How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Act.Scene.Line). Every time a character talks counts as one line, even if what they say turns into a long monologue. We used the translation by S. Gilbert found in No Exit and Three Other Plays, published by Vintage Books in 1989.
Quote #4
ZEUS
When the folks of Argos heard their King screaming his life out in the palace, they still kept their silence, but they rolled their eyes in a sort of ecstasy, and the whole town was like a woman in heat. (1.1.40)
In The Flies, sex is a shameful and dirty act, tied either to violence or to crime.
Quote #5
ORESTES
Does Aegisthus feel contrition?
ZEUS
Aegisthus? I'd be much surprised. But what matter? A whole city's repenting on his account. (1.1.63-4)
Sartre makes it clear that Zeus isn't interested in constructive repentance. The god isn't trying to teach the people a lesson, as he earlier claimed, nor is he attempting to improve their conditions through atonement.
Quote #6
CLYTEMNESTRA
You hate me, my child, but what disturbs me more is your likeness to me, as I was once. I used to have those clean-cut features, that fever in the blood, those smoldering eyes – and nothing good came of them. (1.1.180)
Is Clytemnestra disturbed by these similarities because she regrets wasting her youth and appearance, or because she truly fears for her daughter's future?