Electra Chapter Summary & Analysis | Analysis

Analysis

Electra is a Greek tragedy in one act, written by Sophocles sometime in the late 400s B.C. There are other versions of the story written by other playwrights of ancient times, but this version is the most straightforward; it simply presents the action and leaves it to the audience to decide who is right and who is wrong.

The premise of this play was probably no less shocking to its first audiences than it is to us today; the idea of a son killing his own mother is always shocking. However, the idea of restoring honor through revenge is as old as recorded history, and stories like this one show us what happens when revenge is valued as a means to restore honor. According to the Greek tradition, there is no way out of Orestes' dilemma. His duty is to kill his father's killers; otherwise, his father's house will live...
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