Previous
The Hunted: Act 4
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 next night, Christine is anxiously pacing the Mannons’ front porch. Vinnie and Orin arrive, coming to tell Christine that they have murdered Brant and covered it up. Christine collapses in grief. Not wanting to see his mother cry, Orin promises her that “I’ll make you forget him!” Orin wants to go on a voyage to the South Seas with Christine, announcing that he will leave Vinnie in New England. Vinnie tells her brother this idea is ridiculous and sends him into the house.
Though Orin wants to erase Christine’s memory of Brant, at last having his mother as his own carnal or romantic partner, he can only think to do so in the South Seas—ironically, the very region that Brant explored as a ship captain. Vinnie’s demeanor with her brother here has distinctly militaristic undertones, showing how war affects even those who did not directly participate.
Themes
Calmly, Vinnie breaks in, asserting that “it was the only way true justice could be done.” With these words, Christine leaps up, a “savage hatred” in her eyes. She runs into the house; moments later, a shot rings out. Far away, Vinnie can hear Seth singing the “Shenandoah” sea chanty. Realizing her mother is dead, Vinnie steels herself, calling to Ezra that justice has been served.
Like Christine, Vinnie’s conception of “justice” is ultimately self-serving. Indeed, just as Christine wanted the cycle of Mannon revenge to end with Ezra’s death, Lavinia believes “true justice” implicates only Christine and Brant—leaving her and Orin to escape, guilt-free, for their own crimes.
Themes
Orin runs out of the house, distraught to realize that Christine has killed herself. At the same moment, Seth arrives, having heard the gunshot. Vinnie instructs Seth to tell Doctor Blake that Christine killed herself in a fit of grief over Ezra’s death. Seth, knowing there is more to the story, reluctantly agrees. Lavinia turns out to the audience, “her face stern and mask-like.”
Seth’s alliance with Lavinia suggests that Vinnie will likely get away with the murder that drove Christine to suicide. And similarly, Vinnie’s “mask-like” features here demonstrate her stoicism even in the face of her mother’s death—a frozen, classical stance that links Lavinia directly to her forebear Electra in the Oresteia.
Themes
