Mourning Becomes Electra Lesson Plan

What is the significance of the act set on the “Flying Trades” ship in terms of the textual structure?

The only act in the entire play not set in the Mannon House is Act IV on the “Flying Trades”; importantly, it also falls roughly in the middle of the text. Indeed, O’Neill referred to it as “the center of the whole work.” Here, O’Neill introduces the interesting Chantyman figure -- a disheveled, elderly poet whose song foretells Brant’s death later in the act. Similar to Walt Whitman’s famous poem, “O Captain! My Captain!”, in which Abraham Lincoln metaphorically sprawls out dead on the ship’s deck right as it—the Civil War—arrives in port, Brant will also die on a ship...