Revenge
At its most elemental level, Mourning Becomes Electra is a revenge tragedy. At times over the course of its long, exhaustive narrative, it seems like every character is out for revenge: Christine wants payback for a crappy marriage, Orin is headlong into a Hamlet complex over Brant going to bed with his mother Lavinia is out to settle her dead father’s score with the person responsible for killing him: her mother. Family intrigue is everywhere and the breakdown of the family unit is creating primitive psychological responses.
Post-Civil-War America as Ancient Greece
While he may not have been first to look back to the Greek drama of the past as suitable framework within which to work within the milieu of the American Civil War, one cannot argue that O’Neil made the connection viable for future authors and works like Cold Mountain. What is actually a trilogy of separate plays set at the close of the Civil War is a contemporary updating of another set of plays known collectively as the Oresteia by Aeschylus.
Incest
Incest is prevalent as a theme throughout the play and is manifested both literally and figuratively. It not merely coincidence that the family at the center of the play seems to be disintegrating before our very eyes. The sins of the present can be traced to the sins of the past and the guiding iniquity driving all is willingness of the clan to remain insulated from much of the outside world. While the incestuous desires and emotions are literally present, it is the repression of the drive to act upon them that becomes perhaps an even insidious force of division within the family structure.
The Destructive Power of Deceit Lying in Wait
Deception and lies run as rampant as thoughts of revenge among this brooding, self-involved clan and the queen of this fair is really self-delusion rather than the deception of others. The theme of self-deception is impossible to extricate from the larger thematic concern of the consequences of insularity. The ability to believe your own lies and those told by others is exponentially enhanced when the others are telling the same lies to themselves as you. The unfortunate thing about self-deception is that it usually has a shelf life and gradually loses its power to hold together over time, making it just a waiting game for the negative impact to arrive.
The Past's Effects on the Present
There is no sense in this play that the characters feel that they can break free from the past and live their lives as they see fit. They are constantly oppressed by the weight of the past as seen in Marie's exile and shame, Brant's torturous upbringing, Christine's traumatic wedding night, Orin's childhood, Lavinia's childhood, and more. The Mannon history is dark and heavy and no one escapes from it. The Mannon destiny is to constantly grapple with the sins of the father/mother, and it is fitting, then, that the last scene is Lavinia shutting the door to the house and closing herself off from the world outside so she can bear this fate alone.
The Absence of Gods
There is certainly a sense of fate, or destiny, that moves the characters inexorably toward their doom. However, unlike traditional Greek tragedies, this is not orchestrated by gods. In fact, there are no gods in the text despite the allusions to Puritanism. O'Neill wrote in his letters of "the Force behind" and how he desired to create a "tragic expression in terms of transfigured modern values." The fatalistic forces do not exist in the present, though; they are firmly within the past -they are the family ancestors, the sins of the father. There are no forces beyond the family itself; the family contains the seeds of its own destruction. Critic Miriam Chirico notes that O'Neill had a "theory that the forces that determine one's fate are no longer external to the human being's world." The religious obsession, sexual frustration, selfishness, and trauma are more than powerful enough to guide characters to their ignoble deeds and ends.
Puritanism
Puritanism is a particularly harsh and rigid religious doctrine that has an intense focus on sin, guilt, and punishment. As traditional Puritans, the Mannons espoused these stringent beliefs on morality and sought to stamp out any behavior or belief that did not adhere to them. As a result, Mannons such as Christine and Lavinia struggle with their subjugation and repression of their normal sexual impulses. They are crushed under this patriarchal structure that demands they submit to their husbands and to God; it is no wonder Lavinia revels in the freedom and openness of the Blessed Isles. Puritanism is part of the familial curse, and the ancestors who carry out that curse use it to deleterious effects.
