Aristotle's Effects On Sophocles' Play "Electra"

Sophocles was a Greek playwright who wrote King Oedipus, Antigone, Oedipus Rex, and Electra. According to historians, he was born in a village outside of the walls of Athens. In Ancient Greece, Athens was the biggest and most powerful city-state. The city was named after the goddess of wisdom and warfare Athena.

There is a common saying that "names affect what they are given." I think the city of Athena is the best example of this. Because, compared to their contemporaries, Athenians were more free and open-minded people. The idea of democracy was emerged by Athenians, citizens could vote. That’s to say, in Athens, all citizens participate in the making and implementation of laws. (Dinçkol, 753) But, this idea of democracy excluded women, slaves, and slaves from the government. Compared to modern democracy, it fails because it is not inclusive of the entire population. However, we should evaluate the practice of democracy, which is still not perfectly implemented and idealized even today, in Ancient Greece, with the characteristics of its age. (Dinçkol, 754) Besides that, education was important for Athenians. Basic education was considered necessary to be a good citizen. (Karakoç, 10) For this reason, Sophocles had received a good education as well. Art was important at that time, especially theatrical works. Theatre plays were performed in the city center, and they were called the Agora. It is not nonplusing that many philosophers came from Greece which showed people enough freedom to create something. The other philosopher who lived in this land was Aristotle. Even though he worked in many fields such as psychology, linguistics, and politics. I will research his works on literary theory and his famous book Poetics. In Poetics, Aristotle explains the basic concepts and principles of tragedy. In this paper, I aim to explain these concepts and principles, and I also want to show how Sophocles was affected by them in Electra. 

Even though our knowledge of Aristotle’s life is limited, it is known that he was Plato’s student. But, his thoughts are quite different from Plato's, especially in literary space and Poetics is his response to Plato's thoughts. Plato’s opinions about literary works are strict; he thinks that art makes people irrational and also manipulates them. ‘’A moral citizen’s soul will be composed and dignified — but many musical modes stir us up inside and make us jangled and unsettled.’’ (Plato, Book III) Also, he even called fiction a lie and described Homer as a liar. Eventually, he implies that art endangers community values in his book The Republic. However, Aristotle disagreed with Plato, his teacher. He thinks art does not affect people in a bad way, on the contrary, it has benefits on people. In Poetics, he claims that the learning process makes people happy. “Imitation comes naturally to human beings from childhood (and in this, they differ from other animals, i.e. in having a strong propensity to imitation and in learning their earliest lessons through imitation); so does the universal pleasure in imitations. What happens in practice is evidence of this: we take delight in viewing the most accurate possible images of objects which in themselves cause distress when we see them (e.g. the shapes of the lowest species of animal, and corpses). The reason for this is that understanding is extremely pleasant, not just for philosophers but for others too in the same way, despite their limited capacity for it.” (Aristotle, 191-192) Apart from that, Poetics is the first work that includes theories about the art of poetry, but only parts of the tragedy have survived. In the book, readers learn basic concepts and principles of tragedy, as well as the differences between comedy, tragedy, and epic. In regard to Aristotle, tragedy is a better genre than comedy. “Comedy is (as we have said) an imitation of inferior people – not, however, with respect to every kind of defect: the laughable is a species of what is disgraceful. The laughable is an error or disgrace that does not involve pain or destruction; for example, a comic mask is ugly and distorted, but does not involve pain.” (Aristotle, 197-198) It had better be mentioned that the reason for this is also related to a feature of the tragedy. In tragedies, writers used noble people’s names to increase credibility and probability which are elements of tragedies, but the rest is fiction; “tragedy they do keep to actual names. The reason for this is that what is possible is plausible; we are disinclined to believe that what has not happened is possible, but it is obvious that what has happened is possible – because it would not have happened if it were not.” (Aristotle, 214) Aristotle believes that it is important for tragedy’s probability. But, comedies do not rely on historical facts or figures and it is more directly engaged with social life and politics. At the same time, tragedy is showcased by non-commoners such as kings and gods who shifted from good fortune to bad fortune. You may think if tragedians use noble people’s names, how they are different from historians. In the book, Aristotle explains the differences between poets and historians too. According to Aristotle “the historian and the poet are not distinguished by their use of verse or prose; it would be possible to turn the works of Herodotus into verse, and it would be a history in verse just as much as in prose. The distinction is this: the one says what has happened, the other the kind of thing that would happen.” (Aristotle, 213)

