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The Greek tragedy, especially the concept of Fate in the Greek sense, had a tremendous influence on Eugene O'Neill. For him, Greek tragedy meant the unsurpassed example of art. To recreate the Greek spirit in modern life was the goal he set for himself both as a playwright and as a man. The mystical, Dionysian experience of being, which O'Neill found in the plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles, he hoped to impart, through his plays, to a modern audience. What has influenced his plays the most was his knowledge of the drama of all time―particularly Greek tragedy. Mourning Becomes Electra is a modern psychological drama using one of the old legend plots of Greek tragedy, Oresteia for its basic theme. Greek tragic heroes are constantly impelled or guided by Fate. They are not free. Neither are the characters of Mourning Becomes Electra. They obey an internal Fate which is ineluctable. O'Neill meant it so. Doris M. Alexander has called “psychological fate.” He has thus purposely transposed the Greek notion of Fate and substituted for it the modern notions of heredity and psychological determinism. His characters are thus caught in a web of inherited complexes and neuroses from which they cannot escape, and he has suggested the fated recurrence of their attitudes. They are endowed with a keen sense of sin and the whole trilogy is underlain by a deep conviction of the sinful and corrupt nature of man. The conflict between man and Fate is no longer the mere clash of opposite wills on the plane of action. It takes the form of an inner struggle between good and evil forces. The fall of the tragic hero is no longer caused by a mere flaw in his character, but by the irrepressible surge of evil instincts which eventually destroy him. In Mourning Becomes Electra all the characters, except the non-tragic ones who are not passionate enough to kill themselves or the others, are sooner or later crushed to death by an implacable Fate which does not tolerate their dreams of earthly happiness―a spectacle which very forcibly conveys the powerlessness and weakness of Man. Yet, we do not feel depressed by this tragic series of calamities, for the heroes are truly heroic. They fight valiantly. They never debase themselves or behave cowardly―even when they commit suicide. When Christine kills herself, it does not mean that she gives up the fight, but rather that she refuses to yield to Fate. It is her way of saying no to Fate. And the same is true of Orin. He deliberately chooses death when he could live happily. As for Lavinia she remains unbending to the end. Fate does not succeed in crushing her. Though defeated, she preserves all her human dignity. Mourning does indeed become Electra. Mourning Becomes Electra is a modern psychological approximation of the Greek sense of Fate. O'Neill shows that the characters of this tragedy can find the meaning of life, and achieve self-recognition through the antagonism and death with Fate. He, ultimately, shows the human aspects of the unbent, glorious, self-destructive struggles, and the paradoxical meaning of tragedy by the internal, spiritual triumph behind the external bodily failure. His tragic view expressed in his tragedies is that life is derived from death, hope from despair, joy from sadness, sanity from madness, triumph from failure, and brightness from darkness.