Mourning Becomes Electra play

“Mourning Becomes Electra” 

     

Mourning Becomes Electra is a modern play, shows moderns of Mannon family. Mannon family is very rich and fashionable also. Mannon ladies have no privacy in their life , they can go away where they want.

“Mourning Becomes Electra”  Mourning means :The expression of sorrow for someone’s death,Grief , lament , lamentation Black clothes worn as an expression of sorrow when someone dies.“Electra” means :Sparkling , the fairy sun“Becomes “ in the sense of “befits” Electra to mourn- it is her fate Mourning (Black) (sorrow) is becoming to her, it is the only color that becomes her destiny.

    

 Mourning Becomes Electra  based on the use of the Greek Myths as a narrative base, their New England scene, the intense psychological focus of the subject matter and also with their historical perspectives.It is considered O’Neill’s most famous work. 

    As a ambitious play it is based on Greek tragic Myth Oresteia to 19th cen. New England. As a play cycle it ran for 150 performances before closing in March 1932. The story of this play is a kind of retelling of the Oresteia by Aeschylus is a trilogy. Here in Mourning Becomes Electra all characters ,most of parallel characters from the ancient Greek play.

Mourning Becomes Electra comes as a Modern Tragedy, the play features murder, adultery, incestuous love and revenge , weak relationship of family members. We can see different minds of people , their secrets, hubris, fate and honor. 

The characters of this play reflected as a unsuccessful strugglers of an individual to escape a tragic fate and the dark nature of human existence. It is considered with Freud’s circle of Human mind/nature-psychological theory as well. Specially there are complexes of the characters of Oedipus and Electra.Mourning Becomes Electra is divided into three plays with different themes.