Mourning Becomes Electra as a Greek tragedy.

Name : Ravi Rajyaguru Roll No : 26M.A : Sem -3Paper : ( 10 ) The American Literature.Enrolment No : PG15101032Email id.: rajyagururavi24@gmail.com Submitted To : Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Characteristics of Greek tragedy

Tragic heroTragic flawCatastropheChorusFate

Look on Famous Greek tragedy and their writers.

• Aeschylus (525/524-456/455) was the first real master of the tragedy.

• He is the one who began writing trilogies. An Aeschylus production normally ran from sun-up to sundown.

His famous works :• Agamemnon.• The Libation Bearers.• Eumenides.

• Sophocles (497/496-406/405) was another playwright who built on the format Aeschylus had developed and added his own details. The first thing he did was to break the tradition of trilogies, which probably made it easier for his audiences to keep their interest.

His famous works :• Antigone.• Oedipus the King.

• Euripides (480-406) was a playwright from the era whose great addition to tragedy was his use of female leads.

• Euripides also developed the concept of deux ex machina, which means 'God from the machine', or a moment where divine power comes down to solve the problems the characters are experiencing.

His famous works :• The Cyclops• Hecuba• Alcestis

Mourning Becomes Electra as a Greek tragedy

Tragic hero : At the centre of a tragedy is its protagonist. The tragic

hero is a person of high rank who accepts his or her downfall with dignity.

Lavinia is the main character of this novel. She seems to hate her mother, Christine. She is in deep association with her father. Though every daughter loves her father yet her affection for his father is a way too deep and lustful.

O’ Neal has used Electra complex which is the cause of the tragedy.

Tragic flaw :• An error in judgement or a weakness in character such as pride or arrogance

which brings the downfall of the protagonist.

• Here the weakness of Lavinia is her lustful love towards her father. Her love towards her father causes hatred towards her mother.

• Lavinia takes the decision to pour poison in his brother Orin. When Orin comes to know about it he killed Adam, his mother lover. After this Christian also committed suicide.

• Now this leads to another dirty situation wherein Orin is in lust of his sister. But Lavinia insults him That’s why Orin feels guilty and he also committed suicide.

• This leaves Lavinia to a lonely situation where she is in deep psychological fixations.

Catastrophe : • A tragedy ends with a catastrophe, a disastrous conclusion

that usually involves multiple deaths. if the tragic hero does not die, then he/ or she suffers complete ruin.

• Here in this novel we have seen so many deaths like of Ezra Mannon, Christian, Adam and of Orin.

• So at the end she feels caught in the memory of the dead. The dead seem to haunt her mind and her feelings. She decides to remain alone in the house of the dead to pay for her sins:

• "And there's no one left to punish me. I'm the last Mannon. I've got to punish myself! Living alone here with the dead is a worse act of justice than death or prison! I'll never go out or see anyone!"

Chorus : Throughout a tragedy a chorus, a mass groupof actors, observe and comment on the actionthrough song. Here O’ Neal has used his wit and put one character

Seth Beckwith who works like similar to chorus.• Seth represents part of the staple of Greek tragedy

known as the chorus, a group of actors—usually with one taking the lead—who give the audience valuable info and comment on what's going down in the play. The chorus does all the heavy lifting and the grunt work setting things up for us viewers. Making Seth clearly working class was a pretty smart move on O'Neill's part when you think of the chorus's role.

Fate :• The ancient Greeks believed in the idea of fate or a

destiny preordained by the Gods no matter what action a person takes in the present. the fates or Moirai, were three Goddess who determined the length of a person's life and how much suffering it would contain.

• But here O’ Neal has not used any supernatural power. Because he believes that people are no longer puppets of the supernatural powers. One of his challenges was to adapt the Oresteia, with its obsession about Fate, for an audience who didn’t really believe in fate.

References :• https://quizlet.com/9673079/characteristicsofgreektragedyfla

shcards/• http://

study.com/academy/lesson/greektragedydefinitioncharacteristicsplays.Html

• http://www.shmoop.com/mourningbecomeselectra/ sethbeckwith.html

Thank you