Electra: A Gender Sensitive Study of the Plays Based on the Myth

by Batya Casper

Shakespeare's Hamlet--written 1,000 years after the classical Greek period--follows a narrative pattern similar to that of the Greek Electra myth, and it isn't the only story to do so. We see signs of Electra's influence again in the 20th-century works of Oscar Wilde, Eugene O'Neill and T.S. Eliot, among others. This revised and updated edition will look more closely at the influence of Electra on popular culture throughout history and the questions it poses regarding oppositions such as logic versus instinct, night versus day and repression versus freedom.

229 pages, Paperback

Published April 29, 2019

Reviews

[Kim M · Rating 5 out of 5]

The introduction of the book, "Electra - A Gender Sensitive Study of the Plays Based on the Myth," provides the reader with an excellent review of the beginning of myths from oral tradition until now and gives an exemplary description of the myth in question featuring the "Electra Myth" as visioned by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripide, three great tragedians of classical Athens (Greek mythology). A brief explanation is that Electra is one of the most popular mythological characters in tragedies. She is the daughter of Agamemnon and Clyemnestra and she saves her brother (Orestes) by sending him away when their father is murdered. Later she helps him kill their mother and her lover, Aegisthus to obtain revenge for the father's death. "Electra is one of the most recurring myths of Western civilization" and the book seeks to compare this play to other plays from that time and forward, even throughn the 1980's, but a myth "exists in two simultaneous time spaces: at the moment of presentation and for all time." We are told that "tragedies were not presented merely for entertainment; they were also the playwrite's opportunity to stage issues of vital social importance" and it is help to remember this as one reads "Electra" as it "attempts to define the nature of its mythical complex and illustrate how all the plays under examination are comprised of the same mythical deep-structure."
"Electra - A Gender Sensitive Study of the Plays Based of the Myths" main focus is on the feminine principle versus the masculine with reflections on the familial bond a boy child has with his mother from breastfeeding throughout the time frame when the child begins to separate himself to enter into manhood (patriarchal takeover of earlier female goddessess). It is also a study of male/female , spiritual/material, and rational/emotional from a time when Electra, instead of being described as a "strong and willful woman" is labeled "a woman with the will of a man" reflecting the strong use of the masculine/heroic characterizations of the time and the "slaying of the maternal dragon." The author, Batya Casper, declares that "her foundation of our two themes: chaos vs law and order or male vs female can be applied throughout humanity. "The masculine and the feminine have been represented as dramatic metaphors for contradictory impulses" and, as "Electra" shows can be applied and interpreted throughout the centuries of literary writings focusing on the need to redefine the perspective roles of the male and female.
The author, Batya Casper has a very strong command of the material and provides the reader with a thought-provoking study in the case of the Electra Myth. The work is thorough and interesting, even comparing the "Electra Myth" in the "ending with a couple playwrites which deliberately deviate from the deep structure of the myth." This is a well-written study that finishes with the statement that "perhaps it is time to relinquish the myth, and liberate Electra." I highly recommend this work.