My presentation on Psychological analysis of ‘ Mourning Becomes Electra’ by Eugene O’Neill.

1. • Topic : Psychological analysis of ‘ Mourning Becomes
Electra’.
• Name : Kinjal Patel
• Paper Name: The American Literature
• Paper No: 10
• Sem : 3
• Roll No: 14
• Submitted to: Department of English Maharaja
Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.

2. Morning Becomes Electra

3. About author
• Eugene O’Neill was born
on 16th October 1888 and
died on 27th November
1953.
• He won the Nobel Prize in
literature in 1936 and
Pulitzer Prize for Drama in
1920, 1922, 1928 and 1957.

4. • “ He is the height and
breadth of the American
theatre…” ---- John Gassner
• In O’Neill’s play the
struggle is with man himself,
man’s own past and future.

5. • In the barren land
of American
drama, Eugene O’
Neill grew a
beautiful
pastureland.
• He was a pioneer
American
dramatists.

6. O’Neill’s inspiration
• O’ Neill reflects the psychological
conflicts in the mind of characters
and got inspiration from Freud.
• Unlike the Greek and Elizabethan
tragedies in which the
protagonists are confronted with
the conflicting forces.
• O’ Neill like T.S.Eliot, went to
the Greek for inspiration.

7. Characters
• Psychology as a method
of psychological
investigation has a
bearing on O’ Neill’s
plays.
• His characters are
emotional but sterile.

8. Freudian start
• The play opens with ordinary people
gossiping about the extra marital affairs
of Christine, wife of Ezra Mannon.
• This is a Freudian start.

9. Psychoanalytical tradition
Gardener Seth’s
Psychoanalytical tradition
Past Present Future

10. Head of the family
Be – all End –all

11. Lancan’s complex
• Major – Brigadier- General- judge and he also served
in the army. This dwarfing of personality gives birth to
castration complex of Lancan.
• The son feels obliged to love only one woman that is his
mother.

12. Freudian context
• Ezra’s death is both clinical
and psychological in the
Freudian context.
• Slip of tongue is both
Freudian and Lancanian.
• Lavinia is offending herself
on Peter Niles, she addresses
him as ‘Adam’- the real love
of her life.

14. Hamlet and The Mourning Becomes
Electra
• O’ Neill’s case is profoundly
psychological just as Hamlet
is a drama of psychologically
motivated characters.
• O’ Neill has made
remarkable attempt to
dramatize sub – conscious
emotions.

15. Cunning Christine
• Christine is sly and malicious
and she plans the murder in a
cunning manner knowing that
her husband has heart problem.
• She lets it be knowing in the
public about the gravity of his
ailment.

16. Serious of Killings
• She makes him suffer and
poisons him.
• But he dies only to give birth
to a series of violent revenge
killings.

17. • When the brother
Orin returns from the
war the sister, Lavinia
maneuvers him in a
situations where he
kills Brant before his
killing another
psychological
aberration in the form
of mother son’s
incestuous
relationship is found.

18. Incest
• There is incest in brother sister
relationship too.
• It is Lavinia who is the prime
factor of personality
shortcomings.
• She would neither like her
brother to have normal
relationship with Hazel nor allow
herself to have ties with captain
Peter Niles.

19. Tragic end
• Orin to madness and
suicide just as they
had driven her
mother to frustration
and suicide,
• Lavinia draws the
curtains on her own
self and opts for the
life of recluse.

20. Oedipus and Electra complex
• We rarely find
Oedipus and
Electra complex
together but in
this play we do.

21. Conclusion
• Thus, O’ Neill is a master craftsman but in
this play it seems as if he was writing within
the psychological and psychoanalytical
framework.