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| Character | Electra | |
|---|---|---|
| Gender | Female | |
| Age Range(s) | Young Adult (20-35) | |
| Type of monologue / Character is | Angry, Scolding, Lamenting, Complaining, Reminiscing life story/Telling a story | |
| Type | Dramatic | |
| Period | Ancient Greek | |
| Genre | Tragedy, Drama | |
| Description | Electra scolds her mother Clytemnestra | |
Summary
Similar in plot to Aeschylus "The Libation Bearers" and Sophocles' Electra, the play is about Electra's and her brother Orestes' revenge against their mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus for having killed their father Agamemnon. The reason Clytemnestra had killed Agamemnon when he came back to Argos from the Trojan war is that Agamemnon, in order to be able to sail to Troy with his army, had been forced to sacrifice his daughter Iphigeneia to the goddess Artemis.
After Orestes and Electra are reunited after many years of separation, they decide to kill their mother and her lover. First Orestes manages to kill Aegisthus and returns with his body. Then they go after Clytemnestra, determined to kill her. In this monologue, Electra scolds her mother for having killed her father Agamemnon using the excuse to avenge her daughter's Iphingenia's death.
After Orestes and Electra are reunited after many years of separation, they decide to kill their mother and her lover. First Orestes manages to kill Aegisthus and returns with his body. Then they go after Clytemnestra, determined to kill her. In this monologue, Electra scolds her mother for having killed her father Agamemnon using the excuse to avenge her daughter's Iphingenia's death.
Written by Administrator
| Excerpt |
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| ELECTRA Then will I speak, and this shall be the prelude of my speech: Ah, mother mine! would thou hadst had a better heart; for though thy beauty and Helen's win you praises well deserved, yet are ye akin in nature, pair of wantons, unworthy of Castor. She was carried off, 'tis true, but her fall was voluntary: and thou hast slain the bravest soul in Hellas, excusing thyself on the ground that thou didst kill a husband to avenge a daughter; the world does not know thee so well as I do, thou who before ever thy daughter's death was decided, yea, soon as thy lord had started from his home, wert combing thy golden tresses at thy mirror. That wife who, when her lord is gone from home, sets to beautifying herself, strike off from virtue's list; for she has no need to carry her beauty abroad, save she is seeking some mischief. Of all the wives in Hellas thou wert the only one I know who wert overjoyed when Troy's star was in the ascendant, while, if it set, thy brow was clouded, since thou hadst no wish that Agamemnon should return from Troy. And yet thou couldst have played a virtuous part to thy own glory. The husband thou hadst was no whit inferior to Aegisthus, for he it was whom Hellas chose to be her captain. And when thy sister Helen wrought that deed of shame, thou couldst have won thyself great glory, for vice is a warning and calls attention to virtue. If, as thou allegest, my father slew thy daughter, what is the wrong I and my brother have done thee? How was it thou didst not bestow on us our father's halls after thy husband's death, instead of bartering them to buy a paramour? Again, thy husband is not exiled for thy son's sake, nor is he slain to avenge my death, although by him this life is quenched twice as much as e'er my sister's was; so if murder is to succeed murder in requital, I and thy son Orestes must slay thee to avenge our father; if that was just, why so is this. Whoso fixes his gaze on wealth or noble birth and weds a wicked woman, is a fool; better is a humble partner in his home, if she be virtuous, than a proud one. |
