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Elctra presented at Govt. College University Faisalabad Pakistan
This document provides a detailed summary and analysis of the Greek tragedy "Electra" by Sophocles. It outlines the plot, characters, themes, and motifs of the play. The main characters - Electra, Orestes, and Clytemnestra - are analyzed in depth. The document also discusses symbols, illusions, and provides an overall analysis of the protagonist Electra and writing style.
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Elctra presented at Govt. College University Faisalabad Pakistan
- 1. GROUP C YUMNA JAVAID(3790) AYESHA SADDIQUE (3782) GULZAIB NUSRAT (3786) RANA NABEEL HABIB (3780) ASSIGNED BY : SIR AAMIR SHAHEEN
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- 3. Tree Chart PELOPS ATREUS THYSTES AGAMEMNON+CLYTEMNESTRAMENELAUS+HELEN AEGISTHUS IPHIGENIA ORESTES ELECTRA CHRYSOTHEMIS
- 4. Background When Agamemnon,the resident King, returned from the Trojan War, his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus murdered him. The daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, Electra, smuggled her brother Orestes out of town so that he could grow up safe in a foreign land and come back some day to avenge their dad.
- 5. SUMMARY: Electra –Orestes's sister was abused on regular basis because she did not accept new king. Her sister, Chrysothemis, accepted Clytemnestra and Aegisthus and live a life of comfort. Debate between both sisters about their attitude towards king and queen.
- 6. An intensescene between Electra and her mother, Queen Clytemnestra. Electra called her mother a murdering sinner. According to her mother, Agamemnon sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia in order to get his ships home from the Trojan War so Agamemnon should also died. Meanwhile slave appeared with the fake news of Orestes death. Electra was in grief, but the Queen was relieved.
- 7. Electra wantedto take revenge herself. When she started sharpening her sword, Orestes showed up with his friend, Pylades. Both of them made a plan to take avenge from the queen and king. After killing her mother ,Orestes appeared with the dead body covered in a sheet. Just then King Aegisthus came and pleased because he heard that Orestes had died but soon he realized that it was his wife’s dead body. He resigned himself to his fate (being murdered by Orestes) and is ushered inside the palace as the play came to end.
- 8. PLOT STRUCTURE: Setting: setting(time) · An unspecified number of years (perhaps a decade or two) after the end of the Trojan War setting (place) · Mycenae major conflict: Electra's intense desire to exact revenge from her mother for her father's death conflicts with the play's central and underlying question of whether that revenge is indeed just and warranted.
- 9. rising action: Orestesarrives unannounced at Mycenae; Clytemnestra has a dream about Agamemnon's return; the Old Man brings false news of Orestes's death; Orestes reveals himself to Electra. Climax: Orestes enters the palace, where Clytemnestra is alone; Electra waits outside for Aegisthus. falling action: Orestes kills Clytemnestra; Aegisthus discovers her body; Orestes leads Aegisthus inside to be killed in the spot where he killed Agamemnon
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- 11. Electra: Electra isthe eldest daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. Poorly treated by her mother and her mother's husband. Clytemnestra: Clytemnestra is the Queen of Argos. Formerly married to Agamemnon, whom she murdered, she now reigns corruptly alongside Aegisthus, her paramour. Chrysothemis: Chrysothemis is the younger daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon.
- 12. Old Man: TheOld Man is the faithful servant to whom Electra entrusted Orestes as a young boy. Aegisthus: Aegisthus is the paramour of Clytemnestra and responsible for the murder of Agamemnon. Chorus: The chorus is comprised of the virgins of the palace. Pylades: Pylades is Orestes's silent friend who accompanies him and the Old Man to Mycenae to exact revenge for Agamemnon's death
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- 14. Electra: Electra, theprotagonist of the drama, has an extremely complex role in that the principles of justice and honor to which she so stubbornly adheres require her to do the unthinkable Electra is right to mourn at her father's murder by her mother. Her mourning is a natural response to an awful occurrence. When Clytemnestra insists that she murdered Agamemnon to exact revenge for his sacrifice of their daughter. Electra counters by arguing that justice cannot be achieved by answering a killing with another killing. Critical : This raises questions about the integrity of Electra's character for Electra herself longs to avenge her father's death.
- 15. Orestes Orestes instructedby Apollo's oracle to avenge Agamemnon's murder, Orestes displays a level of immaturity that renders the ultimate revenge—the serious matter of matricide—morally ambiguous. His initial uneasiness about lying about his own death suggests a certain level of childish superstition, and his lie of choice—that he was killed in a chariot race—reflects the naiveté of both youth and wealth. His desire to avenge his father's death is not motivated by intense emotion or the principles of honor or justice. Orestes acts as he does because he has been so instructed by the oracle of Apollo.
