Sophocles Electra Theme Analysis

1330 Words3 Pages

Sophocles Electra centres on the murdered king, Agamemnon’s daughter. Who is all-consumed with grief and hatred towards her father’s killers, is forced to live in slave like conditions adding to the turmoil she lives with daily. Navigating the years since her father’s murder, isolated in grief, desperate for justice and an inability to cease her relentless mourning. Electra believes that the only way for relief from her suffering is to exact justice on his murders. With death and misfortune following her, the family name in ruins, will the pursuit of justice see Electra triumph over her oppressors or suffer moral demise as the play progresses? Sophocles establishes Electra as the protagonist of this play. Noble birth, yet is not treated as such, isolated in her grief. Both physically and emotionally tormented, Electra’s emotions heighten to a point of no return. Becoming increasingly irrational, maddening to the point where justice blurs with revenge. Embodying this play by Sophocles, is revenge, the central theme focusing on how it affects the perpetrator. Electra is an important example of this central theme. The only way to ease her suffering is to see Clytemnestra and Aegisthus dead. “For her, the living are agents of the dead and hardly to be separated from them” (Scodel, R. 1984. p. 80.). Electra takes it upon herself to see them put to death, with adultery, murder and hatred are moral motivations driving her. However, Electra’s moral corruption could also be rooted in hatred, jealousy and envy. Hatred towards her mother, Clytemnestra for the suffering she is forced to live. Jealousy and envois of her sister, Chrysothemis and brother, Orestes as they live in relative freedom compared to her slave like conditions. Chrysoth... ... middle of paper ... ...ng in isolation, clinging to thoughts of justice and revenge. Sophocles provides oppressive and evil characters that ultimately are the cause of Electra’s loss in moral self-control. Creating an individual who is not unlike the fury, relentless, mad and quick to shift her moral grounds to succeed it her the plan for revenge. These moral standings guide Electra throughout the play, although they cause her to losing control, the fault cannot fully lie with Electra. As she interacts with her sister, Chrysothemis, then her mother, Clytemnestra, it is apparent that Electra is rapidly losing control over her moral footing. Murder becomes a matter of personal justice and vengeance rather than a product of following societal laws, and moral duty to the dead and the family. For Electra this ultimately will end the suffering she has endured from her mother and Aegisthus.

Open Document