Abstract
Psychological
play is primarily concerned with the motivation and mental lives of the
characters. It does not focus on the external events of the plot. Character and
characterization are of excessive importance in psychological plays. Similarly,
Mourning Becomes Electra is a psychological play. It highlights the emotions
and hidden motives of characters. This paper aims to analyze the play Mourning
Becomes Electra as a psychological play. It will analyze the characters’ psyche
and behavior in the light of the psychoanalysis theory of Sigmund Freud and
psychological realism. The data is arranged qualitatively and the conclusion is
drawn based on data analysis.
Keywords: Psychological Realism, Psychoanalysis Theory, Psychological fate,
1. Introduction
Eugene o Neill was born on 16th October 1888. He
won the noble prize in literature in 1936 and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in
1920. John Gassner says about him, "He is the height and breadth of the
American Theatre." Eugene O ’Neill’s play deals with the struggle of a man
with himself and man’s past and future. He was a pioneer of American drama. He
presents the psychological conflicts in the minds of characters. He was very
much inspired by Sigmund Freud and his theories.
Eugene O ’Neill wrote the play "Mourning becomes Electra" in 1931. It was first performed on the stage on 26 October 1931. The play deals with the inner psyche and conflicts in the minds of characters. The play is a tragedy about the members of Mannon's house because of their tragic flaws in their personalities, such as hypocrisy and pride. It is based on the psychoanalysis theory of Sigmund Freud. As seen in the play, Lavinia is unconsciously attracted to her father, representing the Electra complex; similarly, Orin is unconsciously attracted to his mother Christine, reflecting the Oedipus complex. Psychologically, we can see the mental states and hidden motives of the characters in the play. Therefore, it is a psychological play, based on psychological realism and psychoanalysis theory.
2. Psychological Realism
Psychological realism
is a literary genre. It came to prominence in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. It focuses on the motivation and internal thoughts of characters.
Psychological writers do not only show what the characters do but also explain
why they take such actions.
Psychological realism stresses internal characterisation and motivation in order to investigate the individuals' spiritual, emotional, and mental lives. It uses a stream of
consciousness and flashback narrative techniques to explore and explain the
mental states of characters. Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment
represents psychological realism and it is a perfect example of it. Through
psychological realism, we can study the inner life of the characters in
Mourning Becomes Electra
3. Psychoanalysis theory
Psychoanalysis theory
was founded by Sigmund Freud in the 19th century. He believed that people could
be treated by making them conscious of their unconscious thoughts and
motivation. Psychoanalysis is a technique for releasing repressed feelings and experiences. This theory studies the human psyche and asserts that humans have
sexual and aggressive drives. The interplay of three entities, Id, Ego, and Superego, according to Freud, determine human behaviour. It is based on the
pleasure or desire principle, Ego is based on the reality principle and super
Ego is based on the morality principle. He also described stages of behavior
development, stating that a male at a certain age is attracted to his mother or
any woman who resembles his mother for sexual desire, referred to as the
Oedipus complex, and a female is attracted to her father or any other man who
resembles her father, referred to as the Electra complex. Mourning becomes
Electra represents both these complexes in the character of Lavinia and Orin.
Mourning Becomes Electra as psychological play
Explanation
A psychological play
is primarily concerned with the emotional and mental lives of the characters.
It does not focus on the external events of the plot. In psychological plays, character and characterisation are extremely important. The
psychological drama is concerned with the characters' hidden motives that drive
them to act rather than the moral consequences. This variety of drama rests on
the discoveries made by Freud and his successors on the subject of psychology.
Freud
and his followers described human relations in terms of sexual connotation,
which made the basis of critical approaches, and these approaches try to
interpret literature for the emotional and mental bent of characters. They
additionally supply the ideas of the Oedipus and Electra complex. Moreover,
they stated that repressed sexual desires mold the complete personality of
human beings.
Freud
and his followers gave a new understanding of human actions and deeds and their
works represent the concept of psychological realism. Modern literary works
reflect psychological realism and authors never neglect it. Humanism took a
great leap further with the help of psychological Realism. Human beings were
considered either virtuous or vile before Freud and his followers’ theories.
Before Freud's theories, the majority of people admired and loved the virtuous,
while the vile were despised and despised. Psychological realism states that
human beings are neither virtuous nor vile, rather they are pushed into their
role by several circumstances and these circumstances can have their roots in
social, biological, religious, and many other sources.
Eugene
O ’Neill was inspired by Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles. It was a Greek
tragedy, in which the king had to suffer due to a predetermined fate.
Similarly, O'Neill has a Greek sense of psychological fate, but not in the same
way that Greeks do. He considers the psychological fate more of the result of
human beings themselves. So, according to him, fate is not predetermined but is
determined by man's actions and decisions. It is the tragic morbid psychology
men set for themselves that afterward makes them suffer from it.
Eugene
O Neill reveals the tragic psychological fate of the characters by appearing
them on stage with the same life-like mask and this mask is used to hide and
pretend to be their true inner selves. The characters in the play are
struggling to restrain their true inner feelings. Eugene O Neill compares this
behavior to typical puritanical families, which traditionally had an emphasis
on self-restraints.
The play opens with ordinary people chatting about the extramarital affairs of
Christine, the wife of Ezra Mannon. O’ Neill’s case is
profoundly psychological, just as Hamlet, written by Shakespeare, is a drama of
psychologically motivated characters. Eugene O Neill has made a remarkable
attempt to dramatize subconscious emotions.
