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Mourning Questions
Mourning Becomes Electra
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| How is Ezra Mannon received by Christine and Lavinia when he returns to the Mannon house in the Homecoming? | Lavinia is overjoyed to see him while Christine is not |
| In what part of the world does O’Neill place the house of the Mannons in Mourning Becomes Electra? | New England |
| Orin says that he’ll give Vinnie what he has written on one condition. What is that condition? | She will do anything for him (I.E. not marry Peter) |
| How does the death of Christine differ from that of Clytemnestra in Aeschylus’ Choephori? | Christine commits suicide when she finds out that Brant is dead while Orestes kills Clytemnestra in Choephori. |
| Who condemns Vinnie to a life of mourning and solitude in the final act of The Haunted? | She condemns herself |
| How can we interpret certainly O’Neill’s intentions for composing a dramatic trilogy that approached themes and topics similar to Aeschylus’ Oresteia? | We have access to his journals stating his intentions; also trilogies in American Drama are extremely rare. |
| O’Neill’s “stage directions” and his characters often compare a particular thing to a tomb. What is that thing? | The Mannon mansion |
| According to Travis Bogard, the song “O Shenandoah” recurs in Mourning Becomes Electra and delivers one particular theme. What is that “operative word” that plays in the Shenandoah theme? | bound |
| Lavinia Mannon’s character has been seen to manifest a particular psychological tendency, behavior that is characterized by a daughter’s jealousy of her mother and obsession with her father? | The Electra Complex (Freud?) |
| How does Lavinia prove to Orin that Christine was guilty of poisoning Ezra? | She puts the poison on Ezra’s body and they follow Christine to Adam Brant’s ship. |
| What character in Mourning Becomes Electra represents Clytemnestra? | Christine |
| Who represents Agamemnon? | Ezra Mannon |
| Who represents Aegisthus? | Captain Adam Brant |
| Who represents Orestes? | Orin |
| Who represents Electra? | Lavinia |
| Who represents Pylades? | Peter Niles |
| Who represents Chrysothemis? | Hazel |
| Who represents Thyestes? | David Mannon, Brant’s father |
| Who represents Atreus? | Abe Mannon, Ezra’s father |
| Who represents the chorus of elders from the Agamemnon? | Seth(who is the chorus leader), Ames, Louisa, Minnie |
| When Ezra Mannon returns home in The Homecoming, where is he coming from? | The Civil War. |
| According to Erich Segal, at what point in the Orestes myth is the traditional avenger narrative “open to some variation”? | after the death of Aegisthus |
| What did Brant tell the doctor in order to get the medicine that kills Ezra Mannon? | There was a sick dog aboard his ship |
| When Orin shoots Adam Brant, Adam appears to Orin to be which of the following characters? | Ezra and then himself(Orin). |
| Mourning Becomes Electra, like Aeschylus’ Oresteia, depends upon an old feud reaching back into ancestral roots. Cassandra sees the curse of the House of Atreus on the walls. How does the Mannon curse linger on the walls of the Mannon house? | Portraits of the Mannon ancestors. |
| In her final discussion with Peter, Lavinia is dressed in what attire? Color or black? | In black funeral attire |
| In what way is the pursuit of the Furies replaced in “Mourning Becomes Electra”? | The Furies are replaced by the portraits of the Mannon ancestors and Orin’s guilt |
| What is Ezra Mannon’s position in the army? | Brigadier General |
| By what name does Vinnie accidentally call Peter in “The Haunted” when she is begging him to marry her immediately? | Adam |
| How has Vinnie changed (specifically in appearance and dress) when she returns from her voyage with Orin in The Haunted? | She looks like Christine and wears green. She also is no longer flat chested and skinny, her form has filled out making her look far more attractive. |
| What is the historical context (setting) of “Mourning Becomes Electra”? | Right after the Civil War in New England. |
| Some critics see the lilac, a particularly recurrent flower in Mourning Becomes Electra, as a symbolic remembrance of what? | They are associated with Walt Whitman’s elegy with the death of Abraham Lincoln |
| Which of the following are obvious differences between Orin and Orestes? | Orin is weak-willed and controlled by his sister; Orestes is strong-willed |
| Which character(s) were poisoned in the play? | Ezra Mannon |
