How we cite our quotes: (Name of Play, Act #)
Quote #1
LAVINIA: I've heard that he loved the Canuck nurse girl who was taking care of Father's little sister who died, and had to marry her because she was going to have a baby; and that Grandfather put them both out of the house and then afterwards tore it down and built this one because he wouldn't live where his brother had disgraced the family. But what has that old scandal got to do with--
SETH: Wait. Right after they was throwed out they married and went away. There was talk they'd gone out West, but no one knew nothin' about 'em afterwards--'ceptin' your Grandpaw let out to me one time she'd had the baby--a boy. He was cussin' it. (then impressively) It's about her baby I've been thinkin', Vinnie. (Homecoming, Act 1)
This is our first glimpse into the Puritanical society of the 1800s, where out-of-wedlock sex, especially with someone of a lower social class than you, was considered such a disgrace that people were tossed out of the family without a thought and their memories erased. David Mannon wasn't married at the time; he probably just fell in love with the beautiful, friendly young nursemaid who was caring for his sick little sister. He ended up doing the right thing, but it was too late. He ended up killing himself because of his family's rejection.
Quote #2
LAVINIA: I remember your admiration for the naked native women. You said they had found the secret of happiness because they had never heard that love can be a sin.
BRANT: So you remember that, do you? Aye! And they live in as near the Garden of Paradise before sin was discovered as you'll find on this earth! Unless you've seen it, you can't picture the green beauty of their land set in the blue of the sea! The clouds like down on the mountain tops, the sun drowsing in your blood, and always the surf on the barrier reef singing a croon in your ears like a lullaby! The Blessed Isles, I'd call them! You can forget there all men's dirty dreams of greed and power!
LAVINIA: And their dirty dreams—of love?
BRANT: Why do you say that? What do you mean, Lavinia?
LAVINIA: Nothing. I was only thinking--of your Blessed Isles. (Homecoming, Act 1)
Lavinia lives up to her appearance as a cold, repressed woman with no patience for romance. She shoots down Brant's romantic ideas about sex without guilt. Guilt is where she lives. Brant inherited his mother's more open attitudes, we suppose.
Quote #3
CHRISTINE: No. I loved him once--before I married him--incredible as that seems now! He was handsome in his lieutenant's uniform! He was silent and mysterious and romantic! But marriage soon turned his romance into--disgust!
LAVINIA: So I was born of your disgust! I've always guessed that, Mother--ever since I was little--when I used to come to you--with love--but you would always push me away! I've felt it ever since I can remember--your disgust! (then with a flare-up of bitter hatred) Oh, I hate you! It's only right I should hate you!
CHRISTINE: I tried to love you. I told myself it wasn't human not to love my own child, born of my body. But I never could make myself feel you were born of any body but his! You were always my wedding night to me--and my honeymoon! (Homecoming, Act 2)
Christine's romantic ideas about her handsome lieutenant were dashed on her wedding night. We're spared the gory details, but something happened that turned her off to Ezra forever. She's still a sensual person who's sought out a lover to meet her needs, but there are hints that Ezra just treated her body as an object and that sex was just an animal act for both of them. We're personally grateful we never had to have a conversation like this with our mother.
Quote #4
LAVINIA: What was that Marie Brantôme like, Seth?
SETH--Marie? She was always laughin' and singin'--frisky and full of life--with something free and wild about her like an animile. Purty she was, too! Hair just the color of your Maw's and yourn she had.
LAVINIA: I know.
SETH: Oh, everyone took to Marie--couldn't help it. Even your Paw. He was only a boy then, but he was crazy about her, too, like a youngster would be. His mother was stern with him, while Marie, she made a fuss over him and petted him.
LAVINIA: Father, too!
SETH: Ayeh--but he hated her worse than anyone when it got found out she was his Uncle David's fancy woman.
LAVINIA: It's all so strange! It frightens me! I don't believe that about Father. You've had too much whiskey. Go to bed and sleep it off. (Homecoming, Act 3)
Look how much our genius playwright packs into this conversation. We get some insight into Brant's Oedipal sexual attraction to Christine, who's the image of his mother. We learn about Marie's pretty healthy attitudes about sex and Seth's appreciation of it. We see Ezra's youthful enjoyment of Marie's affectionate fussing over him and Lavinia's disgust at the very thought of everything.
Quote #5
CHRISTINE: What are you moongazing at? Puritan maidens shouldn't peer too inquisitively into Spring! Isn't beauty an abomination and love a vile thing? Why don't you marry Peter? You don't want to be left an old maid, do you?
LAVINIA: You needn't hope to get rid of me that way. I'm not marrying anyone. I've got my duty to Father. (Homecoming, Act 3)
The Electra complex in action. Christine seems to have some insight about her daughter's uptightness about sex and she thinks it's laughable. She's totally aware of Lavinia's unhealthy attachment to her father.
