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And here is one of the points in which the treatment of the situation by Sophocles is more skilful than its treatment by Euripides. The latter secludes the injured princess in a cottage, far from the irritating presence of the oppressors, and out of sight of the splendours which they usurped. There is everything to reconcile her with her lot: she lives among a happy peasantry, who enthusiasically appreciate the charms of a low estate. There is nothing to remind us that she is particularly heroic, for everyone else is behaving equally well. But, in Sophocles, Electra suffers on the scene of her father's murder -- in the palace which should be her brother's -- amidst the luxuries which should be her own. Hardest of all, the advantages which Electra has sacrificed to duty are paraded by the sister who should have been her ally, but is only her temptress -- a weaker Goneril or Regan, serving as a foil to a more masculine Cordelia.
--R.C. Jebb, Electra ad 328