How we cite our quotes: (Name of Play, Act #)
Quote #7
HAZEL: You don't want her to marry Peter?
ORIN: No! She can't have happiness! She's got to be punished! And listen, Hazel! You mustn't love me any more. The only love I can know now is the love of guilt for guilt which breeds more guilt--until you get so deep at the bottom of hell there is no lower you can sink and you rest there in peace! (The Haunted, Act 3)
Here's an interesting perspective on what the worst kind of punishment is—being denied the ability to love or be loved. Orin's guilt about his mommy's death makes him give up his only shot of happiness. He's reached rock-bottom.
Quote #8
HAZEL: Do you want to take the risk of driving Peter to do what Orin did? He might—if he ever discovered the truth.
LAVINIA: What truth, you little fool! Discover what?
HAZEL: I don't know—but you know. Look in your heart and ask your conscience before God if you ought to marry Peter!
LAVINIA: Yes! Before God! Before anything! You leave me alone—go away—or I'll get Orin's pistol and kill you!
HAZEL: Oh! You are wicked! I believe you would—! Vinnie! What's made you like this?
LAVINIA: Go away!
HAZEL: Vinnie! All right. I'll go. All I can do is trust you. I know in your heart you can't be dead to all honor and justice—you, a Mannon! At least you owe it to Peter to let him read what Orin had in that envelope. (The Haunted, Act 4)
Poor Hazel. If there's one thing that should be pretty clear by now, is that being a Mannon doesn't necessarily mean you know anything about honor and justice.
Quote #9
SETH: Don't go in there, Vinnie!
LAVINIA: Don't be afraid. I'm not going the way Mother and Orin went. That's escaping punishment. 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 worse than death or prison! I'll never go out or see anyone! I'll have the shutters nailed closed so no sunlight can ever get in. I'll live alone with the dead, and keep their secrets, and let them hound me, until the curse is paid out and the last Mannon is let die! I know they will see to it I live for a long time. It takes the Mannons to punish themselves for being born!
Lavinia saves the worst punishment for herself. Unable to purge herself of her guilt, shuts herself up in the tomb—we mean, the house. She slams the door, shutting off any possibility for love or hope and sentencing herself to a life of total despair and isolation. We guess O'Neill achieved his goal of having Electra/Lavinia punished for her sins. But the gods don't have to lift a finger; she punishes herself.