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Adam Brant
Peter Niles is Hazel Niles’s brother and Lavinia Mannon’s love interest (and eventual fiancé). Like Orin and Ezra, Peter served in the Union Army, though an injury forced Peter to return relatively early in the war. Peter is consistent in his tender pursuit of Vinnie, proposing marriage to her even after Vinnie rejects Peter because she loves him more “like a brother.” He is overjoyed when, upon returning from her island cruise, Vinnie at last accepts his proposal. After Orin’s death, however, Peter becomes suspicious of Vinnie’s relationships with Adam Brant and the islander Avahanni, and he begins to view Lavinia as sexually corrupted. When Lavinia, moved by Hazel’s pleas and her own guilt, confesses to being Avahanni’s “fancy woman” (unmarried lover), Peter ends their engagement and leaves the Mannon family behind forever. Peter is analogous to the character of Pylades in the Oresteia.
Peter Niles Quotes in Mourning Becomes Electra
The Mourning Becomes Electra quotes below are all either spoken by Peter Niles or refer to Peter Niles. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
The Haunted: Act 1
Quotes
ORIN—Did you ask her why she stole Mother’s colors? I can’t see why—yet—and I don’t think she knows herself. But it will prove a strange reason, I’m certain of that, when I do discover it!
PETER—(surprised) You stopped at the Islands?
ORIN—Yes. […] But they turned out to be Vinnie’s islands, not mine. They only made me sick—and the naked women disgusted me. I guess I’m too much of a Mannon, after all, to turn into a pagan. But you have seen Vinnie with the men—!
[…] Handsome and romantic-looking, weren’t they, Vinnie?—with colored rags around their middles and flowers stuck over their ears! Oh, she was a bit shocked at first by their dances, but afterwards she fell in love with the Islanders! […] Oh, I wasn’t as blind as I pretended to be! Do you remember Avahanni?
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Explanation and Analysis:
LAVINIA—I loved those Islands. They finished setting me free. There was something there mysterious and beautiful—a good spirit—of love—coming out of the land and sea. It made me forget death. There was no hereafter. There was only this world—the warm earth in the moonlight […] the natives dancing naked and innocent—without knowledge of sin!
[…] Oh, Peter, hold me close to you! I want to feel love! Love is all beautiful! I never used to know that! I was a fool! (She kisses him passionately. He returns it, aroused and at the same time a little shocked by her boldness. She goes on longingly.) We’ll be married soon, won’t we […] We’ll make an island for ourselves on the land, and we’ll have children and love them and teach them to love life so that they can never be possessed by hate and death!
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Explanation and Analysis:
The Haunted: Act 2
Quotes
ORIN—(with a quiet mad insistence) Can’t you see I’m now in Father’s place and you’re Mother? That’s the evil destiny out of the past I hadn’t dared predict! I’m the Mannon you’re chained to!
The Haunted: Act 3
Quotes
HAZEL—You don’t want her to marry Peter?
ORIN—No! She can’t have happiness! She’s got to be punished! (suddenly taking her hand—excitedly) And listen, Hazel! You mustn’t love me any more. The only love I can know now is the love of guilt for guilt which breeds more guilt—until you get so deep at the bottom of hell there is no lower you can sink and you rest there in peace!
The Haunted: Act 4
Quotes
LAVINIA—Kiss me! Hold me close! Want me! Want me so much you’d murder anyone to have me! I did that—for you! Take me in this house of the dead and love me! Our love will drive the dead away! It will shame them back into death […] Take me, Adam! [She is brought back to herself with a start by this name escaping her—bewilderedly, laughing idiotically) Adam? Why did I call you Adam? I never even heard that name before—outside of the Bible! (then suddenly with a hopeless, dead finality) Always the dead between! […]
PETER—Vinnie! You’re talking crazy! […] What happened to you on the Islands. Was it something there? Something to do with that native?
LAVINIA—[…] I won’t lie anymore! Orin suspected I’d lusted with him! And I had! […] He had me! I was his fancy woman!
Get the entire Mourning Becomes Electra LitChart as a printable PDF.
Peter Niles Quotes in Mourning Becomes Electra
The Mourning Becomes Electra quotes below are all either spoken by Peter Niles or refer to Peter Niles. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
The Haunted: Act 1
Quotes
ORIN—Did you ask her why she stole Mother’s colors? I can’t see why—yet—and I don’t think she knows herself. But it will prove a strange reason, I’m certain of that, when I do discover it!
PETER—(surprised) You stopped at the Islands?
ORIN—Yes. […] But they turned out to be Vinnie’s islands, not mine. They only made me sick—and the naked women disgusted me. I guess I’m too much of a Mannon, after all, to turn into a pagan. But you have seen Vinnie with the men—!
[…] Handsome and romantic-looking, weren’t they, Vinnie?—with colored rags around their middles and flowers stuck over their ears! Oh, she was a bit shocked at first by their dances, but afterwards she fell in love with the Islanders! […] Oh, I wasn’t as blind as I pretended to be! Do you remember Avahanni?
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
LAVINIA—I loved those Islands. They finished setting me free. There was something there mysterious and beautiful—a good spirit—of love—coming out of the land and sea. It made me forget death. There was no hereafter. There was only this world—the warm earth in the moonlight […] the natives dancing naked and innocent—without knowledge of sin!
[…] Oh, Peter, hold me close to you! I want to feel love! Love is all beautiful! I never used to know that! I was a fool! (She kisses him passionately. He returns it, aroused and at the same time a little shocked by her boldness. She goes on longingly.) We’ll be married soon, won’t we […] We’ll make an island for ourselves on the land, and we’ll have children and love them and teach them to love life so that they can never be possessed by hate and death!
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
The Haunted: Act 2
Quotes
ORIN—(with a quiet mad insistence) Can’t you see I’m now in Father’s place and you’re Mother? That’s the evil destiny out of the past I hadn’t dared predict! I’m the Mannon you’re chained to!
The Haunted: Act 3
Quotes
HAZEL—You don’t want her to marry Peter?
ORIN—No! She can’t have happiness! She’s got to be punished! (suddenly taking her hand—excitedly) And listen, Hazel! You mustn’t love me any more. The only love I can know now is the love of guilt for guilt which breeds more guilt—until you get so deep at the bottom of hell there is no lower you can sink and you rest there in peace!
The Haunted: Act 4
Quotes
LAVINIA—Kiss me! Hold me close! Want me! Want me so much you’d murder anyone to have me! I did that—for you! Take me in this house of the dead and love me! Our love will drive the dead away! It will shame them back into death […] Take me, Adam! [She is brought back to herself with a start by this name escaping her—bewilderedly, laughing idiotically) Adam? Why did I call you Adam? I never even heard that name before—outside of the Bible! (then suddenly with a hopeless, dead finality) Always the dead between! […]
PETER—Vinnie! You’re talking crazy! […] What happened to you on the Islands. Was it something there? Something to do with that native?
LAVINIA—[…] I won’t lie anymore! Orin suspected I’d lusted with him! And I had! […] He had me! I was his fancy woman!
