From Hatred to Love: Development of a Literary Topos in Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra (1931)

Abstract

In the present study, two literary topics of love are introduced and its historical development is traced from the classical tradition to the modern culture. Also being studied is Eugene O'Neill's modern American tragedy, Electra Is Good for Mourning (1931). These topics consist of 'love for hate' and 'jealousy in love'. It is argued that both topics comprise four stages, originate in ancient Greek and Roman literature and evolve into modern culture, as in O'Neill's work, following tradition. Also, despite critics' belief that Electra is fine with mourningO'Neill's is based on the versions of Euripides, Sophocles and Aeschylus on the history of Orestes and Electra, the contextualization of these two topics follows the tradition of Homer's Iliad and Ovid 's Metamorphoses. Finally, this article studies the appearance of each mole on television and in contemporary world cinema, such as the British La Joven Jane Austen (2007), the Iranian Shahrzad Series (2015) and the American La La Land (2016).