Electra

Seat number 45 Serrano, Wrenz Carlo I.

In Aristotle’s Poetics, he described what a tragic hero is with several characteristics, and in the Greek Tragedy of Sophocles; Electra, the main protagonist really has some of these characteristics. In terms of Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero, Electra is considered as a tragic hero. First, she is an individual of noble stature; she is a daughter of Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, and Clytemnestra, which makes her a royalty. Second is, he/ she is not perfect, hence the tragic flaw or hamartia. Electra’s tragic flaw would be her emotions. She is too emotional; she is overwhelmed by her feelings of revenge to her mother and sadness by the death of her father. We can see how emotional she is, just like when she heard the news that her brother Orestes died, she became really emotional which pushed Orestes to reveal himself tell her that he is still alive. Another characteristic would be the tragic hero’s hubris or excessive pride, the fact that she rely too much to Orestes for her revenge on her mother, she was easily persuaded in the news about his brother’s death, which leads to her downfall. Her downfall would be when she realizes that she doesn’t have any family left with her, and soon she will commit suicide. Fourth characteristic that applies to Electra would be, “The hero's misfortunate is not wholly deserved. The punishment exceeds the crime”. Her misfortune would be she became a slave of her own mother just because she always cry about the death of her father, and also the fact that Aegisthus also wanted her to be imprisoned just because of the same reason,