Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Why did O'Neill decide to make Mourning Becomes Electra a trilogy? How does reading the play that way affect how we react to what we read? Would it be the same if it was just one play?
- How Would Mourning Becomes Electra be different or similar if it was Mourning Becomes Orestes, and focused on Orin instead of his sister Vinnie?
- In a play full of basically awful people, are there any people that seem worth saving, and why? What makes them different from the others?
- You might say that Brigadier General Ezra Mannon is the single most important character in the play even though he's only around for a few minutes in the first few acts. How does O'Neill manage that?
- Some critics have said that O'Neill focuses too much on the personal and psychological in this play, and less on the social. Do you think that's true?
- How is the concept of fate handled in the trilogy? Do you think the characters' fates were inescapable?
- Why does O'Neill keep pointing out the physical resemblances of many of his characters?
- Why do you think the author chose New England as his setting for the Mannon estate, as opposed to say, a large southern plantation?
- Why did O'Neill have to make the Mannon family wealthy and powerful?
- What's the best way to get from the Mannon estate to East Boston?