32 pages • 1 hour read
Sophocles, Marianne Macdonald, J. Michael WaltonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Orestes asks the Chorus for directions to Aegisthus’s house. The Chorus directs Orestes to Electra, so that she may announce him to the house. Electra is inconsolable at the sight of her brother’s ashes. Orestes recognizes his sister and the suffering she has undergone while living with Aegisthus and Clytemnestra. Orestes tells Electra that her urn of ashes are not her brother’s and properly reveals himself. Electra proclaims to the Chorus, “Ladies, my friends, my people, look! / Here stands Orestes: / dead by device / now by device brought back to life!” (1643-1646). Orestes cautions Electra to calm herself and pretend to not know his true identity. He assures her that he needs no convincing of their mother’s evil and that “talk is expensive” (1722). Electra agrees to bend to her brother’s will.
Paedagogus runs over to Electra and Orestes, urging them to cease spoiling their plans. He exclaims, “Now cut short the speech making, / stifle your joy / and go in the house. Go! / Delay is disaster in things like this” (1777-1780). He tells them that Clytemnestra is alone in the house.
By these authors
Ancient Greece
View Collection
Appearance Versus Reality
View Collection
Books on Justice & Injustice
View Collection
Brothers & Sisters
View Collection
Family
View Collection
Fantasy
View Collection
Fate
View Collection
Grief
View Collection
Mortality & Death
View Collection
Mythology
View Collection
Revenge
View Collection
Tragic Plays
View Collection
Truth & Lies
View Collection