How we cite our quotes: (Name of Play, Act #)
Quote #7
ORIN: But I've come back. Everything is alright now, isn't it?
CHRISTINE: Yes! I didn't mean that. It had to be.
ORIN: And I'll never leave you again now. I don't want Hazel or anyone. You're my only girl.
CHRISTINE: You're a big man now, aren't you? I can't believe it. It seems only yesterday when I used to find you in your nightshirt hiding in the hall upstairs on the chance that I'd come up and you'd get one more goodnight kiss. Do you remember?
ORIN: You bet I remember! And what a row there was when Father caught me! And do you remember how you used to let me brush your hair and how I loved to? He hated me doing that, too. You've still got the same beautiful hair, Mother. […] Oh, Mother, it's going to be wonderful from now on! We'll get Vinnie to marry Peter and there will just be you and I! (The Hunted, Act 2)
This really sexualized conversation is the most complete description of Orin's childlike attachment to his mother. It's the culmination of his Oedipal fantasy that he can get rid of Ezra and have mommy all to himself. Remember how, according to Freud, most boys finish up their Oedipal phase at about age 6 or 7 and go back to wanting to hang out with the same-sex parent? Obviously, Christine's crazy attachment to Orin resulted in a bad case of arrested development.
Quote #8
LAVINIA: How could you love that vile old woman so? But you're dead! It's ended! May God find forgiveness for your sins! May the soul of our cousin, Adam Mannon, rest in peace! (The Hunted, Act 4)
Just when you thought you were safe from any more hints of incest—Lavinia lets this drop as she stands over Brant's corpse. Why doesn't she call him "Adam Brant?" Lavinia acknowledges that he's really a member of their family, something he spent his life denying and detesting. Even so, he can't escape the family fate.
Quote #9
ORIN: I've just been in the study. I was sure she'd be waiting for me in there, where—But she wasn't! She isn't anywhere. It's only they (He points to the portraits.) They're everywhere. But she's gone forever. She'll never forgive me now!
LAVINIA: Orin! Will you be quiet!
ORIN: Well, let her go! What is she to me? I'm not her son anymore! I'm Father's! I'm a Mannon! And they'll welcome me home! (The Haunted, Act 1.ii)
Orin seems to be foreshadowing his "homecoming"—his death that will join him to the family. O'Neill seems to be hinting that maybe Orin's finally resolving his Oedipal problem—he's father's son now, not mother's—but this is too much to bear for him.