Here i have given my views on Mourning Becomes Electra as a Greek tragedy.

1. Mourning Becomes Electra as a Greek tragedy.
Name : Ravi Rajyaguru
Roll No : 26
M.A : Sem -3
Paper : ( 10 ) The American Literature.
Enrolment No : PG15101032
Email id.: rajyagururavi24@gmail.com
Submitted To : Department of English
Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji
Bhavnagar University

2. Characteristics of Greek tragedy
Tragic hero
Tragic flaw
Catastrophe
Chorus
Fate

3. Look on Famous Greek tragedy and
their writers.
• Aeschylus (525/524-456/455) was the first real
master of the tragedy.
• He is the one who began writing trilogies. An
Aeschylus production normally ran from sun-up to
sundown.
His famous works :
• Agamemnon.
• The Libation Bearers.
• Eumenides.

4. • Sophocles (497/496-406/405) was another
playwright who built on the format Aeschylus
had developed and added his own details. The
first thing he did was to break the tradition of
trilogies, which probably made it easier for his
audiences to keep their interest.
His famous works :
• Antigone.
• Oedipus the King.

5. • Euripides (480-406) was a playwright from the era
whose great addition to tragedy was his use of
female leads.
• Euripides also developed the concept of deux ex
machina, which means 'God from the machine', or a
moment where divine power comes down to solve
the problems the characters are experiencing.
His famous works :
• The Cyclops
• Hecuba
• Alcestis

6. Mourning Becomes Electra as a Greek tragedy
Tragic hero :
At the centre of a tragedy is its protagonist. The
tragic hero is a person of high rank who accepts
his or her downfall with dignity.
Lavinia is the main character of this novel. She
seems to hate her mother, Christine. She is in
deep association with her father. Though every
daughter loves her father yet her affection for his
father is a way too deep and lustful.
O’ Neal has used Electra complex which is the
cause of the tragedy.

7. Tragic flaw :
• An error in judgement or a weakness in character such as pride or
arrogance which brings the downfall of the protagonist.
• Here the weakness of Lavinia is her lustful love towards her father.
Her love towards her father causes hatred towards her mother.
• Lavinia takes the decision to pour poison in his brother Orin. When
Orin comes to know about it he killed Adam, his mother lover. After
this Christian also committed suicide.
• Now this leads to another dirty situation wherein Orin is in lust of
his sister. But Lavinia insults him That’s why Orin feels guilty and he
also committed suicide.
• This leaves Lavinia to a lonely situation where she is in deep
psychological fixations.

8. Catastrophe :
• A tragedy ends with a catastrophe, a disastrous
conclusion that usually involves multiple deaths. if
the tragic hero does not die, then he/ or she suffers
complete ruin.
• Here in this novel we have seen so many deaths
like of Ezra Mannon, Christian, Adam and of Orin.
• So at the end she feels caught in the memory of
the dead. The dead seem to haunt her mind and her
feelings. She decides to remain alone in the house of
the dead to pay for her sins:
• "And there's no one left to punish me. I'm the last
Mannon. I've got to punish myself! Living alone here
with the dead is a worse act of justice than death or
prison! I'll never go out or see anyone!"

9. Chorus :
Throughout a tragedy a chorus, a mass group
of actors, observe and comment on the action
through song.
Here O’ Neal has used his wit and put one character
Seth Beckwith who works like similar to chorus.
• Seth represents part of the staple of Greek tragedy
known as the chorus, a group of actors—usually with
one taking the lead—who give the audience valuable
info and comment on what's going down in the play.
The chorus does all the heavy lifting and the grunt
work setting things up for us viewers. Making Seth
clearly working class was a pretty smart move on
O'Neill's part when you think of the chorus's role.

10. Fate :
• The ancient Greeks believed in the idea of fate or a
destiny preordained by the Gods no matter what
action a person takes in the present. the fates or
Moirai, were three Goddess who determined the
length of a person's life and how much suffering it
would contain.
• But here O’ Neal has not used any supernatural
power. Because he believes that people are no longer
puppets of the supernatural powers. One of his
challenges was to adapt the Oresteia, with its
obsession about Fate, for an audience who didn’t
really believe in fate.

11. References :
• https://quizlet.com/9673079/characteristicsofgreektragedyfla
shcards/
• http://study.com/academy/lesson/greektragedydefinitionchar
acteristicsplays.Html
• http://www.shmoop.com/mourningbecomeselectra/
sethbeckwith.html

12. Thank you