ROLE OF CHILDHOOD MEMORIES IN O’NEILL’S CHARACTER ‘LAVINIA’: A PSYCHOANALYTICAL STUDY OF MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA

Abstract

The present study aims at exploring how childhood memories and unconscious part of the mind contribute to form personality. The assumptions of Freud (1900; 1915) and Jung (1964) regarding psychoanalytic theory have been used as a major theoretical framework’ Neill’s character Lavinia in his play Mourning Becomes Electra has been selected for psychoanalysis. Mourning Becomes Electra is the story of the family who is beaten by the repressed memories and jealousy.