Name: Electra
Age: 18
Family Life
Electra was sent off to
marry a man of a lower status by her mother to allow her mother and
her mothers lover to take over Argos, her father has been lost at sea
coming back from war so her mother went of with Aegithos. She hasn’t
seen her brother since she was younger as her mother sent him away so
that she could rule with Aegithos.
Personality
Electra is a woman who is
strong and confident, she was born in the wrong century, women in her
time were expected to just be seen and not heard and she wants to be
heard as she knows her mind, she cares deeply about her family and
becomes very attached to her brother.
Context
Before the play Electra has
had life fairly badly and this is part of the reason why she's so
defensive and more forthright as she is. During the play Electra
discovers herself and the power she has over her life and her voice.
She also finds a way of manipulating people and getting things out of
them she also by doing this creates her own demise. After the play,
I'm not quite so sure about what happens to her after all this but
from how I know the character she will have let her tongue get her
killed.
Relationships
Mother: She kills her mother for
killing her father, so you could say it's not a brilliant
relationship, her mother also sent her beloved brother away, and her
away to “ a shameful degrading marriage”
Father: She never totally knew her
father as he went away to war when she was young. She obviously held
great affection towards her father because she killed her own mother
for killing him.
Orestes: Her relationship with him is
slightly complicated, he is her brother, even though she hasn't seen
him since she was a child, she is now reunited with him and finds
herself strangely attracted to him, this is due to the fact that they
are close and are known to each other but in this case she is
attracted to him as more than just her brother, and he feels quite
similarly this creates the close yet complicated relationship between
them.
Tyndareos: She has a very volatile
relationship with Tyndareos because she always looked up to him as a
great man and when she needed him most he let her down. She now has a
much more skeptical view of him as a result they both hate each
other. She does confront him in the play and he does see a form of
where he went wrong but not much of a way.
Menalaos: Electra and menalaos have a
good relationship, they have never wronged each other and he is
willing to help her as he sees why she killed her mother to avenge
his brother. He also keeps and eye on her and guides her in any way
he can.
Helen: Electra very much dislikes
Helen, Helen treats her life a bug on a windscreen and thinks she
can't do anything or think for herself and Electra can in fact she
sees a lot more than Helen thinks she does, Electra just keeps quiet
about it. Electra also finds Helen to be lacking somewhat in the
quality of personality.
Style
I found becoming Electra and
being her in a production that uses both Greek influences in a
contemporary play to be quite interesting, easy and difficult all at
the same time this was because I felt I still needed to keep the
older elements of Electra when bringing her into a contemporary
production. She still needed to be somewhat stuck in the old ways
such as being quiet and standing back as a woman as she would be
expected to be but also to have that new age flair. Lucky for me the
old Electra had already begun to explore herself and ideals, standing
up to the men in her family and also getting her brother to aid her
in the killing of her mother, she in some way learns how to
manipulate the men in her life to help her in her endeavours. This
mad it a lot easier to try and add the contemporary tones to her
character. To aid me in developing Electra in a Contemporary style
setting I did research into what life would have been like for
Electra in the time of the original text and I found that her life
would have been very shadowed and she wouldn't have seen much of the
world, she would have been expected to stay at home and do almost
nothing. I used internet research to gain a good perspective on what
her life would have been like compared to modern times. For the Greek
Chorus I didn't use too much research into actual Greek Chorus
instead I looked at musicals and their Choruses because they flow and
tell the story too only in song and I saw them as a variation
especially with the chorus dancing and tableaux's I saw a real
similarity and connection, I used this as inspiration.
Characterisation
I saw her posture as
good with a slight slouch to show she was well brought up but at the
same time I wanted that bit of rebellion to be surrounding her. She
has a clear concise voice to match her background she may have airs
about her that say otherwise but I wanted her well spoken voice to be
a definitive part of her. For her emotions I found this more
difficult because I wanted her to be closed off and numb to
everything because of what has happened to her. I remedied this by
using small hand movements a lot to show what she was feeling such as
a clenched fist at her side, I wanted it to be subtle yet powerful at
the same time.
Character study – MERIT-
ReplyDeleteYour character study is good but lacks supporting evidence. Aim to use research quotes to support your conclusions and expand as it lacks some insight and context.
ACTION Be sure to research what might happen to the character after the play and provide an outcome for yourself based on justifications from text and research – there are many outcomes for Electra.