- 16. Clytemnestra Clytemnestra alsoadds to the complexity of the final revenge. Electra tells us that Clytemnestra is a cruel, pitiless, woman, a killer of her own husband who deserves to be punished for her actions. According to Electra, Clytemnestra killed Agamemnon so that she could be with Aegisthus. Clytemnestra, however, paints a very different picture of the murder. She says that she was exacting revenge for Agamemnon's unnecessary sacrifice of their daughter. If this is the case, the problem of revenge takes on a new shape. The unsettling ambiguity of Clytemnestra'
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- 18. Revenge: Electra examinesa "blood for blood" revenge code and asks whether this is a satisfying approach to justice. The problem, tautologically evident, is that "blood for blood" is a never- ending chain. A person murders, someone murders her for vengeance, so then the new murderer must be murdered for vengeance, and so on.
- 19. The Degrading Effectsof Dishonor: Throughout the play, characters make reverent reference to the abstract concept of honor and guard wildly against dishonor. In his prayer to the household gods at the start of the play, Orestes begs not to be exiled from honor but rather to succeed in his mission and gain his rightful command over the house. One of Electra's preoccupations, too, is preserving and ensuring the honor of her family, her father, and herself.
- 20. The Opposing Valuesof Justice and Expediency: Perhaps best embodied in the characters of Electra and Chrysothemis respectively, the opposing value systems of justice and expedience come into frequent conflict. Electra adheres strongly to the principle of justice, willing to suffer and mourn continually in its name and in its pursuit. Chrysothemis, on the other hand, performs those actions from which she will derive greatest benefit, regardless of whether or not they are necessarily "just."
- 21. Duty: Electra examineswhat happens when different kinds of duty come into conflict. There is duty to family members, to the gods, to the state (as demanded by law), to the dead, and to the self.
- 22. Fate and FreeWill: In this play, young Orestes is commanded by Apollo to murder his mother. Does this exonerate him of responsibility for his crime? Could he disobey the god if he wanted? His family seems to be under a "curse" given that murder, betrayal, and mayhem have plagued its last five generations.
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- 24. Entrapment: Entrapment revealsitself in the ways in which the various characters try to affect each other. Orestes is instructed by Apollo to "snare" his father's killers as if in a trap similar to the one in which his killers have caught the palace and its inhabitants.
- 25. Breeding: On manyoccurrences throughout the play, the idea of "breeding" surfaces in reference to a variety of things. The chorus relates that Clytemnestra and Aegisthus have "bred a thing shaped like a monster" and that with her constant mourning Electra "breeds enemies;" also prevalent is the idea of "breeding violence out of violence."
- 26. Freedom: The conceptof freedom ultimately serves both to contrast with the idea of entrapment and to emphasize the psychology of different characters in the play. For Chrysothemis, the epitome of one ruled by expedience, "freedom" is gained by obeying one's masters and hence retaining the benefit of creature comforts those masters can bestow.
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- 28. The tree: Thetree is a symbol, ultimately, of the natural order of Agamemnon's rule, so violently corrupted by his murder and the usurpation of his power.
- 29. The doorway: Thedoorway, or threshold, is symbolic of the division between honor and dishonor, good and evil, light and dark. It is where Electra spends all of her time, half inside, half out on the street, as if waiting to bring goodness (Orestes) inside to purge the evil (Clytemnestra and Aegisthus).
- 30. The knot: Throughoutthe play, Electra's intense desire for revenge is symbolized as a knot—one that no one. She claims, can untie, as it grows tighter and stronger with each passing day that she must live amongst evil and corruption.
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- 32. Mythological Reference: Orestes,Electra, Clytemnestra, Aegisthus, Agamemnon, Chrysothemis, Ap ollo, and Iphigenia – these are characters in the main plot line of Electra, but don't forget that they come from Greek mythology and had been outlined in gory detail (literally) 400-ish years before in Homer's work. Sophocles's audience would have been very familiar with these figures. Hera Atreus The Delphic Oracle
- 33. Ares Hadesand Persephone Hermes The Furies Itys Niobe Zeus Pelops Myrtilus Menelaus Helen Artemis Nemesis Lord Amphiaraus
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- 35. Protagonist: The protagonistof the drama is Electra. Her hatred for mother and all- consuming desire for revenge bring about powerful changes in her psyche that call into question her personal justifications for revenge. She is the embodiment of a central theme of the play, namely, how revenge affects its perpetrator.
- 36. Electra Writing Style: Stately, Metered Sophocles's original Greek text was written in meter.
- 37. Tone: Morally ambiguoustone Sophocles presents the story of Electra with an openness and honesty that acknowledges the ironically "bad" sides of the "heroes" and the "good" sides of the "villains," in effect blurring the distinctions between these two categories. This lends the play a morally ambiguous tone.
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