Mourning Becomes Electra: Morbid Psychology under the "Mask"
Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian Province, China
Gong Yijin
Abstract: By giving his main characters all with the "life-like mask", Eugene O 'Neill in his play Mourning Becomes Electra aims to reveal the morbid psychology behind that people at that time were facing. O 'Neill deepens the tragic effect of excessively emotional self-restraint by intentionally making the conflict happen between family members in a puritanical family, and further making it become a family 's doomed and repeated fate. O 'Neill presents the awkward situation but he fails to presents the way out; he indeed leaves the remedy to his audience.
Key Words: mask; morbid psychology; emotional self-restrain; family; fate
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