This document provides an overview and analysis of Eugene O'Neill's play Mourning Becomes Electra and his style and use of language. It notes that O'Neill was an influential American playwright who won the Nobel Prize in Literature. The play Mourning Becomes Electra is a modern adaptation of the Oresteia set in the modern Mannon family and explores themes of obsessive love through complex characters driven by passion. While O'Neill's style was realistic, it also had surreal elements, and he effectively used dialects for special effect though his language was not as elevated as the Greeks.

1. Presentation Topic
The Use of Modernity in Eugene O’Neill’s Language
and Style in Mourning Becomes Electra
Name: Brijal Oza
Roll no.: 21
Paper no.: 10, The American Literature
Year: 2015 – 2017
Email ID: brijaloza1994@gmail.com
Submitted to: Dept. of English
M.K. Bhav. Uni.

2. About Eugene O’Neill
• American playwright
• Born in 1888, died in 1953
• Nobel prize in Literature –
1936
• Pulitzer prize for Drama –
1920,1922, 1928,1957
• Influenced by realism in
writing
• Man of many paradoxical
qualities

3. About the Play
• “Mourning Becomes
Electra” – play cycle
• Divided into three plays
• About modern Mannon
family
• Connected with “Freudian”
perspective of
psychological theory

4. Style in MBE
• It impossible to put one ‘label’ on Eugene
O’Neill’s style of dramatization.
• Writing style – short, simple but sometimes
surreal
• Tended towards realism in his work
• No moral messages in the play
• Few villains in his work
• There are characters of enormous energy, driven
by huge passions- like, lust, greed, ambition and
love.

5. Continue…
• Major thematic concern is – ‘obsessive love’
• Concerning style – he was blazing a path
separate from the craftiness of the romantic
“Well – mad play”
• Using striking titles – ‘MBE’ and ‘Desire Under
the Elms’ follow a similar pattern
• His stage directions focus on the individual
characters.
• His style is versatile with many facts

6. Language in MBE
• Used dialects effectively for special effect
• Language is not lofty as of the Greeks. It lacks
the Greek grammar.
• He lacks ‘language’ equal to reach of his non-
verbal powers.
• He could not succeed raising the language.
• Also creates lusty language at Electra- Lavinia’s
tragic closing of the doors upon himself in
MBE.

7. According to Andrew Malone,
“In O’Neill plays there is reality and
there is joy of life, his vocabulary is
rich with the richness of life and
work, and his people have that
wildness which civilization
accentuates. His speeches are fully
flavoured as a nut or an apple and
they have the poetry of human
endeavour and suffering.”

8. Conclusion
• Masterful and revolutionary in his language
and style.
• He experimented successfully with new
techniques of drama.
• His all plays possess the modern
characteristics of the modern age.
• MBE has been rich in dialects and possesses
amusing style.
• The mixing of ancient and modern elements is
interesting, the characters seen real.