Electra

Electra Summary | Detailed Summary

This play opens at dusk in an inner courtyard formed by the low buildings of servants' houses and the rear wall of the palace of Clytemnestra and her husband Aegisthus. Gathered around a well are female servants of the palace, with a Matron who oversees them at their tasks. As they fill their pitchers with water, several of the women remark on the absence of Clytemnestra's daughter, Electra, noting that it is the time of day when she generally appears there, howling in mourning for her dead father, Agamemnon.

As if on cue, Electra appears, running into the courtyard from a darkening hallway. When the women turn to stare at her she reacts as if under attack, backing away and throwing one arm up in a defensive pose across her face. The servants liken her to a wild, unfriendly animal, one who abuses them verbally and says they like blowflies that settle on her wounds. One of the women admits that when Electra taunted her recently, merely for living life as usual, she answered her back, pointing out that Electra, too, has human needs as she still has to eat. But Electra claims she is not eating but feeding: she is feeding a "vulture" in her body.

Some of the women complain that it is shocking that Electra is even allowed to roam free in the palace, believing that she should be under lock and key. They also reveal, however, that although she is a princess, being the daughter of Queen Clytemnestra, Electra is treated like an animal, beaten and fed from a bowl on the floor with the dogs. The youngest of the servants dares to defend Electra, saying that even though she may be clothed in rags and no one can bear to look at her, there is nothing nobler than Electra. The Matron, angry with the young girl for speaking in support of the princess, has the servant beaten.

After the Matron and the servants are finished at the well and go inside, Electra returns to the courtyard. Light shines from the palace and through the fig tree, coloring her and the nearby wall blood red. Facing the ground, she speaks to her dead father, reminding him that it was at that same hour of the night that his wife and her lover murdered him as he lay in his bath, then dragged his bloody corpse outside. She beseeches him not to abandon her, and imagines him standing there alive once more. She promises to avenge his death by spilling the blood of not only the perpetrators, Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, but also of their servants, their horses, and even their dogs. When this has been done, she swears that she and her sister Chrysothemis and her brother Orestes will do a victory dance on his blood-soaked grave.

While Electra cries out to her dead father, her younger sister Chrysothemis watches in fear from a doorway, then calls out quietly. She warns Electra that Clytemnestra and Aegisthus are plotting to throw Electra into the dungeon. Electra calls it a boast, and tells her sister not to listen to them but sit in the dark and wish death and judgment upon them. Chrysothemis admits that she cannot sit still; as her fear is so intense she cannot bear to stay in one place for long and keeps running from room to room. She says cannot even weep. She speaks of her burning desire to leave the palace, to marry—even a peasant—and bring forth children, and blames Electra's smoldering hatred and mad behavior for their continued imprisonment within the palace. She says it does no one any good to continue in such anguish, as nothing will change: their father will still be dead, and their brother will not return. All around her, she says, are women having children, while the two sisters merely grow older and more lined with each passing day. Chrysothemis says she desires a woman's fate.

Electra scorns her sister's words, reminding her with disdain that it just that sort of emotion—"the beast giving pleasure to the fouler beast"—that led to their father's murder at the hands of his adulterous wife and her lover in the first place. Chrysothemis begs her sister to try to forget, the very idea of which angers Electra, who suggests that forgetting the crime would make her complicit. In tears, Chrysothemis tries again to warn her sister to run and hide, as now that their mother, Clytemnestra, has been having horrible dreams, she is all the more determined to throw Electra in the dungeon since her angry presence is such a reminder. Electra claims that it is she who has sent the dreams to Clytemnestra, the same dream over and over again in which Electra and her father kill the queen with an axe. As she is describing the dream in lurid detail, Clytemnestra's procession approaches. Chrysothemis pleads with her older sister one last time, reminding her that the queen and her entourage drive before them servants with knives and packs of animals to be slaughtered. This serves only to make Electra more determined to face her mother.

The sounds of whips and screams drives Chrysothemis out through the courtyard door in fear, just as her mother's torch-lit figure appears in a window. The queen is accompanied by her purple-robed Confidante and by her Trainbearer, a woman resembling "an upright snake." Clytemnestra is festooned with a great many jewels, charms, armbands and rings. She spies Electra in the courtyard and demands that the gods reveal why she must be persecuted by the animal before her. Slyly, Electra says that Clytemnestra herself must be of the race of the gods, and should be able to answer for herself. The Confidante and the Trainbearer warn the queen that Electra is not to be trusted, yet Clytemnestra finds something healing in Electra's manner and decides to speak to her daughter alone. From the threshold she warns Electra that being spiteful could lead to her ruin, but Electra pleases her by likening her again to a god for her power to give life, and to take it away. Toying with her mother, she then says how it grieves her to see Aegisthus wearing robes that were clearly meant for a much larger man. When the Confidante and the Trainbearer warn the queen that Electra is not being truthful, she dismisses them. She then implores her daughter to give her a remedy for the bad dreams that plague her. She admits that she has covered herself with gems in the hopes that they can ward off the nightmares, the rot she feels inside, and her sense that she is "sinking alive into chaos."

