Book Review: Electra
Hands down the best play I have read so far this year. Wow. There is something quite empowering about a woman who knows her own mind and whose monologues leave you on the edge of your seat. Well, that's Electra. Heed the warning, gents, “Hea’vn has no rage, like love to hatred turn’d, Nor hell a fury, like aowman scorn’d” because that is the woman in this play. Buckle yourselves in, you’re in for a ride.
Electra is furious, her mother has murdered her father and has brought her lover into her house and treats Electra like a slave. Her brother Orestes has been exiled for his own safety, and Electra hopes that, once her brother is grown, he will exact revenge upon her tarnished household. I wish I could say that this is a tragedy, you could almost bill it as one, lord knows the contents and tone of this play is a serious one. But this is unusual, I feel it goes against type because it has a happy ending.
But let's talk about the meat of the play, because there is a lot of food for thought here. Mainly Electra’s monologues. Boy, do I pity the actress who has to play her because huge swathes of scenes are of her monologues. Especially in the beginning. Now, I always find it tricky to judge writing when it’s been translated, and when translating from ancient Greek to modern English, there will be a loss of rhythm and meter, which Greek Theatre is famous for. That I always find a shame - sure, I'd have no idea what the heck is going on if I saw the play in Greek, but I’d be able to appreciate the flow of the text. That being said, this translation of the text is very good. Electra’s words do not lose power or impact. Her opening monologue is a thing of wonder; it is raw, intense and guttural in its cries of emotion. The red pill movement would hate her, and I think I love her all the more for it.
If we are to look at this through the eyes of feminism, we do need to talk about the relationship of justice to Clytemnestra and Electra. Both women think they are right, but the moral standpoint of Ancient Greece believes in one avenue of justice. Clytemnestra murders her husband, Agamemnon, after he sacrificed their daughter, Iphigenia, for fair winds. Artemis dictated the sacrifice in order for fair winds. Thus, she believes she is avenging her daughter - despite the fact that it was an order from the gods. Electra believes this is wrong and prays for divine intervention. My stance is, why can’t both be right? Why must hubris pit these women against each other? Their unifying factor is grief and anger at a situation born from a man's war. While I do not begrudge either party’s moral standpoint, I feel like they’re blaming the wrong people, looking through the narrow lens of anguish. It certainly makes for some of their more interesting decisions, aka: a lot of people die.
I would love to see this live. I want to feel the electricity of the words as they ring through the theatre. It is one of the more challenging feminist works I think to perform as neither is truly wrong but neither is right… Maybe when tickets aren’t extortionately high, I’ll get to see this masterpiece in action.