How we cite our quotes: (Name of Play, Act #)
Quote #1
SETH: […] And here's another funny thing—his name. Brant's sort of queer fur a name. I ain't never heard tell of it before. Sounds made up to me—like short fur somethin' else. Remember what that Canuck girl's name was, do you Vinnie? Marie Brantôme. See what I'm drivin' at?
LAVINIA: But—don't be stupid, Seth—his name would be Mannon and he'd be only too proud of it.
SETH: He'd have good reason not to use the name of Mannon when he came callin' here, wouldn't he? If your Paw ever guessed—!
LAVINIA: No! It can't be! God wouldn't let it! It would be too horrible—on top of—! I won't even think of it, do you hear! What did you have to tell me?
SETH: There now! Don't take on, Vinnie. No need gettin' riled at me. All I'm drivin' at is that it's durned funny—his looks and his name—and you'd ought for your Paw's sake to make sartin.
LAVINIA: How can I make certain?
SETH: Catch him off guard sometime and put it up to him strong—as if you knowed it—and see if mebbe he don't give himself away. Looks like he's comin' up the drive now, Vinnie. There somethin' about his walk calls back David Mannon, too. If I didn't know it was him, I'd think it was David's ghost coming home. (Homecoming Act 1)
Skeletons in the closet and a ghost in the driveway. Seth's description is eerily accurate though—you could say that David Mannon lives on in Brant, and Brant—like the ghost of his father might do—has come to seek revenge against the Mannon clan.
Quote #2
SCENE—Ezra Mannon's bedroom. A big four poster bed is at rear, center, the foot front, the head against the rear wall. A small stand, with a candle on it, is by the head of the bed on the left. To the left of the stand is a door leading to Christine's room. The door is open. In the left wall are two windows. At left, front, is a table with a lamp on it and a chair beside it. In the right wall, front, is a door leading to the hall. Further back, against the wall, a bureau.
[…] Christine's form can be made out, a pale ghost in the darkness, as she slips slowly and stealthily from the bed. She tiptoes to the table, left front, and picks up a light-colored dressing gown that is flung over the chair and puts it on. She stands listening for a sound from the bed. A pause. Then Mannon's voice comes suddenly from the bed, dull and lifeless. (Homecoming, Act 4)
It's no accident that O'Neill describes Christine as a ghost-like here. Not only is it super creepy, adding to the tension that will end in Ezra's murder, but it also foreshadows her own death—as a direct result of what she's about to do, Christine will become a ghost herself.
Quote #3
CHRISTINE: You are genuinely pure and good of heart, aren't you?
HAZEL: Oh no! I'm not at all—
CHRISTINE: […] Let's go in, shall we? I would rather wait for Orin inside. I couldn't bear to wait and watch him coming up the drive—just like—he looks so much like his father at times—and like—but what nonsense I'm talking! Let's go in. I hate moonlight. It makes everything so haunted. (The Hunted, Act 1)
Whatever you say, Christine. You sure it's not just your guilty conscience that makes everything seem "haunted?"
Quote #4
LAVINIA: How can you be so unfeeling?
ORIN: I didn't mean that. My mind is still full of ghosts. I can't grasp anything but war, in which he was so alive. He was the war to me—the war that would never end until I died. I can't understand peace—his end! God damn it, Vinnie, give me a chance to get used to these things! (The Hunted, Act 1)
Sounds to us like the ghosts Orin's talking about could be the memories of the people he's killed—or maybe it's just more crazy talk.
Quote #5
CHRISTINE: No—remember your father wouldn't want—any scandal—he mustn't be worried, he said—he needs to rest in peace—You seem the same in death, Ezra! You were always dead to me! I hate the sight of death! I hate the thought of it!
ORIN: Mother! For God's sake, be quiet! God! To think I hoped home would be an escape from death! I should never have come back to life—from my island of peace! But that's lost now! You're my lost island, aren't you, mother?
