The Tragic Sisterhood of Sophocles’ Electra

Doug Clapp

Samford University

This paper explores the relationship that Sophocles constructs between Electra and Chrysothemis in order to better understand the words, emotions and actions of the older sister that have earned her such scorn in modern interpretations of the play.  

Sophocles’ Electra resounds with the voice of its eponymous character, yet the mourning which becomes Electra has been consistently interpreted as a sign of mental instability.  Wright, in Greece & Rome 52.2 (2005), diagnoses the emotional responses of Electra as evidence that she has become deranged.  In particular, Electra suffers in comparison with her sister Chrysothemis, whose advocacy of prudence and moderation offer a respite from the madness of Electra.  Ewans, in Helios 27.2 (2000), argues that Athenian expectations would render unpalatable Electra’s single-minded devotion in contrast to the rationality of her sister.  Kells’ 1973 commentary (n.343f.) blackens Electra with comments like “This (like many of the things said by Electra) is neither true nor fair,” while Wright (p.181) concludes that “Electra makes no attempt to comfort or empathize with her sister.”  These indictments of Electra find their origins in Sheppard’s efforts (1918, 1927) to gain Sophocles as a key witness for condemning the murder of Clytemnestra.  If Sophocles, like Sheppard and then Kells, wants the murderers declared guilty, then Electra becomes a figure of revulsion steeped in the relentless horror of a true-crime novel.

This Electra is unsatisfactory not just because we are left with no hero despite the reminder of Winnington-Ingram (p.228) that “the leading character in Electra is the heroine.”  This Electra is wanting not just because we will merely be appalled without being moved by Aristotle’s pity and fear.  These scholarly accusations of Electra fail to acknowledge the complexity of the untenable situation in which the sisters are trapped.  The sisters are estranged, but not because of Electra’s failure to achieve self-actualization.  Sophocles has landed the sisters in a tragedy that would make Sartre proud with its lack of exits.

The critiques of Electra which result in the criticism of Electra ask who is to blame for the awful actions enacted in the Theater of Dionysus, but a Sophoclean tragedy like Electra shifts the burden to the audience—how will we live in a world susceptible to such terrors of the imagination