Genre
Drama
Language
English
Setting and Context
April 1865, just after the Civil War ends
Narrator and Point of View
Third-person omniscient in the stage directions and descriptions
Tone and Mood
Tone: Tense, strident, demanding, threatening, hopeless
Mood: Brooding, distressed, foreboding, vengeful, moody, morose
Protagonist and Antagonist
There is no single protagonist or antagonist; Orin, Lavinia, Christine, and Ezra are both/neither.
Major Conflict
There seem to be several, but the overarching one is whether or not Lavinia and Orin will escape the clutches of the Mannon curse.
Climax
The anguished and guilt-ridden Orin, after having sexually propositioned his sister, realizes how far he has sunk and kills himself with his own pistol.
Foreshadowing
-Seth remarks of Brant, "I'd think it was David's ghost comin' home" (240), which foreshadows what we learn of Brant's identity
-Christine says to Brant before she leaves him, "Oh! I feel so strange—so sad—as if I'd never see you again!" (319); Brant will be killed not long after
Understatement
N/A.
Allusions
-two famous 19th-century songs, "John Brown's Body" and "Shenandoah"
-many historical allusions such as George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, General Lee, Abraham Lincoln, the Mexican-American War, etc.
-Herman Melville's "Typee," a work of travel literature published in 1846
Imagery
See separate "Imagery" section.
Paradox
N/A.
Parallelism
-Lavinia remarks of Lincoln, "It's dreadful he should die just at his moment of victory" (264), which parallels Ezra Mannon's own fate of dying the day after he returns from war
-Critic Doris Alexander notes, "Through a repetition of patterns, O'Neill is able to keep his audience constantly aware that the characters are psychologically trapped. Scenes such as Orin's homecoming, duplicating in its pattern of yearning and jealousy the homecoming of his father..."
Personification
-"I want to find what that wall is marriage put between us!" Ezra (270)
-"The sea hates a coward" Brant (319)
Use of Dramatic Devices
Soliloquy: Lavinia speaks to herself as she watches her mother and father go inside the house to make love
Tragedy: The play is an example of a tragedy, which is unsurprising since it is based on Greek tragedy
Chorus: The townsfolk act as a Greek chorus, commenting on the events without being part of them.
Comic Relief: The Chantyman and Seth provide a modicum of this.
Exposition: Seth provides this for the story of Marie Brantome and the elder Mannons.
Stage direction: O'Neill famously provides a great deal of this in his works.
