Electra: Tracing a Feminine Myth Through the Western Imagination

Nancy Cater analyzes the Greek mythic figure of Electra from a Jungian perspective and illustrates its relevance to understanding the psychology of adolescent girls and women today. Electra, who experiences the combined loss of the father and betrayal by the mother, is stuck in adolescence psychologically-a dark puella, unable to enter womanhood, trapped in mourning for her lost father and hatred of her mother. Cater uses the life and work of Sylvia Plath to vividly portray a woman wrestling with these issues and offers suggestions as to how contemporary women can move beyond them.