Mourning Becomes Electra: Myth Recreated
Mourning Becomes Electra: Myth Recreated

Summary/Abstract: With Mourning Becomes Electra, O’Neill had entered a phase of his writing career where concept of time at all levels i.e. linear and past relating to memory was becoming an obsession. For several years he had thought of writing a drama based on one of the Greek tragedies but set it in America, embodying present day concepts and insights. Thus what he intended to do was that he wanted to recreate the old Greek myth and present it in the context of present time. In some thematic respects, Mourning Becomes Electra is closer to Euripedes than to Aeschylus, owing to the Euripedean treatment, its psychological interest and the incorrigible self-justifications for acts of violence in which Euripedes’ Electra and Clytmnestra engage. The incest motif also has its strongest source in Euripedes’ Orestes. The present article aims at showing that O’Neill was recycling the ancient past into a time he felt suitable with reference to contemporary American background showing the wholeness and homogeneity of time. In effect what he has done is that he has analyzed how time affects our emotional pattern and how this emotional pattern change or does not change with time. This article aims at discussing and exploring various aspects of Mourning Becomes Electra, Eugene O’Neill’s masterpiece in which he recreates the ancient myth and gives it an American context.

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