Just part of my ongoing self education. ( )

Tragedija u šest činova o surovoj osveti brata i sestre, Oresta i Elektre koji ubijaju svoju majku i njenog ljubavnika Klitemanestru i Egista, zbog ubistva njihovog oca Agamemnona nakon povratka iz Trojanskog rata. Mesto radnje je seosko imanje i seoska koliba vlasništvo nekog prostog seljaka za koga je Elektra prisilno udata kako ne bi izrodila plemeniti porod koji bi mogao tražiti osvetu.

Šesti čin je prilično surov (scena ubistva majke). Elektri i Orestu osveta ne donosi ništa dobro jer se njih dvoje tek što su se našli moraju ponovo rastati, Elektra će se udati za Orestovog prijatelja ali će je večito izjedati kajanje, dok Orest beži pomućenog uma progonjen od Furija.

Euripid je bio jedan od prvih realista, što su mu njegovi savremenici preacivali zbog otklona od ustaljenog tradicionalnog prikaza u dotadašnjim tragedijama. Bio je poznat po tome što je čoveka prikazivao onakvim kakvim jeste, a ne kakav bi trebalo da bude. ( )

I didn't enjoy Electra. It's partly that I truly don't like the character Electra herself, but that wouldn't matter so much if it weren't for the way that the play itself was constructed.

Why in the world did Orestes hide who he was in the first place? It has no point, not advancing the plot one whit for him to conceal his identity until the old tutor guessed it from a scar. And then after it was guessed, it was all tra-la, tra-la, of course you're Orestes, celebrations abound, let's continue. Why didn't he just come up to Electra and (once they were in the privacy of her house) tell her that he was his brother? It's a fake plot device made solely for the fabrication of 'tension,' and I don't like it.

There was one part that I did really enjoy, though: the chorus singing of the golden fleece. I have no idea what it had to do with the story, except that shearing hair seems to be a theme in this story. There's Orestes with his shorn lock on the tomb of Agamemnon, and Electra with her hair cropped off (although she claims it's snarled as well, which I would not have caught had it not been for the footnote). There's the short story of the golden fleece, incomplete and pretty much irrelevant as far as I can surmise, but lovely nonetheless. There are one or two other instances of hair being mentioned, enough for me to believe that it had a theme of some kind. Of what theme that might be, however, I have no idea.

Orestes' speech of praise for the peasant seems contrived simply for the use of lecturing the Greek citizens on how to value a man. Besides which, if the peasant were that worth and important, he would have had a name. Maybe. I mean, Euripides was one of those really original playwrights, who usually called a king "King" and a queen "Queen" and such.

All in all, no go. A few really lovely parts, but nothing worth bringing home to mother. Who is, incidentally, the murderer of your father. And who holds more awesome in one fingernail than Electra holds in her whole body. No, Orestes' and Electra's bodies combined. May they be smited by the furies and never whine again.

882.01 EUR

Rated: B-The New Lifetime Reading Plan: Number 7e ( )