Electra

What is the role of the gods in the play? In what ways are human justice and divine justice linked? In what ways, if any, are they in conflict?

How do the characters conceive of family and the idea of familial obligations? In what ways do Electra, Orestes, and/or Clytemnestra have similar conceptions of family? In what ways do they differ?

What is the significance of Pylades’s silence in the play? Is his presence necessary or important? Why or why not?

How is heroism defined in the play? How do Electra and Orestes exhibit—or fail to exhibit—traditional Greek heroic values?

How is Clytemnestra depicted? Analyze her characterization and the role she plays. What is her wider significance?

Select one choral song from the play. How does this song reflect themes or motifs from the play?

The characters wrestle with notions of the possible links (or lack of links) between social status and honorable conduct. What does the play suggest about the nature of true honor and nobility? How do different characters define honor?

Compare how Euripides depicts the myth of Orestes and Electra with Aeschylus’s and Sophocles’s versions. How does Euripides’s depiction resemble or differ from those of the other two tragedians?