The Living Art of Greek Tragedy by Marianne McDonald

Author:Marianne McDonald
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780253028280
Publisher: Indiana University Press

Electro

Although the theme of this play is the same as Aeschylus’s Choephoroi and Sophocles’ Electra, the main characters are presented very differently by Euripides. They are recognizable human beings and not very likable ones. Electra is a neurotic and Orestes is a coward.

The prologue is delivered by a farmer from Argos who has been assigned Electra as a wife. Orestes and Pylades appear, but when they see Electra coming they hide. Electra enters carrying a pitcher for water: she is dressed in rags and her hair is cut short like a slave’s. These are signs of her self-imposed degradation. Orestes and Pylades come to the farmhouse and do not reveal their identity but claim to bring Electra news about Orestes. The farmer comes home and rebukes her for talking to strange men, but when he hears they are friends of Orestes, he invites them inside for a meal.

A neighboring peasant is summoned to bring food, and it is he who took the young Orestes to safety long ago. He now identifies Orestes from an old scar. After the recognition scene, the children plot. Orestes brutally kills Aegisthus from behind at a sacrifice. Electra revels over his corpse, which is brought onstage. Then she sends a message to her mother, saying she has just had a baby and asking her to perform a purification rite. The mother arrives. Electra and her mother debate, after which the children kill her in the house. Clytemnestra’s brothers, the gods Castor and Pollux, appear and order Orestes to Athens to stand trial, and Electra into exile with Pylades as her husband.

Orestes sneaks back home, and Electra whines. This Orestes is weak, and Electra is tiresome and bloodthirsty. Orestes violates the law of guest respecting host by killing a man from behind who has invited him to a feast. Electra, after goading Orestes into the murder of Aegisthus, says that he should leave Clytemnestra to her, and she lures her mother to her death by a particularly loathsome trick, saying she has had a child simply because she knows her mother will respond. Her mother visits her out of consideration to perform a charitable action.

The play shows the diseased logic of revenge, something to be elaborated later in Orestes. Whether a god would command matricide is called into question. Orestes suggests that it was a fiend that spoke to him in the guise of Apollo. Castor and Pollux find fault with Apollo for this command.

In the debate with her mother, Electra complains not so much about the murder of her father as about the way she has been treated and deprived of her inheritance. Clytemnestra, after putting forward her reasons for killing Agamemnon, expresses regret and concern for her children. She says she saved them from Aegisthus. She asks whether, if Menelaus had been abducted, she would have had to sacrifice Orestes. This points out the double standard in favor of a male child.

Electra is psychologically complicated and seems preoccupied with sexual issues. This is perhaps partially caused by her self-imposed celibacy.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.