What Is Sophocles 'Orestes' Matricide

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Recommended: Tragedy and The Oresteia

Orestes' matricide has been presented in various ways by the poets Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides in each of their plays. I have observed the multitude of contrasting devices in each of the plays. Aeschylus has the most unique play of the three, as he does not include Orestes' sister, Electra, in the matricide directly. Instead of having Electra as the one to convince Orestes to commit the deed, as we see in Sophocles and Euripides, we see the character Pylades take on that role. Sophocles involves Electra more in his play "Electra" but she is still not directly associated with the murder. Although, in this play, the death of Aegisthus and the matricide of Clytemnestra are placed in the opposite order of the other plays where Clytemnestra is killed after Aegisthus. Euripides also includes Electra in his presentation …show more content…

In both Aeschylus and Euripides, Clytemnestra is killed after Aegisthus; but in Sophocles, Aegisthus is killed after Clytemnestra. Orestes, Pylades, and Electra trick Aegisthus into thinking Orestes is dead and then trap him and kill him by using Clytemnestra's dead body to lure him to the next room. I think that the reasoning for this is that the intensity of the matricide is so intense that Orestes and Pylades felt more of a need to kill Clytemnestra first. Given that, the murder of Clytemnestra was rather fast and dealt with in a dismissive manner. The contrast between this play and Aeschylus is the more prominent role played by Electra. Although she is not the center of the play she is still a bigger part of this play compared to the others. Electra is portrayed as rather disliking her mother and voices that as often as possible. As seen in line 1391, she exalts at her mother's screams; "Strike her again if you have strength enough!" Electra feels as though she needs to express her hatred for her mother in order to show solidarity to her

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