The purpose of this research is to examine the character of Electra in plays by Sophocles and Euripides of that name. The plan of the research will be to set forth the mythographical context in which the character of Electra emerges, and then to discuss, with reference to the myth, the divergent ways in which Sophocles and Euripides treat the character in their Electra plays.
Different approaches to the characterization of Electra have been noted by various commentators. Podlecki does not even confine his discussion of Electra to Euripides and Sophocles but notes Aeschylus's use of Electra as a subsidiary character in theChoephoroe, as well as modern French literature's revisiting of Electre by Giraudoux and Sartre (Podlecki 22, et passim). But the fascination of the character aside, Euripides and Sophocles can be shown to have used different mythic traditions as the basis for their treatment of Electra. This is pointed up by Graves's discussion of competing mythographers' ideas of the fate of the children of the house of Atreus. Graves cites Euripides as the source of Electra's being forced by Aegisthus (Aegisthos)to marry a peasant and to live in poverty away from the palace but under its supervision (Graves 2:58). Graves notes that Euripides and Sophocles intersect where Aegisthus's pending decision to banish Electra (i.e., make her life even more miserable) for continued insolence toward him and Clytemnestra is concerned. This is the precarious condition in which Electra finds herself at the opening of the play.
Electra's formal position vis a vis the Mycenaean throne is an important apsect of the dramatic action in both Euripides and Sophocles. In both plays, Electra is being persecuted by official policy, and aside from her protracted anxiety about Orestes's promised return, her psychology because of the circumstances in which she is forced to live provides much of the impetus for progression toward regicide ...