Quote #6
MANNON: […] You are waiting for something!
CHRISTINE: What would I be waiting for?
MANNON: For death—to set you free!
CHRISTINE: Leave me alone! Stop nagging at me with your crazy suspicions! […] You acted as if I were your wife, your property, not so long ago!
MANNON: Your body? What are bodies to me? I've seen too many rotting in the sun to make the grass greener! Ashes to ashes, dirt to dirt! Is that your notion of love? Do you think I married a body? You were lying to me tonight as you've always lied! You were only pretending love! You let me take you as if you were a n***** slave I'd bought at auction! You made me appear a lustful beast in my own eyes!--as you've always done since our first marriage night! I would feel cleaner now if I had gone to a brothel! I would feel more honor between myself and life!
CHRISTINE: Look out, Ezra! I won't stand--
MANNON: And I had hoped my homecoming would mark a new beginning--new love between us! I told you my secret feelings. I tore my insides out for you--thinking you'd understand! By God, I'm an old fool!
CHRISTINE: Did you think you could make me weak--make me forget all the years? Oh no, Ezra! It's too late! You want the truth? You've guessed it! You've used me, you've given me children, but I've never once been yours! I never could be! And whose fault is it? I loved you when I married you! I wanted to give myself! But you made me so I couldn't give! You filled me with disgust! (Homecoming, Act 4)
Christine and Ezra both show disgust here for the nasty physical business of sex when it's stripped of love or meaning. Christine's felt like a sex object because Ezra never showed her tenderness. Ezra's finally realizing that just possessing someone's body is meaningless and degrading. Nothing's more disgusting than being used for sex, and they both feel the other's been doing it. Ezra hates Christine for having had sex the night before without really wanting it because it makes him feel dirty. There was finally real feeling on his part, and she's just faking it. Yuck.
Quote #7
BLAKE: I'll tell you something, Josiah—strictly between you and me.
BORDEN: Of course. What is it, Joe?
BLAKE: I haven't asked Christine Mannon any embarrassing questions, but I have a strong suspicion that it was love killed Ezra!
BORDEN: Love?
BLAKE: That's what! Leastways, love made angina kill him, if you take my meaning. She's a damned handsome woman and he'd been away along time. Only natural between man and wife—but not the treatment I'd recommend for angina. […]
BORDEN: Can't say as I blame him! She's a looker! I don't like her and never did but I can imagine worse ways of dying! (The Hunted, Act 1)
This exchange is one of the only places where we actually hear some pretty normal talk about sex. Christine's a looker, Ezra's been away a long time, wink-wink—you know what that leads to. Borden and Blake are comfortable talking about what might happen when sex gets a little too hot for an old man with a bad heart. It might be an unkind joke, but it's typical sexual banter two guys might have. They're definitely not Mannons.
Quote #8
ORIN: […] I used to have the most wonderful dreams about you. Have you ever read a book called "Typee"—about the South Sea Islands?
CHRISTINE: Islands? Where there is peace?
ORIN: Then you did read it?
CHRISTINE: No.
ORIN: Someone loaned me the book. I read it and reread it until finally all those Islands came to mean everything that wasn't war, everything that was peace and warmth and security. I used to dream I was there. And later on all the time I was out of my head I seemed really to be there. There was no one there but you and me. And yet I never saw you, that's the funny part. I only felt you around me. The breaking of the waves was your voice. The sky was the same color as your eyes. The warm sand was your skin. The whole island was you. A strange notion, wasn't it? But you needn't be provoked at being an island because this was the most beautiful island in the world—as beautiful as you, Mother! (The Hunted, Act 2)
O'Neill is making it pretty obvious that these islands are more than just islands for the trilogy's major characters. In this passage, we get a full-on picture of the pathetic and disturbed relationship Orin has with his mother. O'Neill's giving us a great description of what Freud called the "oceanic feeling," a baby's blissful state of oneness with the mother, no boundaries, just pleasure. One problem, though: Orin's an adult. Freud thought the oceanic feeling was rather asexual or maybe pre-sexual, but when Orin's talking, it's got serious erotic overtones.
Quote #9
LAVINIA: Orin keeps teasing that I was flirting with that native he spoke about, simply because he used to smile at me and I smiled back.
PETER: Now, I'm beginning to get jealous, too.
LAVINIA: You mustn't. He made me think of you. He made me dream of marrying you--and everything.
PETER: Oh, well then, I take it all back! I owe him a vote of thanks!
LAVINIA: I loved those Islands. They finished setting me free. There was something there mysterious and beautiful--a good spirit--of love--coming out of the land and sea. It made me forget death. There was no hereafter. There was only this world--the warm earth in the moonlight--the trade wind in the coco palms--the surf on the reef--the fires at night and the drum throbbing in my heart--the natives dancing naked and innocent--without knowledge of sin! But what in the world! I'm gabbing on like a regular chatterbox. You must think I've become awfully scatter-brained!
