O'Neill, in his trilogy "The Mourning Becomes Electra," rewrites and updates Aeschylus's trilogy "Orestia," while also being influenced by Sophoclean and Euripidean tragedies with the same central plot, where their thematic cycles deal with revenge, incestuous relationships, tragic fate, destiny, and justice, and also focus on the difficult transition from wartime to peacetime.

In the Third and final Part, titled "The Haunting," both Lavinia and Orin struggle to overcome the crimes of the past, initially through their incestuous love for each other and then through relationships outside the family. When this becomes impossible, Orin commits suicide, and Lavinia isolates herself in the Manner estate. Undeniably, this self-exile of Lavinia from life and love at the end of the play proves to be a more tragic fate than the suicide of her mother and brother.