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A review by roxanamalinachirila
Elektra by Sophocles
5.0
I enjoyed "Elektra" a lot more than I thought I would - and it's definitely because of the translation, introduction and notes by Robert Bagg.
The story in itself is... frankly, a lot simpler than I'd have thought. Elektra is the daughter of Klytemnestra and Agamemnon. As Greek audiences would have known, Agamemnon had been the leader of the Greek army in the Trojan War. Returning home victorious, he was murdered by his wife, Klytemnestra and her lover (the urge to call her "Klytty" just so I don't have to spell her whole name is incredible).
Many years after the fact, Elektra is still not over it. She's growing up in her mother's home treated like a slave (or so she says) and hoping that one day her little brother Orestes will be back to enact revenge. She's openly hostile to her mother and her new husband, spewing bile all the time and invoking the gods to deliver "justice".
Orestes finally returns; there's a ploy to persuade everyone that he died during a chariot race in which he was proving his worth.
The play is filled with foreboding; none of the characters are particularly sympathetic. There's a sense of "it needs to get done", and the triumph feels hollow. You can't help but remember that, in avenging the death of their father, they are now guilty of murdering their mother.
The story in itself is... frankly, a lot simpler than I'd have thought. Elektra is the daughter of Klytemnestra and Agamemnon. As Greek audiences would have known, Agamemnon had been the leader of the Greek army in the Trojan War. Returning home victorious, he was murdered by his wife, Klytemnestra and her lover (the urge to call her "Klytty" just so I don't have to spell her whole name is incredible).
Many years after the fact, Elektra is still not over it. She's growing up in her mother's home treated like a slave (or so she says) and hoping that one day her little brother Orestes will be back to enact revenge. She's openly hostile to her mother and her new husband, spewing bile all the time and invoking the gods to deliver "justice".
Orestes finally returns; there's a ploy to persuade everyone that he died during a chariot race in which he was proving his worth.
The play is filled with foreboding; none of the characters are particularly sympathetic. There's a sense of "it needs to get done", and the triumph feels hollow. You can't help but remember that, in avenging the death of their father, they are now guilty of murdering their mother.