Electra

Roles

• Electra - Young Adult (20-35), Female

About this piece

Electra scolds her sister Chrysothermis

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 the first scene Orestes arrives at Argos with his tutor and his friend Pylades with the plan to announce that Orestes has died. In this scene we find Electra lamenting her father's death, at first by herself then to the Chorus. Her sister Chrysothermis urges her to stop mourning their father's death and obey their mother. In this monologue Electra scolds her sister for having forgotten their father and having taken their mother's side.

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