Mourning
Becomes Electra is a play about an aristocratic family which is ruined by the
flaws in the members of the family. Ezra Mannon weds Christine because of her
physical beauty and, after marriage, he fails to love Christine. He considers
Christine below to be his status. Christine falls in love with another man,
Adam Brant. She kills her husband by poisoning him when she realizes that her
daughter, Lavinia, has come to know about her affair with Adam Brant.
Now
we can interpret psychologically why Christine falls in love with Adam Brant
and why she kills her husband or the behavior of any other character in the
play. Ezra loved Christine before their marriage because of her physical
beauty, but when they got married, Ezra noticed that Christine came without a
dowry. Because of this, he stopped loving her further. When Christine comes to
know that her husband has stopped loving her and his behavior has changed after
marriage, she is emotionally cut off from her husband. After that, she starts
loving her children, especially her son Orin, and she finds solace in her son,
Orin. When Orin is taken away from her, she becomes very desperate and
hopeless. Christine’s position in Ezra’s house was like an extra man. The
conversation between the servants in Act one of the play is clear proof of her
status in her home. The behavior of her daughter, Lavinia, shows the magnitude
of torture she had to endure in the Mannon house. A person in these
circumstances is bound to become desperate, and Christine is no exception. We
can feel sympathy for Christine even though she committed an unforgivable sin
by murdering her husband, but we cannot approve of her actions.
Christine’s murder of her husband was the vilest thing ever expected from any woman, but
had she had any other option? Perhaps not. She could not have secured a divorce
from Ezra. If she had eloped with Brant, then her life could have become very
miserable because Ezra was an influential person. Furthermore, she could not
have continued living with Brant without marriage because Brant would have
eventually grown tired of her, and she had the example of Marrie Brantome.
Therefore, Christine’s only chance was if Ezra had died some way, then she
could have married Adam and she could have got her share of Ezra’s property to
live comfortably with Brant. She was hoping that war would kill her husband,
but her hope did not come true and she had to do it herself.
Similarly,
we can understand the actions of all the other characters in the play. Eugene
O'Neill's psychological portrayal of them has revealed their minds and souls to
us. Lavinia’s love for her father and Christine’s love for Orin can be
explained psychologically as Electra and Oedipus complex respectively. When
Peter asked Lavinia to marry him, she said: "I can’t marry anyone".
Peter said "he’s got your mother", then Lavinia replied, "Father
needs me more" (Homecoming 14). And when Ezra comes home, Lavinia says to
him, "You are the only man I’ll ever love! I’m going to stay with you
"(Homecoming Act 3). This is the Electra complex. There is incest in
sister-brother relationships too and it is Lavinia who is the prime factor of
personality shortcomings. Lavinia unconsciously loves her brother too, because
he resembles her father. She tells Christine "I love [Orin] better than
you".
Similarly,
Orin loves his mother and says to her "there was no one there but you and
me" (the Hunted act 2). Orin kills Adam Brant because he resembles his
father, "by God, he does look like a father". He loved his mother and
could not bear an affair with another man, so he killed him. Moreover, after
Christine's death, he started loving his sister Lavinia. "You don't
know-how like a mother you've become, Vinnie," Orin says to Lavinia. (The
Haunted Act 1)
On the surface, the play seems to be a revenge and passion story. Here, Eugene O Neill seems to be hinting that revenge is a self-destructive passion. Revenge destroys both parties which are involved in taking revenge and this is what happens in the play. Adam Brant uses Christine for revenge for the sufferings of his mother; similarly, Orin kills Adam Brant for revenge for the murder of his father, Ezra Mannon. But the story does not end here because it has other dimensions and avenues. A family with an upbringing like the Mannons was sure to suffer because pride and hypocrisy had deeply penetrated their bones. Their flaws were pride and hypocrisy. These led them to their downfall. Abe’s pride and hypocrisy confirmed the seeds of their destruction when he disowned his brother who fell in love with a maid. However, his motion can be interpreted in psychological terms. He was once forced to make that decision due to concerns about society and religion. Eugene suggests to us how these forces make a human being what he becomes.
Conclusion
Mourning
Becomes Electra is a psychological play because in this play Eugene O Neill
shows how the past experiences of people influence their lives and all the
characters have been drawn with great psychological insight. That is why we
feel sympathy for the characters. Although all of them perform vile deeds, we
feel that we will not do justice if we say any of them are vile because they
are forced into those actions because of the circumstances in which they are
placed, so they are victims of circumstances. Whatever they did and howsoever
they behaved is convincing and based on realism. Moreover, the play represents
Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis through which we check the psyche of
the characters. O’ Neill has revealed the inner psyche of the characters
and the purpose of their life-like masks. Hence, mourning becomes Electra is a
psychological play.
References:
- O’ Neill, E. (1931). Mourning
Becomes Electra. Guild Theatre, New York City
- Freud, S. (1913).
Interpretation of dreams. Vienna: Franz deuticke, Leipzig & Vienna
- Kennedy, Patrick.
"Characters' Thoughts and Motivations in Psychological Realism."
ThoughtCo, Feb. 11, 2020, thoughtco.com/psychological-realism-2207838.
- Asma, sheik. (4 May 2017).
Mourning becomes Electra as a psychological play.
Literaturesheikh.blogspot.com
- McLeod, S. A. (2019). Psychoanalysis. Simply Psychology. Retrieved
on 20 April 2020 from https://www.simplypsychology.org/psychoanalysis.html
- McLeod, S. A. (2018, September
03). Oedipal complex. Simply Psychology. Retrieved on 20 April 2020
from https://www.simplypsychology.org/oedipal-complex.html
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