Brant and plans to go away with him. Soon after Christine leaves Adam Brant, Orin kills him At home, then, Orin tells his mother what he has done towards Brant. Not withstanding with the fact that Brant and Orin has already known her affair with Adam, Christine commits suicide.
In the third part, THE HAUNTED, Orin, burdened with his feeling of guilt, has committed suicide since he feels that his mother committing suicide is because of his misdeed. None of the Mannons but only Lavinia who is still alive, having no one beside her except for the heaps of the family shattered apart. Then she comes to separate herself from the outside world of the Mannons.
By the doom challenging the characters, the play can be regarded as a tragedy. Generally, tragedy involves suffering, failure and death (Halten, 1967:26). It is obvious that O'Neill has put those things of tragedy as the ingredients for the main issue of the play with the death as the utmost end. But, death never really matters in tragedy. Tragedy assumes that death is inevitable and that its coming is of no importance compared with what man does before his death (Krutch, 1976:129).
Due to the significance of what man does before his death in Mourning becomes Electra, Eugene O'Neill has put forth a family affair with its complexities in which each member is facing some conflicts with others and his own self, having failure and suffering, all of which are the tides of what man does before his death. So, the presented issue is not trivial since what the Mannons has experienced is what one might be encountered with and that leads one aware of a living being's problem.
Beyond all the above, obviously there is something hidden behind the Mannons' honor and greatness. That is hate and revenge of which the family is doomed to a ruin. Further, such hate and revenge is going about within the family's love ties.
In the case of husband and wife relationship, one would see that Christine never receives warm love, attention from her husband Ezra. She is often left by Ezra who only pursues his ambition and prestige. Consequently she feels lonely, rejected and disgust towards her husband as she admits to Lavinia:
Apart from her loneliness, as a wife, Christine has an instinctive urge to devote herself to her husband to give happiness to her husband physically and spiritually. She says to her daughter:
For Ezra's personality, a background of his existence as a New Englander is influential. Being a New Englander, Ezra has got a feature of life which is puritanical. According to the puritanism, marriage is something pure and sacred; it cannot be mixed with other feelings of love which give passion, sensuousness and warmth. Besides, man should work hard to get private prestige (Jovanovich, 1973:16). Being conditioned by the principle, Ezra would feel guilty when he should give passionate love to his romantic wife, somehow such love is actually needed. And nothing but he urge of working hard to reach a prestige has always directed Ezra's motives in his life. If he cannot do, he will lose his pride as a Mannon. But this very situation gives some troubles to his relationship with this wife.
Moreover, on the parents-children relationship, one will acknowledge a kind of Electra and Oedipus Complex. Electra and Oedipus Complex is a form of love which is expressed within the intimate attachment of a daughter towards her father, and a son towards his mother (Freud, 1962). Further, Freud has said that such phenomenon seems to be a sexual deviation, meaning that sexual satisfaction is aimed to find the attachment to other persons, instead of the satisfaction of the genial urge (Freud 1979). Thus, the adulthood sexuality is not aimed to pursue the satisfaction of genial urge, instead it is tuned to the childhood sexuality which is noted by the attempt to deal with the objects outside of him. From this point, Electra and Oedipus complex develops with its intricate emotional entanglement. Such a case is experienced by Lavinia who is closely attached to her father Ezra, and Orin who is closely attached to his mother Christine. This attachment will form a kind of two opposing forces--son-mother and daughter-father--whenever the relationship of the parents becomes worse. Besides, the feelings of jealousy comes together with such attachment. And this love complex is internalized into Lavinia and Orin's personality.
The above phenomena prompts hate-revenge in the Mannons. One reason is that the children both daughter and son, feel that they have a great responsibility for their parents who devoted themselves fort the sake of the children's happiness. This feeling of responsibility influences the children's deed in which emotionally they are determined to pay their respect to their parents.
In the case of Lavinia's complex love the role of Ezra Mannon is cultivating such feeling of love is great. Having a problem with Christine, Ezra then turns his attention to this daughter. As a consequence, she feels responsible for her father as a kind of return for her father's love to her. That is why she always
defends her father against her mother.
Getting into such complex, not only does a daughter love her father but she also considers her mother as a rival and she is jealous of everything her mother has got (Coleman, 1969). Lavinia is jealous of her mother, especially when her mother has a new lover, Adam Brant, whom Lavinia also loves. This jealousy brings further conflict and complication.
As if being an Electra, Lavinia stands herself as a defender of her father and family's honor. She is trying to get rid off her mother. She is doing so without realizing that her deeds will bring any disturbances either against others or herself. And at last, she should have nothing but a bitterness of the shattered past and her own guilt.
For Orin's complex love, the role of Christine in stimulating it is dominant. Not getting satisfaction in her love with her husband, and often being left by Ezra, Christine turns her love and devotion to Orin. Inevitably Orin always feels that he will lose his loved mother if he cannot protect her and sacrifice himself for her. And he is jealous of other person winning his mother's love, including his father. Such feeling always haunts him. The feelings, responsibility, and jealousy turn to hate whenever he knows that his mother has Adam Brant with her.
So, it is obvious that the play is exposing the real reality--a tragic reality--behind the reputation of the great family. Hate and revenge, mixing with the bias of love affection, is the core of troublesome and ruin in the Mannons. As O'Neill gives a comment that an inside turmoil behind the mask of human's nature seems to be a tragic reality which someday will come out to the surface (Wood, 1977). The members of the Mannons have their own inside turmoil which later comes out to be destructive behavior against the others or themselves.
Not only the ruin of the characters is interesting to point out, but also the life in which they are going on with any challenging waves is essential. And that will mark the play worthy for further study as the audience will feel involved with he problem presented, and getting awareness of "that is life."
References
Coleman, James C. Psychology and Effective Behavior. California: Scott Foresman and Company.
Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Discontents. New York: WW Norton and Company, Inc.
Freud Sigmund. 1979. Memperkenalkan Psikoanalisa. Jakarta: Gramedia.
Jovanovich. 1973. Adventure in American Literature. New York.
Krutch, Joseph Wood. 1977. Five Approaches of Literary Appreciation: Tragic Fallacy. New York: new York University Press.
O'Neill, Eugene. 1969. Desire under the Elm, Strange Interlude, Mourning Becomes Electra. New York: Alfred A Knof Inc and Random House.
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Lavinia : You...then you've always hated Father?
Christine: I loved him once--before I married him-incredible as that seems now! He was handsome in his lieutenant
uniform! He was romantic! But marriage soon turns his romance into disgust...He always leaves me alone
(O'Neill, 1969:249).
And that is the hints of trouble in the Mannons' love affection.
Christine: Well ... I want you to know what I've felt .... I love him ... giving all I have to him
(O'Neill, 1969:251).
Yet, whenever her husband does not pay attention on her devotion, Christine certainly wonder what is wrong with herself. Her mind will be shadowed with the questions of what her weaknesses are. However, since she cannot stand with this burden of her mind, she will find fault with Ezra as the source of the 'bad'.
Gatut Lestari, lecturer at the Faculty of Letters, Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 Surabaya.