by Martin Reftorr

Created on: June 15, 2008   Last Updated: June 16, 2008

Though both Euripides and Sophocles wrote plays concerning the Greek myth, Electra, in the same year, their final results differ greatly because of their contrasting motives. Sophocles' main purpose in his production of Electra is to instruct cultural and moral values. In contradiction, Euripides intends, with his version, to challenge those same values. Thus, though the two stories share similar plots and resolutions, Sophocles' features characters who passively accept fate and destiny as dictated to them while Euripides' incorporates inquisitive characters who actively contemplate the nature of their given fate.

In collaboration with Sophocles' motives for writing Electra, the characters in his play strictly follow the destiny given to them without second thought. Electra, though she exhibits her dreadful situation through excessive whining, never contemplates other possible solutions to her problem other than what community values insist that she do. Her singular reliance on revenge, which involves no less than killing both her mother and her mother's husband, as the sole solution emphasizes her undeniable adherence to societal values. Even under her extenuating circumstances, she never thinks to solve the problem any other way. This characteristic of Electra mirrors Sophocles' motive for writing the play: to only advocate moral reason as accepted by society. Even Orestes, who performs the killings of his mother and Aegisthus, never debates the reason behind his actions. He simply accepts the acts as right because society's opinion would judge them in that way. Both Orestes and Electra perfectly personify what Sophocles attempts to promote: the knowledge of and adherence to society's values.

Euripides' version of the play contrasts greatly with Sophocles' in that his characters exemplify the critical examination of cultural values in order to advocate questioning society's ideals. His Electra, for example, spends a great portion of time pondering over the conflict. She attempts to derive the reason behind the revenge her destiny says she must take upon her mother. In this version Orestes also thoroughly contemplates other scenarios to solve the problem, and both Electra and he deeply regret the killing of their mother after the fact. Their desire to learn the reasons behind their fate and their ultimate division over whether to actually follow through with destiny depicts their inquisitive nature. Euripides uses this conflict in their decision making to make a point that one should never simply accept society's opinion blindly. Though Electra and Orestes finally do carry out their destiny, they realize that they could have taken an alternate path, one that didn't agree with society's opinion of revenge in their case. Euripides dramatically emphasizes this point in order to instruct his concept of free thought and decision-making that is not solely dependent on society's or culture's position in the issue. Electra and Orestes typify Euripides' independent thought ideal with their open-minded analysis of the conflict.

Indeed, both versions of the play follow similar event sequences and culminate in the same ending, yet the sentiments and thought processes of the characters differ in each version since they reflect the author's purpose in writing the play. Sophocles' Orestes and Electra both adhere to what fate declares for them. In Euripides' Electra, the same two characters act completely different towards the concept of accepting their fate: instead of following it without question they attempt to find ways around it. In the end, the characters act differently in their respective plays as a result of the authors' contrasting reasons for writing the play.

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