| How did Christine acquire the medicine she uses to kill Ezra Mannon? | She got Brant to buy it for her. |
| Marie Brantôme bore an illegitimate child — later changed his name to Adam Brant — after an affair with which member of the Mannon family? | David Mannon (Ezra’s uncle) pg. 275 |
| What do Vinnie and Orin do to Adam Brant’s stateroom to hide their involvement in his murder? | They tear it up and throw the valuables overboard to make it look like it was a robbery. |
| Which of the following describes the “Mannon look”? | Secret looking; mask-like face. |
| What is the relationship between Seth and the Mannons? | gardener/handy-man pg. 264 |
| In the Orestes myth, the Furies torment Orestes, what are Orin’s comparative “Furies”? | The portraits of the members of the Mannon family |
| How does O’Neill manifest an authoritative style that limits different interpretations of the play? | He gives explict stage directions and character descriptions. |
| How does Christine Mannon kill Ezra Mannon? | She poisons him. |
| What item did Vinnie find that secured Christine’s guilt in her mind? | The box of poison used to kill Ezra. |
| Which of the following did Orin say after he killed Adam Brant about what he would have done for his mother? | He would have killed Ezra for his mother. |
| Which of the following describes Lavinia and Christine’s relationship as evidenced by the scene of Ezra Mannon’s return? | They despise each other. |
| What is the only reprieve granted Orin in The Haunted? | Writing about their family, then death. |
| At the beginning of the play, whom do Ames, Louisa, Minnie, and Seth represent? | The chorus of the elders of Argos. |
| What mode of transportation does Orin use to return home? | Train |
| What is found on the wall of Ezra Mannon’s study which constantly haunts the family members? | A painting of Ezra. |
| Which of the following describes Christine’s reason(s) for her resentment of Ezra Mannon? | |
| Whose name does Orin call when he’s injured in the war? | Mother |
| Which of the following describes Orin’s initial reaction to the death of his father? | He acts like it is not important or that it didn’t happen. He keeps saying that it it still feels like he is alive. |
| Which response best describes the significance of Orin’s head wound? | |
| Whom does Christine claim to be visiting in New York to conceal her affair with Adam Brant? | Her father pg. 273 |
| Who reveals to Lavinia the truth about Captain Brant’s parents? | Seth |
| How does Christine die? | She shoots herself. |
| What is the name of Adam Brant’s ship? | The Flying Trades |
| What location, across the sea, serves as an escape for the characters in this play? | The “Blessed Isles” |
| What was the name of the ship on which Christine and Captain Brant planned to sail away? | The "Atlantis" (page 362) |
| To whom does Captain Brant say “Good bye. You’re right, I wasn’t man enough for you”? | His ship, the Flying Trades. |
| In which room does Lavinia confront her mother about cheating on her father? | Ezra’s study |
| Whom do Orin and Lavinia hope will be blamed for Brant’s death? | Robbers |
| Orin does not actually kill his mother, so why does he feel guilty for her murder? | He feels that he drove her to kill herself because he killed Brant and then told her about it. |
| As Orin is secretly listening to Christine talk with Brant on the ship, why does her talking about escaping to the “Blessed Islands” further enrage him? | Orin wanted to go to the islands with her. |
| Why did Brant believe the sea and Flying Trades did not want him anymore after the death of Mannon? | He wasn’t man enough for it. |
| What were Ezra Mannon’s last words? | “She’s guilty--not medicine.” (page 316) |
| What does Christine want to do with Adam Brant when Orin returns home from the war? | |
| What are the names of the three plays which make up Mourning Becomes Electra? | Homecoming, The Hunted, The Haunted |
| What is the name of the woman with whom David Mannon ran off? | Marie Brantome pg. 276 |
| In The Haunting the islands are referenced again, but his time whose islands are they? | Lavinia’s |
| What was Orin’s excuse for leaving Vinnie and Peter? | He said he was going to clean his gun. |
| In The Homecoming, somebody plays the gate-keeping role, subtly controlling Ezra’s admission into the house. Who? | Christine |
| Which is not a change that comes over Vinnie after the death of her mother? | |
| What does Orin say the faces of the people he kills turn into? | His father's and then his own. |
| The title of O’Neill’s play is echoed in Orin’s line from The Hunted: | |