When Clytemnestra asks if there might be some ritual sacrifice that would end the torment, Electra assures her that there is, and that once the right victim has fallen beneath the axe, the dreams will stop. There follows a rapid exchange where Clytemnestra tries to extract the name of the one to be sacrificed, and Electra replies in short, cryptic answers, always adding subtle reminders of the murder that took place. At last Clytemnestra believes she has enough of an answer: a man of the house will perform the required sacrifice for her, and the dreams will end forever.

Clytemnestra admits that she has no real memory of the murder, only of the events leading up to it and then the sight of her dying husband. She claims that if she saw Agamemnon that day she would probably speak tenderly to him as an old friend. The offhand way her mother speaks of the murder—"like a quarrel before supper"—angers Electra. She asks about her brother Orestes, whom Clytemnestra has sent away. The very mention of his name makes the queen tremble, and Electra suggests that her mother is afraid because she knows that one day Orestes will come back. Clytemnestra denies it, and threatens to place Electra in shackles and starve her until she reveals the name of the one who must bleed. Electra leaps at her from the dark like an animal and reveals that it is the queen herself who must die, and that there is nowhere she can hide when the hunter moves in for the kill. She vividly portrays the violent, gory scene of vengeance she has imagined so many times.

Clytemnestra stands terrified before a fervent Electra. Then the hallway brightens and the Confidante whispers something in the queen's ear that removes all traces of fear and replaces it with a look of smug satisfaction. Without a word, she leaves Electra standing the dark courtyard, utterly confused. Chrysothemis rushes to her sister's side, wailing that Orestes is dead. Electra refuses to believe it. A manservant is dispatched to send word to Aegisthus. While her sister wants details of their brother's death from the messengers, Electra merely determines that if Orestes is dead then it is up to the two of them to carry out the vengeance, and to do so that very night. When Chrysothemis resists the idea, Electra tries to woo her with flattery, extolling her many virtues with all the ardor of a lover: strength that flows like pent-up water from a rock, litheness and agility, beauty and energy. Electra offers herself as a faithful personal attendant, a virtual slave, to Chrysothemis, pledging to fulfill her every desire, and even prepare her sister for the much-awaited union with her presumptive bridegroom—providing Chrysothemis will act with Electra and exact revenge that night. Though Electra promises that no permanent stain of blood will cling to her, Chrysothemis flees.

Resolved to carry out the revenge alone, even though she knows it is dangerous to act alone, Electra begins digging near the wall of the courtyard for the axe—the one used in Agamemnon's murder—she has buried there. Orestes enters the courtyard, but brother and sister do not recognize each other. She says she is nothing and has no one, and he assumes she is a servant, and she does not disagree. He identifies himself as the one who witnessed the death of Orestes and says he must bear the message to the mistress of the house. Electra demands that he her sight, revealing that she is not one of those who rejoice in the news but agonizes over the thought that Orestes can never return. When Orestes asks again who she is, Electra tells him. He can scarcely believe that the exhausted, ravaged, wild-eyed woman who has been clawing in the dirt can be the gentle, refined young woman he recalls as his sister. He reveals to her that Orestes is alive, and when she assumes that he must be injured and in danger somewhere, the stranger reveals that he, in fact, is Orestes, her brother. She is skeptical until an old servant rushes into the courtyard and kisses the feet of the "messenger." Then, in her excitement she cries out, and nearly gives him away.

Electra tells Orestes how the guilt of living when her father's life has been taken has ravaged her beauty, stolen her pride and left her with nothing to live for but the prospect of vengeance. She is ashamed to have him look upon her. The old Tutor who accompanied Orestes in his enters the courtyard, and any doubt she may have had about the messenger's identity disappears. Electra's joy is so complete that the Tutor has to stifle her happy cries.

Orestes tells Electra that the gods have sent him to enact the vengeance, and that they will condemn him if he shrinks from his duty. Admitting that he cannot look at his mother's face as he kills her, Orestes nevertheless does not hesitate, and he and the Tutor go without hesitation into the palace while Electra waits in terrible suspense outside. In agony she realizes she has not been able to give Orestes the axe. Through the door, she hears Clytemnestra's piercing cry, then a second cry. Servants come running from their quarters, as does Chrysothemis, and while they know something violent has happened behind the door Electra shields with her body, they do not know what. When they hear Aegisthus approaching, they flee back to their quarters.

Electra greets Aegisthus humbly, bearing a torch and bowing before him. When he asks to see the messengers who have brought the news that Orestes is dead, she tells him that they are inside the palace, and escorts him to the door, dancing around him with the torch. Though he is suspicious of her sudden change in demeanor, he is eager to hear the news first-hand, and enters the palace. Soon after, he begins to shout for help, saying that he is being murdered. When he asks if no one hears his cries, Electra answers that her murdered father hears the cries. At last, Aegisthus falls silent.

Chrysothemis returns to the courtyard. She reports that she has seen her brother and that the faithful servants who have long hated and feared Aegisthus are now circled around him kissing his feet, having slain all those who turned against Agamemnon years before. Chrysothemis finds Electra shrunk into the doorsill, drained and immobile, and exhorts her to join them. Electra knows she must be the one to lead the victory celebration, and with great difficulty gathers her strength and begins a wild dance, calling upon everyone to join her. She dances a few more tense steps before collapsing to the ground, where she lies rigid. Chrysothemis pounds on the door of the palace, calling out for Orestes.