Mourning Becomes Electra Summary

Mourning Becomes Electra is a trilogy of three related plays: Homecoming, The Hunted, and The Haunted. It is a modernized retelling of the Oresteia, a trilogy of Ancient Greek tragedies.

Homecoming begins in the spring of 1865, as the American Civil War draws to a close. A chorus of New England villagers discuss their mayor, Ezra Mannon, who has gone to fight with the Union army. The Mannons are wealthy, and they isolate themselves from the town in a Greek-inspired white mansion. Though most of the townsfolk respect Ezra, they loathe his wife, Christine, for her “mask-like” beauty and manipulative habits. The villagers recall the Mannon family’s great scandal, when Ezra’s brother David impregnated a working-class Canadian nurse named Marie Brantôme.

Ezra’s daughter Lavinia emerges from the house. The villagers note that while Lavinia shares many of her mother’s features, she is distinctly unattractive. Seth Beckwith, the family’s gardener, brings Lavinia the good news: the Union is about to triumph, and Ezra will be home soon.

Peter and Hazel Niles, the next-door neighbors, arrive. Peter wants to marry Lavinia, while Hazel has a crush on Lavinia’s brother Orin. When Lavinia rejects Peter, Peter wonders if it is because she has feelings for Adam Brant, the ship captain who has come in recent weeks to court her. Christine interrupts this conversation, and Lavinia—with a look of hatred in her eyes—begins to question her mother about Christine’s recent trip to New York City. Christine shrugs off these questions. Privately, Seth warns Lavinia that Adam Brant is actually the product of the affair David had with Marie Brantôme, leading the couple to be ostracized and disinherited from the Mannon family.

Brant arrives and tries to flirt with Lavinia, but she surprises him, insisting he tell her the truth about his parentage. Caught off guard, Brant confesses, so Lavinia pushes further, hinting that Brant is having an affair with Christine (which is why Christine was actually in New York). Brant declares that he has spent his life trying to take revenge on Ezra.

After her conversation with Brant, Lavinia confronts her mother, and Christine admits to the affair. Christine also confesses that she has always hated Ezra—and that her resentment of her husband has made her loathe Lavinia. Strangely, Christine has never resented Orin. In fact, Christine admits that she was first attracted to Brant because he reminded her of Orin. Christine also chides Lavinia for her secret crush on Brant.

Christine decides that when Ezra returns, she will poison him, making it look like a heart attack (as he is known to have a weak heart). Brant reluctantly goes along with the plan. When Ezra returns home, and Lavinia is desperate to spend time with her father. While Ezra is kind to his daughter, he makes it clear that he is really only interested in Christine. Lavinia bursts into tears and accuses her mother of stealing Ezra’s love from her. Later that night, Ezra and Christine have sex, though Christine can barely hide her disgust with her husband.

Just before dawn, Christine tells Ezra everything: that Brant is Marie Brantôme’s son, and that the two have been having an affair. In shock, Ezra collapses. Christine offers him a pill for his health, though the pill is actually poison. Just as Ezra swallows it, Lavinia rushes in. Homecoming ends with Ezra dying, using his final breath to accuse Christine: “she’s guilty!”

The Hunted begins with a new chorus of villagers speculating that Ezra died of a heart attack after he got too excited at being sexually reunited with Christine. Orin returns home from the war, and Christine quietly laments that he looks so much like his father. Lavinia threatens to tell Orin that Christine killed Ezra, which terrifies Christine.

Fortunately for Christine, Orin is so delighted to be back with his mother that he is oblivious to Lavinia’s hints. Unfortunately, life as a solider has made Orin bitter and resentful: “I had a queer feeling that war meant murdering the same man over and over again,” he confesses, “and that in the end I would discover the man was myself!” Christine tries to get ahead of Lavinia’s accusations, insisting that her daughter has always been jealous of her. Orin suggests that there is only one thing that could change his mind about siding with Christine over Lavinia: finding out that she had sex with Brant.

Days later, Christine visits Brant’s ship docked outside of Boston. The lovers embrace, while unbeknownst to them, Orin and Lavinia—having followed their mother—look on with horror. As soon as Christine leaves, Orin kills Brant in a fit of rage, then frames the crime scene to make it look like a random robbery. “He looks like me, too,” Orin reflects. “Maybe I’ve committed suicide!”

Orin and Lavinia return home, telling Christine what they have done. Christine is distraught, so Orin tries to assure her (with incestuous undertones) that he will make her “forget” Brant existed. But it is no use—Christine runs into the house and takes her own life by shooting herself. As The Hunted draws to a close, Orin breaks down, while Lavinia turns to the audience, her face “mask-like.”

The Haunted picks up a year later, with a third chorus of townsfolk debating whether the Mannon house—currently standing empty—is haunted. A local clerk named Joe Small accepts a dare to enter the house but runs back out only moments later, claiming to have seen the ghost of Ezra Mannon dressed as a judge. Seth admits that he believes the house truly is haunted.

Meanwhile, Orin and Lavinia return from a yearlong cruise through the Pacific islands. Orin resents Lavinia for the newfound sexual freedom she displayed on the islands, hinting to Lavinia’s affair with Avahanni, an islander. Lavinia, looking more beautiful and more like Christine every day, wants Orin to marry Hazel while she herself marries Peter. But Orin feels they are both too guilty to lead normal, happy lives.

Orin trains as a lawyer, telling Lavinia that the only comfort he finds anymore is from “studying the law of crime and punishment.” Orin also studies the Mannon family’s history, wondering if he could use the past to predict the family’s “destiny.”

Lavinia and Peter get engaged, and Orin decides to confess his family’s crimes to Hazel. But Lavinia stops Orin short, promising that she will do whatever he wants as long as he keeps their secret. Orin realizes that he has turned into Ezra, while Lavinia has turned into Christine. Orin also confesses the incestuous love he feels for his sister; sometimes, he even pictures her as Marie Brantôme. Having made this confession, Orin kills himself.

Three days later, Lavinia makes one last bid to marry Peter. But after Lavinia accidentally calls him “Adam,” she realizes she cannot bring more people into her web of deceit. Instead, Lavinia decides since no one is left to punish her, she must punish herself—and she prepares to lock herself inside the Mannons’ home for the rest of her life.