nced, the chorus acquits Orestes of the murder of his motherIn O’Neill’s “The Haunted,” Orin feels tremendous guilt and responsibility for the death of his mother. He does not believe that his mother’s death was justified because she murdered his father. Orin was extremely close to his mother, and she meant everything to him. After he came back from the war, he declared, “I love you better than anything in the world.” However, once Orin discovered that Christine was, in fact, having an affair with Captain Brant and became suspicious that his mother was guilty of killing his father, he was overcome with jealousy and goes on a mission with his sister to murder Brant. After Orin boasts of his murderous action to his mother, she is so crushed that she shoots herself. At the same time Orin realizes that by killing Brant, Christine’s true love, he is in fact killing Christine, and the belief that he is responsible for his mother’s suicide haunts him for the rest of his life. Though Lavinia takes Orin on a trip to the islands in an effort to force him to forget what happened, the guilt is too overpowering for Orin to forget. After returning home to a house without his mother, Orin explains, “I’ve just been in the study. I was sure she’d be waiting for me in there, where- But she wasn’t! She isn’t anywhere. It’s only they- They’re everywhere! But she’s gone forever. She’ll never forgive me now” (342). The only way that Orin feels he can repent is by confessing to the murder, but Lavinia is selfish and won't hear of it. Orin begs, “Were you hoping you could escape retribution? You can’t! Confess and atone to the full extent of the law! That’s the only way to wash our guilt of our mother’s blood from our souls!” (353). Orin doesn’t understand why Lavinia too is not overcome by t...