| Whom does Orin kill first? | Adam Brant |
| Who is the first character to die? | Ezra Mannon |
| What are Ezra Mannon’s last words, and to whom does he speak them? | “She’s guilty--not medicine.” to Lavinia (page 316) |
| In what ways does mourning “become” Electra? | While in mourning Electra’s changes from a flat chested, skinny girl to having more of a womanly shape and she changes as well in that she wants love now. She is more gracious as a woman of this time should be. |
| How does O’Neill benefit from altering classical Electra’s fate? | O’Neill’s addition to the story, then, will be the punishment of Electra who “has too much tragic fate within her soul” to be allowed to slip from heroic legend into “undramatic married banality.” |
| What is Captain Brant’s familial relationship to Orin and Vinnie? | He is their cousin once removed. |
| What is Christine’s motive for murdering her husband? | To marry Captain Brant. |
| How many times does Christine talk to the painting of her husband in his study? | |
| How does Vinnie know her father didn’t die of natural death but was murdered? | He pointed at Christine as he said his last words, “She’s guilty....not medicine” and then Vinnie found the box of pills/poison that Christine dropped when she fainted. |
| How is Christine responsible for the death of her husband Ezra? | She had Adam Brant buy poison and when Ezra heart was hurting he asked for her to give him his medicine but instead she gave him the poison which killed him. |
| Why does Christine believe Lavinia won’t suspect her in the event that her father dies? | Ezra had a history of heart trouble. |
| Where did Lavinia really go when she said she had gone to visit Hazel and Peter? | New York -following her mother pg. 285 |
| How is Ezra Mannon related to Adam Brant? | Cousin? |
| What description does O’Neill repeatedly use to describe the Mannon family members’ faces? | They are secretive and mask-like. |
| Who is blamed for sending Orin to war? | Lavinia |
| What event/dialogue changes Vinnie’s mind about marrying Peter at the end of The Haunted? | She called Peter “Adam”. |
| Why did Lavinia’s grandfather, Abe Mannon, tear down the house and build a new one? | “He wouldn’t live where his brother had disgraced the family.” pg 275 |
| Why does Lavinia cause herself to be locked in the Mannon house at the end of the play? | It is her punishment. |
| Whose role has Lavinia taken over during the majority of the play “The Haunted”? | Christine’s |
| What is the difference between Clytemnestra’s fate and that of Christine in the 2nd play of each trilogy? | Christine’s was self-inflicted suicide while Clytemnestra’s was murder by her son. |
| What color does Vinnie “steal” from Christine after she is dead? | Green |
| Why does Lavinia start wearing a green dress in place of her normal black one? | |
| According to Travis Bogard, “the most most horrifying [aspect] of Mourning Becomes Electra is that ____________________ is insane.” Choose the item below that fills the blank as Bogard intended: | |
| After Orin kills Captain Brant, what does Orin express while he looks at Brant’s lifeless face? | He says that Brants face looks like his fathers and then like his. It is as if everytime Orin kills a man, he is killing himself. He is committing suicide. |
| How does Lavinia change after the suicide of her mother? | She becomes more beautiful, more happy, and starts dressing and looking like her mother. |
| How do Lavinia and Orin make Captain Brant’s murder look like an accident? | They bust up his office and steal the things from his pocket |
| In “Homecoming,” which character fulfills the role left vacant by the absence of a clearly defined Cassandra? | |
| Which repeated character that appears in each play could be Eugene O’Neill’s chorus? | Seth |
| In what way is Electra’s role different in O’Neill’s version of the Orestes story? | |
| Why does Lavinia (according to herself) wear black in the The Homecoming and The Hunted? | |
| What horrifies Christine when she walks in on her children standing around Ezra’s body in his study? | The poison is on Ezra's body. |
| What did Orin give Hazel that caused Lavina overpowering distress? | The envelope with the truth about the Mannon family's history. Including all the murders. |
| How does Orin die in the end? | He shoots himself while “cleaning his gun” |
| What happens to Lavinia in the end? | She confines herself to the Mannon house |
| Who was the last Mannon standing? | Lavinia |
| What is Orin’s final opinion of his mother? |
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