Justice and Mercy: If Electra knew Jesus

I thought that Electra was an excellent window into Greek culture. It's interesting that the ostensible "hero", though obviously flawed, was obsessed with justice. This is a theme that we see also in The Iliad, both in the reading we did in our class and in other areas of the book. Greeks seem to be obsessed with justice and being treated fairly, though I would say that their poets saw how this societal trend could lead to hubris and destruction. I'd like to compare this, however, to our ideas of Justice and Mercy in an LDS context, as opposed to the Christ-less concept of Sophocles' culture.





For us, any time that we think of justice in a moralistic sense, we must view it in relation to mercy and the Atonement of Christ. For Electra, her inner sense of justice demanded that a vile murderer, her mother, must suffer as she had caused another to suffer. This drive seemed to be her main motivation in the play. An interesting twist at the end though, her tears over her mother's death, showed how her inner need for mercy was pulling against that drive, tearing her apart. It highlights so much the need for a Redeemer. The Savior already payed for her mother's sin! He already stood in her place and payed the price! (Or, I suppose, the Savior WILL, from the time frame of the play.) He payed, and forgiveness was secured, so we can forgive, knowing that justice is payed both for us and for others, and we don't have to suffer the terrible moral dilemma that Electra faced.