Cabot and Eben’s rivalry over Abbie echoes another Ancient Greek tragedy. This time, O’Neill draws on Sophocles’
Oedipus Rex, in which Oedipus fights with an older male rival (who turns out to be his father) over a woman (who turns out to be his mother). Like Oedipus’s story, Eben’s story begins to take a tragic turn after a quasi-incestuous love triangle triggers a conflict between rivals who are father and son. Eben’s blind rage and desire for revenge causes him to say vicious things to Abbie, and he sets off a chain of events with his rage-filled threats that will end up causing his own demise.