LAVINIA: It was Brant who got you this—medicine to make you sleep—wasn't it?
CHRISTINE: No! No! No!
LAVINIA: You're telling me it was. I knew it—but I wanted to make sure.
CHRISTINE: Ezra! Don't let her harm Adam! I am the guilty one! Don't let Orin—! (The Hunted, Act 3)
It looks like Orin isn't the only one who sees dead people—kind of like they're both communicating with the spirits. Why would she think that the ghost of the man she killed is going to protect her lover?
Quote #6
HAZEL: Seth! What would Vinnie say if she knew you did such things?
SETH: There ain't no harm done. I calc'late Abner didn't break nothin'. And Vinnie wouldn't mind when she knew why I done it. I was aimin' to stop the durned gabbin' that's been goin' round town about this house bein' haunted. You've heard it, ain't ye?
PETER: I heard some silly talk but didn't pay attention—
SETH: That durned idjut female I got in to clean a month after Vinnie and Orin sailed started it. Said she'd felt ghosts around. You know how them things grow. Seemed to me Abner's braggin' gave me a good chance to stop it by turnin' it all into a joke on him folks'd laugh at. An' when I git through tellin' my story of it round town tomorrow you'll find folks'll shet up and not take it serious no more.
PETER: You're right, Seth. That was a darned slick notion! Nothing like a joke to lay a ghost!
SETH: Ayeh. But—Between you 'n' me 'n' the lamp-post, it ain't all sech a joke as it sounds—that about the hauntin', I mean.
PETER: You aren't going to tell me you think the house is haunted too? […]
SETH […] There's times when a man's a darn fool not to be scared! Oh, don't git it in your heads I take stock in spirits trespassin' round in windin' sheets or no such lunatic doin's. But there is such a thing as evil spirit. An' I've felt it, goin' in there daytimes to see to things—like somethin' rottin' in the walls! (The Haunted, Act 1, Scene 1)
Do you agree with Seth? What is he really talking about here? It's a cliché that lower-class people are superstitious and believe in ghosts, and the more sophisticated Peter is gently ridiculing Seth's idea.
Quote #7
LAVINIA: I had kissed him good night, that was all—in gratitude! […]
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!
ORIN: You—you whore! I'll kill you! No! You're lying about him, aren't you? For God's sake, tell me you're lying, Vinnie!
LAVINIA: Yes—it was a lie—how could you believe I—Oh, Orin, something made me say that to you, against my will—something rose up in me—like an evil spirit!
ORIN: Ghosts! You never seemed so much like Mother as you did just then! (The Haunted, Act 2)
Is this that evil spirit that Seth was talking about? What do you think it might actually be? Maybe Orin's mental instability makes him more susceptible to superstition.
Quote #8
HAZEL: Here he comes now. I'll go by the back. I don't want him to meet me I know you're suffering, Vinnie--and I know your conscience will make you do what's right--and God will forgive you.
LAVINIA: I'm not asking God or anybody for forgiveness. I forgive myself! I hope there is a hell for the good somewhere. (The Haunted, Act 4)
Lavinia's taking O'Neill's position here by saying that crime and punishment have nothing to do with God. It's people that sin and people that forgive or punish.
Quote #9
SETH: Don't try and live here, Vinnie! You marry Peter and get clear!
LAVINIA: I'm going to marry him! And I'm going away with him and forget this house and all that ever happened in it!
SETH: That's talkin', Vinnie!
LAVINIA: I'll close it up and leave it in the sun and rain to die. The portraits of the Mannons will rot on the walls and the ghosts will fade back into death. And the Mannons will be forgotten. I'm the last one and I won't be one long! I'll be Mrs. Peter Niles. Then they're finished! Thank God! (The Haunted, Act 4)
Oh, Vinnie—you have no idea how wrong you are. You don't have to believe in ghosts to feel haunted by your past. And this family's past proves too powerful to escape.