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Delahoyde & Hughes
Orpheus
ELECTRA
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Sophocles' Electra differs from Aeschylus' and Euripides'
treatment in that Sophocles "minimizes Apollo's role," that "Everyone
acts as a foil of Electra," that she "makes no soliloquies to reveal
herself," and that Paedagogus provides a dramatic account of a chariot
race that never happened (Grene 123). Electra here "moves in an
atmosphere of hate and hysteria provoked by facts and lies
indiscriminately" (Grene 124).
The play begins with Orestes telling Paedagogus that he should report him
dead. Electra has been waiting for him for years and bemoans her lot:
having to live with the murderers (Clytemnestra and Aegisthus) of her
father Agamemnon. Orestes' "eternal going-to-do-something / destroys my
hopes" (137). Electra's sister Chrysothemis clucks about Electra's being
so inflexible and not yielding to authority (141). Clytemnestra makes her
defense but Electra despises her.
Paedagogus reports Orestes' death in a tragic chariot accident, but
Chrysothemis brings news of evidence from daddy's grave that Orestes had
been there. A disguised Orestes and Electra have an interchange and, with
the obligatory locks of hair and rings as evidence, their identities are
revealed to one another. Orestes says, "Spare me all superfluity of
speech.... Words about this / will shorten time and opportunity. / But
tell me what we need for the present moment" (177). Paedogogus was the
one man who remained loyal when Agamemnon was murdered, so Electra
praises him. Orestes enters the house and we hear Clytemnestra crying out
as she is killed. When Orestes emerges, Electra asks, "Is the wretch
dead?" (183). Aegisthus enters and Orestes is revealed to him. The play
ends with Aegisthus being led off to his death and Orestes saying, "I
must take care that death / is bitter for you. Justice shall be taken /
directly on all who act above the law -- / justice by killing. So we
would have less villains" (187).
Powell, Barry. Classical Myth. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 2001.
Sophocles. Electra. Trans. David Grene. Sophocles II. Ed. David Grene and Richmond Lattimore. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957. 121-187.