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Electra

by Sophocles

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First published: 1894
Pages: 61

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Electra (1906) is a public domain work.

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About this book

Long after Queen Clytemnestra and her lover slain her father Agamemnon, the princess Electra lives on in the palace as a grieving, defiant prisoner, kept low and consumed by the wish for revenge. Her one hope is her exiled brother Orestes, and when a false report of his death arrives she nearly collapses under it. Then Orestes returns in secret, and Electra urges him on to the killing of their own mother. Sophocles gives the old revenge story to Electra herself, holding the whole drama inside her grief, hatred, and endurance rather than the act of vengeance. Thought to be a work of his old age, the play is one of his sharpest portraits of a mind bent by injustice.

About the author

Sophocles

Sophocles (c. 497-406 BC) was one of the three great tragic playwrights of ancient Athens. Of his many plays, seven survive, including the Theban plays centered on Oedipus and Antigone.