In Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic James Gilligan writes that the tragedies of classical Greece and Shakespeare helped him to “find a way to mediate between ordinary sanity and humanity on the one hand, and unimaginable horror and monstrosity on the other†(57). Such dramas gave Gilligan insights into the psychology of violence, and he found these insights confirmed by his work with the criminally insane. Gilligan mentions such Greek tragic figures as Oedipus and Medea; in this essay you will consider the character of Electra. Your assignment: write an essay of at least 1200 words in which you apply to Sophocles’ Electra the insights and theories that Gilligan develops in Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic.