Besides these, Aristotle explains which elements a successful tragedy should contain. It has to have a complex plot to be a successful tragedy. “By complex, I mean one in which the change of fortune involves reversal or recognition or both. These must arise from the actual structure of the plot, so that they come about as a result of what has happened before, out of necessity or by probability. There is an important difference between a set of events happening because of certain other events and after certain other events.” (Aristotle, 216) In order to have a complex plot, there are some elements that the play should have: tragic flaw, reversal of fortune, recognition, suffering, and catharsis. Reversal of fortune is about the situation a change by which the action veers round to its opposite, subject always to our rule of probability or necessity. Tragic flaw leads to the hero’s downfall that’s to say it brings misfortune to the tragic hero. Recognition is a change from ignorance to knowledge. Suffering is a destructive or painful action. Catharsis is the purifying or purgation of emotions such as pity and fear with the help of the play. Besides that, catharsis is another thing that shows us that Platon’s ideas about art are not true at all. 

Sophocles is one of the successful tragedians who is still read by modern readers. Electra, together with Antigone, is considered Sophocles' most beautiful tragedy and a world-class classical masterpiece. (Erhat, 7) In the play, Electra’s father Agamemnon was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus, because of her father’s death, Electra hates Aegisthus. Her love for her father is deep. Later, Electra dispatched her brother Orestes from town so that he could grow up safely in a foreign land and come back one day to avenge their father. However one day a messenger informed Electra about Orestes' death but, the truth is different, Orestes is not dead. Sophocles used Aristotle’s elements while writing this play.

In the play, Electra is mourning for her beloved father, she wants to take his revenge on Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. This is her suffering. Besides that, Electra learns that her brother is alive, this is the best example of the reversal of fortune. Even though some critics claim that Aegisthus’ death is the catharsis of the play, I disagree with them. Because Aegisthus’ death is not included in the play. And also I think Electra’s revenge desire towards her mother rather than Aegisthus. Electra is a devoted daughter to her father, her love for him is much more intense than for her mother. That's why she hates her mother even more deeply. For this reason, I think Clytemnestra’s death is the catharsis of the play. Electra's downfall stems from the fact that after spending her entire life thirsting for her father’s revenge, she doesn't know what to do once she's satisfied.

The play Electra includes many ideas and also it is a subject that can be extended to Freud. But, in this paper, I explain life in Athens in those days, the tragedy elements in Aristotle’s poetics and I exemplify them with Sophocles’s Electra.

WORKS CITED:

Aristotle, and Malcolm Heath. Poetics (Penguin Classics). New Ed, Kindle ed., Penguin Classics, 1997.

Baldick, Chris. The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (Oxford Quick Reference). 4th ed., Oxford University Press, 2015.

Dinçkol, Prof. Dr. Bihterin. “From Democracy Of Athens To The Republic Of Rome– From ‘Demos’ To ‘Populus Romanus.’” Dergi Park.

dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/456981.

Gale, Cengage Learning, and Gale. A Study Guide for Sophocles’s “Electra.” Gale, Cengage Learning, 2004.

Karakoç, Eren. “Antik Yunan Tarihi.” Academia, 2014, www.academia.edu/38078937/ANT%C4%B0K_YUNAN_TAR%C4%B0H%C4%B0_Dr_Eren_KARAKO%C3%87_.

Kirkwood, Gordon M. “Two Structural Features of Sophocles’ Electra.” JSTOR, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1942, www.jstor.org/stable/283539.

Plato, et al. The Republic (Penguin Classics). New, Kindle ed., Penguin Classics, 2007.

Sophocles, et al. Electra and Other Plays (Penguin Classics). Penguin Classics, 2008.

Azra Erhat, Sophocles. Elektra. İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2011.