Mourning Becomes Electra was published by Horace Liveright in 1931. It is a trilogy of full-length plays — Homecoming, The Hunted, and The Haunted — retelling the Oresteia of Aeschylus in a New England setting at the end of the Civil War. The Mannons replace the House of Atreus: Brigadier General Ezra Mannon (Agamemnon) returns from the war; his wife Christine (Clytemnestra) poisons him; their daughter Lavinia (Electra) drives Christine to suicide; their son Orin (Orestes) is consumed by guilt and kills himself.
O’Neill’s transposition replaces divine intervention with Freudian psychology: the Mannon curse is not Apollo’s demand for vengeance but a family’s pattern of sexual repression, Oedipal desire, and inherited guilt. Christine murders Ezra not for political power but because she cannot bear his touch — she loves Captain Adam Brant (the Aegisthus figure), an illegitimate Mannon. Lavinia’s hatred of her mother is rooted in jealousy: she desired her father and desires Brant.
The trilogy runs over six hours in performance. O’Neill eliminated the Greek chorus but replaced it with townspeople who comment on the Mannons like a village chorus in a Thomas Hardy novel.
Collecting Mourning Becomes Electra
First edition (Horace Liveright, New York, 1931): Boards with dust jacket. Also issued in a limited signed edition of 550 copies.
Market values:
- Trade first edition, fine in jacket: $200–$500
- Limited signed edition: $500–$1,500
Projected values (2026–2036): Strong appreciation.
Greek Tragedy in New England
Mourning Becomes Electra (1931) is O’Neill’s trilogy of plays that transplants Aeschylus’s Oresteia to a New England mansion at the end of the Civil War. The Mannons — General Ezra, his adulterous wife Christine, their son Orin, and their daughter Lavinia — enact a cycle of murder, guilt, and retribution that follows the Greek original with remarkable fidelity. O’Neill’s ambition was staggering: to prove that modern American drama could achieve the tragic grandeur of the Greeks. The trilogy runs over five hours and was the most discussed theatrical event of its era. Horace Liveright published a limited signed edition that is among the most desirable O’Neill collecting items.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can this still be performed? Rarely — its length and demanding staging make full productions uncommon. But when mounted well (the Glenda Jackson/Peter Hall production, for example), it remains overwhelmingly powerful.