The Saving Features of Electra's Characters In Euripides' "Electra," there are a number of parts, spoken and unspoken, that reveal the saving features of the otherwise pitiful characters. This essay will consider the roles of Orestes, Electra, Clytemnestra, the farmer and Aegisthus (whose actions are only reported to us). It is arguable that the characters are not redeemable simply because of the play's plot: a son returns, kills his father's unworthy successor, his mother (with the help of his sister), and is sent away at the end of the play to divine judgment. His sister assisted him in the matricide and is also sent away. However, it is unrealistic that all the characters in a tragedy do not have good qualities. The nature of tragedy, according to Aristotle, is to invoke pity ("kitharsis"), purifying the soul - this cannot be invoked if the characters are bad people, since we will not feel pity. Aristotle described Euripides as "the most tragic of poets..." so it is likely that the playwright conformed to Aristotle's rules for tragedy. Negative events ("hamartia") need to happen to good people, who may not be entirely noble but still be respectably good. For example, in Oedipus Rex, Oedipus despises Apollo's prophecies but he is a noble king, who feels compassion for his people and his destined blow was only the result of his uninformed actions. Orestes is the avenging son of Agamemnon, returned to his kingdom. homeland. We would expect this man to be the tragic hero of the play, but he doesn't fit the spec. He is not a powerful character and is constantly in need of guidance, simply acting like a loaded cannon ("What do you suggest?"). When... in the middle of the paper... er, in the runtime of the work, with a history of murders that seems disconnected from this person as we see him. Finally, Egisto, although amiable to his guests, has an undeniable history of murder and the people are happy to see him go. If he has redeemable qualities, they are few. Works Cited Euripides. Electra. Trans. Philip Vellacott. Medea and other comedies. Baltimore: Penguin Classics, 1963. 105-152, 201-204. Nietzsche, Friedrich. The birth of tragedy. Trans. Clifton Fadimann. New York: Dover Publications, 1995.Perseus Encyclopedia. Revised 1999. Tufts University. www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/encyclopedia?entry=Euripides>.Powell, Barry. Classic myth. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 2001. March, Jennifer. “Euripides the misogynist?” Euripides, Women and sexuality. Ed. Anton Powell. New York: Routledge, 1990.