Analysis On The Myth Of Electra
Electra is the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus, brought so much grief and suffering to Electra which then led her to have so much anger towards them (Electra 2007). Clytemnestra and Aegisthus murdered Electra’s father, which resulted to her making an agreement with her brother, Orestes, to avenge their father’s death. She then brought his brother into hiding, while she stayed behind in Mycenae, which her mother and Aegisthus ruled. After seven years, Electra and her brother met at their father’s tomb, in which they planned out how they would kill their mother. They have successfully gone through with the plan, and Electra then married her brother’s companion, Pylades(Electra Complex 2001).
This just shows that Electra is just merely acting according to instinct. The anger and vengeance of a daughter or a son towards their mother, who is known to have a lover aside from that of their father, would naturally feel angry towards her. There is just something different when it is the woman who cheats. It’s as if a child thinks that her mother isn’t at all happy with the man they know as their father. After all, a child wouldn’t even be born, if not because of her real mother and father. And maybe they feel that their mother is dividing her attention towards them and to her lover as well. What more if they plan on doing something that could harm their father just so they stay happy and without worrying about another man in their life, which would just naturally, bring so much anger to a child. (Morford and Lenardon n.d.)
The Electra Complex
The Electra Complex is a sexual desire of a daughter towards their father, as if feeling jealous with their mother, sometimes unconsciously desiring for her death.
The Electra Complex is the counter-part of Oedipus Complex which was presented by Sigmund Freud, which is the desire of the son towards her mother, having so much jealousy towards their father. (Electra Complex 2001)
Carl-Jung has thought of the Complex from the Myth of Electra, in which Electra is very loyal and loved him very much. With this complex, daughters despised their mother, especially if they see that she is doing something which isn’t at all pleasant with the daughter. This sometimes led to the child having the plan to have her mother killed, just to have their father all to themselves.
Some cases of Electra complex are when the father remarries. When a daughter has a step-mother, she would despise her, giving her the feeling that the step-mother is taking her father away from her. This is true in most cases. But, even if the step-mother have no bad intentions on taking the daughter’s father away, the daughter would still feel angry towards her step-mother. (Electra Complex 1997)
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