How we cite our quotes: (Name of Play, Act #)
Quote #4
LAVINIA: […] Who murdered Father?
ORIN: Brant did—for revenge because—
LAVINIA: Who murdered Father? Answer me!
ORIN: Mother was under his influence—
LAVINIA: That's a lie! It was he who was under hers. You know the truth!
ORIN: Yes.
LAVINIA: If we'd done our duty under the law, she would have been hanged, wouldn't she?
ORIN: Yes.
LAVINIA: But we protected her. She could've lived, couldn't she? But she chose to kill herself as a punishment for her crime—of her own free will! It was an act of justice! You had nothing to do with it! You see that now, don't you? Tell me!
ORIN: Yes. (The Haunted, Act 1, Scene 2)
It seems like Lavinia is content to play judge, jury, and executioner. She's still struggling to manipulate her brother into believing that what they did was right and that Christine was to blame for her own death. Like mother, like daughter. Lavinia hated Christine; it's easy for her to see the justice in her death. But Orin can't give up trying to exonerate his mommy. She couldn't have been bad; Adam made her do it. Since she wasn't to blame, she didn't deserve to die.
Quote #5
ORIN: It's wise for you to keep Hazel away from me, I warn you. Because when I see love for a murderer in her eyes my guilt crowds up in my throat like poisonous vomit and I long to spit it out—and confess!
LAVINIA: Yes, that is what I live in terror of—that in one of your fits you'll say something before someone—now after it's all past and forgotten—when there isn't the slightest suspicion—
ORIN: Were you hoping you could escape retribution? You can't! Confess and atone to the full extent of the law! That's the only way to wash the guilt of our mother's blood from our souls!
LAVINIA: Sssshh! Will you stop!
ORIN: Ask our father, the Judge, if it isn't! He knows! He keeps telling me! (The Haunted, Act 2)
Orin's outburst about atonement and bloodguilt might have a psychotic tinge, but he's really the only one who's seeing things clearly. Lavinia's been wrapped up in a haze of rationalization. As long as no on suspects, there's no crime. Orin knows better.
Quote #6
ORIN: […] For the love of God, let's go now and confess and pay the penalty for Mother's murder, and find peace together!
LAVINIA: Peace! No! You coward! There is nothing to confess! There was only justice!
ORIN: You hear her? You'll find Lavinia Mannon harder to break than me! You'll have to haunt her and hound her for a lifetime!
LAVINIA: I hate you! I wish you were dead! You're too vile to live! You'd kill yourself if you weren't a coward!
ORIN: Vinnie!
LAVINIA: I mean it! I mean it!
ORIN: Vinnie! Another act of justice, eh? You want to drive me to suicide as I drove Mother! An eye for an eye, is that it? But— Yes! That would be justice—now you are Mother! She is speaking now through you! (The Haunted, Act 3)
Orin now sees no other punishment for his crimes except suicide. He's tried to purge himself of his guilt by his obsessive writing about the family's "crimes", but it doesn't work.