Exposition (Initial Situation)

Home is Where the Hate Is

Even though Mourning Becomes Electra is technically a trilogy, it's kind of like the literary version of Lays Potato Chips—you really can't read just one. That's because so much of what happens in every play is relevant to every other part of Mourning Becomes Electra. All the same, Homecoming is really where we learn the most about what's going on with New England's favorite dysfunctional family.

We find out that Ezra and Orin are due back from war and that Christine and her daughter Lavinia hate each other. We learn many not-so flattering things about the Mannon family's past that are going to come back and bite everybody in the tukhus in a seriously big way. The biggest secret, of course, is that Brant is actually the illegitimate son of a disgraced Mannon relative and a former servant, and that he also happens to be sleeping with the married Christine Mannon.

Rising Action (Conflict, Complication)

Eat Your Poison, Dear

O'Neill doesn't waste any time setting events in motion. Along with a ton of exposition in Homecoming, we get a healthy dose of conflict, featuring none other than Christine and Lavinia with a little help from Adam Brant. The end result of all of it, of course, is Christine herself giving a not-so healthy dose of poison to Ezra Mannon. Nothing sets a chain of nasty events in motion like a love triangle and a grisly murder.

And rather than letting Christine get away with it, not only does O'Neill arrange things so that Lavinia knows darn well what happened, he also gives Lavinia a chance to swipe some evidence against old mommy dearest: the box of poison pills. Knowing that Christine is guilty—not that Lavinia needs more excuses to hate her mother—is what makes Lavinia determined to get her own brand of justice, and avenge her father's death no matter what it takes. And, after just a couple more stops along the way, it's all downhill from here.

Climax (Crisis, Turning Point)

Let the Bodies Hit the Floor

Not that we've ever tried, but we figure it makes sense that convincing a person that somebody they love is a cold-blooded killer is probably pretty tough. Especially when that person is Orin Mannon, the poster-child for weird mommy-daddy issues. But Lavinia is determined, and she manages to do it pretty early on in The Hunted. All in all, though, you've got to admit that it was pretty easy to convince Orin to murder Brant. But it's Brant's murder that makes Christine kill herself, and that right there is a huge game-changer for both Orin and Lavinia. Things definitely change, but definitely not for the better. The guilt starts piling on.

Falling Action

Sibling Rivalry

After their mother's death, everything starts to fall apart for the only major characters who are still alive, Orin and Lavinia. The sibs have taken a vacation to the islands in an effort to get away from the past and pull themselves together. When they get back, Lavinia tries to act like everything is just peachy keen.

But Orin—who was never really okay to begin with—clearly has some major guilt issues. Lavinia's not really doing much better when you think about it, acting and dressing like her recently deceased mother. As Orin becomes driven crazier and crazier by the guilt he feels, Lavinia becomes even more controlling. The showdown between Hazel and Lavinia basically guarantees that neither Orin nor Lavinia can ever lead a normal life as long as they're both still alive.

Orin decides to kill himself, partially because he feels like he has to atone for what he did. That leaves Lavinia alone to make whatever choices about her own life she feels like making midway through The Haunted.

Resolution (Denouement)

Ezra is my Homeboy

After conspiring to murder her adulterous mother and her lover so she could avenge her father's death and driving her brother to suicide, what's a young single woman to do? Why, try and put it all behind her and get herself hitched, of course. Orin's out of the picture and Peter's all ready to take Beyoncé's advice and put a ring on it. But Hazel's meddling (and you have to admit, she's right about the Mannons being dangerous) plus Lavinia's increasing sense of guilt puts a stop to all of that. 

If you want to remember just how the resolution to Mourning Becomes Electra goes down, just think that resolution = resignation. As in resigning yourself to living like a hermit in a house that may or may not be haunted and hiding away from society until you die. That's exactly what Lavinia does. O'Neill manages to punish his Electra after all.