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| Character | Electra | |
|---|---|---|
| Gender | Female | |
| Age Range(s) | Young Adult (20-35) | |
| Type of monologue / Character is | Crying, Depressed, Lamenting, Frustrated, Reminiscing life story/Telling a story | |
| Type | Dramatic | |
| Period | Ancient Greek | |
| Genre | Tragedy, Drama | |
| Description | Electra laments her father's death to the Chorus | |
| Location | Scene 2 | |
Summary
The play has the same setting and theme as Aeschylus' "The Libation Bearers". The background of the story is that Agamemnon, king of Argos, has been killed along with his mistress Cassandra, by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. By doing so Clytemnestra avenges the death of her daughter by Agamemnon, who had sacrificed her to the gods during the Trojan war.
Electra is Clytemnestra's daughter. She, along with her brother Orestes, carry out a plot to kill their mother and her lover to avenge their father's death.
In this monologue Electra is lamenting her fate to the Chorus. Not only her father has been killed, she also has to live with her father's killers, that is her mother ad Aegisthus, who are suspicious of her and treat her like a slave.
Electra is Clytemnestra's daughter. She, along with her brother Orestes, carry out a plot to kill their mother and her lover to avenge their father's death.
In this monologue Electra is lamenting her fate to the Chorus. Not only her father has been killed, she also has to live with her father's killers, that is her mother ad Aegisthus, who are suspicious of her and treat her like a slave.
Written by Administrator
| Excerpt |
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| ELECTRA: I am ashamed, dear ladies, if to you Through frequent lamentations I appear Too sorely oppressed; but, for necessity Obliges me to do so, pardon me. For how should any woman gently born, Viewing the sorrows of her father's house, Do otherwise than I, who witness them For ever day by day and night by night Rather increase than lesson? to whom, first, The mother's face who bare me has become Most hostile; next, I must be companied In my own home with my sire's murderers, By them be ruled, take at their hands, or else At their hands hunger! Then, what sort of days Do you suppose I lead, when I behold Ægisthus seated on my father's throne, Wearing the selfsame garments which he wore, And pouring out libations on the hearth By which he slew him? When I witness, too, The consummation of their impudence, The homicide lying in my father's bed With that abandoned mother--if it be right To call her mother, who consorts with him! And she--so profligate that she lives on With her blood-guilty mate--fearing no vengeance-- Rather, as if exulting in her doings-- Looks out the day on which by cunning erst She slew my father, and each month on it Sets dances going, and sacrifices sheep In offering to her guardian deities! I see it, I, ill-fated one! At home I weep and waste and sorrow as I survey The unblest feast that bears my father's name, In private; for I cannot even weep So freely as my heart would have me do; For this tongue-valiant woman with vile words Upbraids me, crying "Thou God-forsaken thing, Has no man's father died, save only thine? Is nobody in mourning, except thee? Ill death betide thee, and the nether Gods Give thee no end to these thy sorrowings!" So she reviles; save when she hears it said Orestes is at hand; then instantly She is possessed, and comes and screams at me-- "Is it not you who are the cause of this? Pray is not this your doing, who stole Orestes Out of my hands, and conjured him away? But mind you, you shall pay me well for it!" So snarling, there joins with her and stands by And hounds her forward her illustrious groom, The all unmanly, all injurious pest, Who fights no battles without women! I, Waiting and waiting, till Orestes come And end it, miserably daily die. For always meaning, never doing, he Has utterly confounded all my hopes Remote or present. Friends, in such a case, There is no room--no, not for soberness Or piety; but, beneath injuries, There is deep need we prove injurious, too! |
