The Flies (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Jean-Paul Sartre
- First Published: 1943
- Type of Work: Play
- Type of Plot: Existentialism
- Time of Work: Antiquity
- Setting: Argos, Greece
- Genres: Existential literature, Drama
- Subjects: France or French people, World War II, Gods or goddesses, Greek or Roman times, Greece or Greek people
- Locales: Greece, ancient, Argos, ancient
Characters Discussed
Zeus (zews), the principal Greek god. He knows that people are completely free, that the gods are in fact powerless over them, and that only those who accept the laws of the gods can be controlled through remorse. Because of this, he successfully breaks the brother-sister alliance between Orestes and Electra and destroys her once-defiant spirit by instilling fear and anguish in her heart. This is also why he warns the compliant Aegistheus of his planned assassination, even though fifteen years earlier he did not warn Agamemnon (a-guh-MEHM-nahn). Electra and...
[The entire page is 1039 words long]
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