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Homecoming: Act 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Mourning Becomes Electra, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Justice, Revenge, and Lasting Peace
Familial Love vs. Carnal Desire
History and Repetition
Wartime Horror vs. Domestic Discontent
Lineage, Biology, and Destiny
Summary
Analysis
The scene returns to the outside of the Mannon house—but now it is night, a week later. Seth is singing the “Shenandoah” sea chanty, a little drunk. Lavinia, dressed in all black, teases Seth for his drinking habits. Lavinia is eager for her father to return home, and to pass the time, she asks Seth to tell her about Marie Brantôme. Seth tells Lavinia that Ezra hated Marie once he found out about her affair with David.
The presence of the sea chanties, here and elsewhere, helps link the Mannons to the oceanic fantasies that so fascinate and horrify them. Seth’s story makes it clear that Lavinia and her mother are not the first Mannons to be torn apart by incestuous jealousy. Instead, history seems to repeat itself, as Ezra and David fought over Marie just as Lavinia and Christine now spar for Brant.
Themes
Christine enters, looking—despite their different temperaments and fashion—just like her daughter. Christine rudely chides Vinnie for her refusal to marry Peter, claiming that she doesn’t want her daughter to be left an “old maid.” In response, Vinnie calmly insists that her mother will not get rid of her so easily. Vinnie wonders what Christine is plotting now, but Christine just laughs when she realizes how desperate Vinnie is for Ezra to arrive (“so he’s the beau you’re waiting for”).
Both mother and daughter try to distinguish themselves from the other, with Lavinia shaming Christine for her behavior and Christine teasing her daughter for her unattractive appearance (and her proto-incestuous desire for Ezra). But despite the differences between mother and daughter, the stage directions make it clear that they can never outrun the biological destiny they share.
Themes
Ezra at last arrives, looking like an ancient statue of a war hero in his General’s uniform. Lavinia throws her arms around her father, but he rebuffs her, telling her not to show such emotion. Ezra then approaches Christine nervously, saying she looks more beautiful than ever. Christine tries to fake warmth until Lavinia interrupts her parents, offering her father a snack.
Ezra’s statue-like appearance signals both his propriety and his ties to his counterpart in the Oresteia: the ancient Greek hero Agamemnon. Ezra’s preference to spend time with Christine over Lavinia, coming so sharply on the heels of Vinnie’s revelation about Brant, likely only sharpens Vinnie’s desire to take revenge on her mother.
Themes
Ezra stays outside, wanting to spend more time with Christine. As he sits on the porch, he reflects on the recent assassination of Abraham Lincoln—“all victory ends in the defeat of death,” he muses. Ezra then announces that he has some news to tell his family about Orin. Christine panics that Orin has been killed, but Ezra explains that he is just recuperating in the hospital after a heroic action in the war got him injured. Ezra shares that in the hospital, Orin kept calling for his mother, a fact that delights Christine.
The war is over, but as Lincoln’s April 15 assassination shows, tensions do not always dissipate purely because formal “victory” has been declared. Instead, war lingers and replicates itself even in peacetime, as the “defeat of death” is felt through Lincoln’s murder or through the spiritual death of intimacy and companionship that Ezra feels with Christine.
Themes
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Ezra also mentions that his heart condition has been growing worse in recent months, prompting Christine to send him to bed. Vinnie protests, wanting to spend more time with her beloved father—but Ezra, eager to go to bed with his wife, obliges Christine. Before he goes in, however, Ezra asks about the mention of Brant in Vinnie’s letters. Both Christine and Lavinia rush to assure Ezra that Brant was flirting with the other one, while Ezra gets jealous that either his wife or daughter might be interested in another man.
Just as Christine feels some measure of sexual or romantic possessiveness over Orin, Ezra seems to conflate his feelings for his wife and daughter (rather than distinguishing between what should be two very different relationships). Christine’s craftiness has already shown through in her plot with Brant, but Lavinia’s letters—insinuating to Orin and Ezra that her mother was having an affair—demonstrate that she, too, shares Christine’s manipulative skill.
Themes
Vinnie and Christine start to squabble until Ezra quiets them, telling Vinnie to go to bed. Before she leaves, Vinnie promises her father that “you’re the only man I’ll ever love.” After Vinnie leaves, Ezra continues to press Christine about Brant, wondering why she allowed him to come to the house if there was even a possibility of flirtation. Convincingly, Christine pretends that she was only interested in Brant because he brought news of her ailing father—or information from the front where Ezra and Orin were fighting.
Vinnie’s loyalty to Ezra is extreme; audiences have even seen her reject other viable romantic prospects like Peter out of romantic fealty to what should be a parental relationship. And Vinnie’s troubling fidelity to her father seems even more intense when juxtaposed with Christine’s willingness to betray her husband with Brant.
Themes
Ezra then touches Christine, again commenting on her renewed youth and beauty. Instinctively, Christine shrinks away, which wounds Ezra, especially since his intense desire for Christine is evident in his face. Timidly, Ezra confesses to his wife that he spent much of the war thinking about her. Being so surrounded by death and bloodshed made Ezra crave Christine, even as he understood that there was always some invisible, emotional barrier between them.
Christine’s distaste for Ezra is evident even to her husband. So it follows, then, that Ezra’s choice to believe Christine about why she saw Brant comes not from gullibility but from his deep hope and desire to reconnect with his distant wife.
Themes
Ezra continues, admitting that he frequently resented his own son because he felt like Orin was getting too big a share of Christine’s affection. Desperately, Ezra tells Christine that he wants to repair their marriage, even going away to an island together where they could rekindle their former spark. Unable to bear the mention of islands, Christine tells Ezra to “leave me alone.” Ezra is hurt, and Christine scrambles to take it back, telling Ezra she loves him. Ezra passionately kisses Christine—though he says aloud that he doesn’t believe Christine loves him.
Just as the Mannons’ faces blur into each other, Orin, Ezra, and Brant all seem to share the same desires and symbolism. All three fixate on Christine, and all three understand their desire for her in terms of highly symbolic islands. On another note, Christine’s (relatively unsuccessful) performance of her desire for Ezra here demonstrates one more way in which all of the characters are always having to “mask” their true feelings.
Themes
Lavinia appears from behind a column, horrified to have seen such affection between her parents. “I hate you!” Lavinia cries to Christine. “You steal even Father’s love from me again! You stole all love from me when I was born!” Calling her mother a “shameless harlot,” Lavinia bursts into tears. Ezra, put off by this outburst, goes to bed, leaving Lavinia to gaze longingly at his bedroom window.
Lavinia’s reaction here feels straight out of Freud—she envies her mother for having a sexual relationship with her father (“you steal even Father’s love from me”), and secretly lusts for Ezra, gazing up not as a daughter but as a spurned lover at the room where her parents are about to have sex.
Themes
