At the beginning of the play Electra, the main character Electra peruses a blood for blood revenge to avenge her father's death. However as the play progresses so does Electra's extreme measures to get revenge; she loses some of her moral conscious and grows with bloodlust causing the reader to question her motives. Electra is the protagonist of the play; she is also a martyr and would die for what she believes in; which is avenging her father's death. Electra's father was murdered in his own bed one night by his wife, Clytemnestra and her new lover Aegisthus. In doing so they took over as the royal rulers; Electra knows of her mother's affair and her involvement on her father's death, Electra will not stop until her father's death is avenged. No one supports Electra in her efforts to right this severe wrong, yet she finds strength in the isolation rather than despairing on account of it. Electra feels she is bound by duty to avenge her father, her system of morality seems to be based on contradiction and self-deception. Electra lost her morality when she decided to kill her mother and Aegisthus for killing her father. Clytemnestra insists that she killed Agamemon in revenge for sacrificing their youngest daughter Iphigenia. Electra argues her by saying that justice cannot be achieved by answering a killing with another killing; but is this not exactly what Electra longs to do to avenge her father's death? It seems that Electra's whole blood line is cursed; her ancestor Tantalus chopped up his son, Pelops, and tried to feed him to the Gods. It seems as though fate has cursed this bloodline and these events were meant to happen. As Aegisthus says "Is this dwelling doomed to see all the woes of Pelops' line, now and in the time to come?" (Sophocles 77) .
Apollo; the God of truth told Electra that she could avenge her father's death with blood for blood but she must do so in a smart, stealthy, and respectful manner.