Eugene O'Neill, an American comedy writer, is the author of Mourning Becomes Electra, one of the most controversial works in American history. O'Neill had once been happily married, but his marriage fell apart and ended in divorce. During this period, O'Neill became fascinated with the psychoanalytic view of life, which continued to haunt him for much of his life. After the divorce, O'Neill remarried, but was still fascinated by psychoanalytic views. His obsession with such visions became patently palpable with the publication of Mourning Becomes Electra, where he "includes the Oedipus complex, the Electra complex, female sexuality, penis envy, castration anxiety, the uncanny and the interpretation of dreams" (Soloski, villagevoice .com). This fascination made O'Neill a little soldier. In fact, he felt so indebted to this theory, that he wrote the play that still "[did] not entirely relieve O'Neill of his debt to psychoanalytic theory" (Bogard, 85). While writing the play, he didn't talk about it to anyone, not even his wife or close friends. Mourning Becomes Electra is actually based on a Greek trilogy that O'Neill condensed into a single play, divided into parts and then into acts. Part of the reason O'Neill made Vinnie such a tragic hero is because he believed in Greek tragedy that she had too tragic a fate in her soul to let it fade from heroic legend (Bogard, eoneill.com). And so, even though O'Neill changes Vinnie's personality to get his point across, he essentially keeps it the same as the Greek tragedy, but makes it a little younger. For example, the current time period is the Civil War, which is important because in the original play there was also a war which helped set the stage for the play and bring out the emotions of each character. Compare...... middle of paper...... characters and move the plot forward. The characters themselves even conceive that what they want is immoral and wish to "be forgiven!" (O'Neill, 407), however, as much as they desire to be purified, they still have their incestuous needs to satisfy. So even if they despise themselves for feeling this way, it is these feelings that advance the plot and push characters into situations where they make decisions that others without these desires might denounce. In conclusion, Woodard concludes how, although the play is an immoral tragedy, the characters methodically envelop the reader with their problems and the reader is forced to feel sympathy for them even if he believes the character is biased. “Whether mourning becomes Electra or not, it has become her life… It drags us into domestic torment and tension as we respond to her interiority” (Woodard, 131).