PETER: Gosh no! I'm glad you've grown that way! You never used to say a word unless you had to!
LAVINIA: Oh, Peter, hold me close to you! I want to feel love! Love is all beautiful! I never used to know that! I was a fool! We'll be married soon, won't we, and settle out in the country away from folks and their evil talk. We'll make an island for ourselves on land, and we'll have children and love them and teach them to love life so that they can never be possessed by hate and death! But I'm forgetting Orin! (The Haunted, Act 1)
Another jam-packed scene. Here's Peter's fairly normal sexual reaction to a loosened-up Lavinia—lovin' it but at the same time a little freaked out. Lavinia, OTOH, is all over the place. She wants to give in to the newfound passion of the islands, but catches herself—doesn't want to freak out the boyfriend. And just when she's on the verge of grabbing some happiness for herself and putting the Mannon craziness behind her, the thought of her bro brings her back to earth. She's stuck. We can see the Mannon family dynamic squashing any hope of a normal sexual or love relationship. Lust is just too dangerous a feeling.
Quote #10
ORIN: You're doing the lying! You know damned well that behind all your pretense about Mother's murder being an act of justice was your jealous hatred! She warned me of that and I see it clearly now! You wanted Brant for yourself!
LAVINIA: It's a lie! I hated him!
ORIN: Yes, after you knew he was her lover! But we'll let that pass for the present--I know it's the last thing you could ever admit to yourself!--and come to what I've written about your adventures on my lost islands. Or should I say, Adam Brant's islands! He had been there too, if you'll remember! Probably he'd lived with one of the native women! He was that kind! Were you thinking of that when we were there?
LAVINIA: Stop it! I--I warn you--I won't bear it much longer!
ORIN: What a paradise the Islands were for you, eh? All those handsome men staring at you and your strange beautiful hair! It was then you finally became pretty--like Mother! You knew they all desired you, didn't you? It filled you with pride! Especially Avahanni! You watched him stare at your body through your clothes, stripping you naked! And you wanted him!
LAVINIA: No!
ORIN: Don't lie! What did you do with him the night I was sick and you went to watch their shameless dance? Something happened between you! I saw your face when you came back and stood with him in front of our hut!
LAVINIA: I had kissed him good night, that was all--in gratitude! He was innocent and good. He had made me feel for the first time in my life that everything about love could be sweet and natural.
ORIN: So you kissed him, did you? And that was all?
LAVINIA: And what if it wasn't? I'm not your property! I have a right to love! (The Haunted, Act 2)
Orin, driven slowly crazy with guilt, projects all his sexual jealousy onto his sister. He's disgusted with her sexual attraction to Avahanni just like he was sickened by his mother's attraction to Brant instead of himself. You can see Lavinia's shot at happiness just evaporating before our eyes. This passage totally reminiscent of the scene between Ezra and Christine when she admits her affair with Brant and tells Ezra she has a right to be happy with a lover. Orin and Lavinia have turned into their parents. What a confused mess of a family. It gets worse.
Quote #11
ORIN: And I suppose you think that's all it means, that I'll be content with a promise I've forced out of you, which you'll always be plotting to break? Oh, no! I'm not such a fool! I've got to be sure--You said you would do anything for me. That's a large promise, Vinnie--anything!
LAVINIA: What do you mean? What terrible thing have you been thinking lately--behind all your crazy talk? No, I don't want to know! Orin! Why do you look at me like that?
ORIN: You don't seem to feel all you mean to me now--all you have made yourself mean--since we murdered Mother!
LAVINIA: Orin!
ORIN: I love you now with all the guilt in me--the guilt we share! Perhaps I love you too much, Vinnie!
LAVINIA: You don't know what you're saying!
ORIN: There are times now when you don't seem to be my sister, nor Mother, but some stranger with the same beautiful hair-- Perhaps you're Marie Brantôme, eh? And you say there are no ghosts in this house?
LAVINIA: For God's sake--! No! You're insane! You can't mean--!
ORIN: How else can I be sure you won't leave me? You would never dare leave me--then! You would feel as guilty then as I do! You would be as damned as I am! Damn you, don't you see I must find some certainty some way or go mad? You don't want me to go mad, do you? I would talk too much! I would confess! Vinnie! For the love of God, let's go now and confess and pay the penalty for Mother's murder, and find peace together! (The Haunted, Act 3)
Holy. Crap. This is what it's all come to. Orin wants to make all those sick incestuous fantasies into reality as a way to possess Lavinia like he wanted to possess his mother. As the meaning of what Orin's saying comes crashing down on Lavinia, she knows he's finally lost it.