The Hair and Footprints of Orestes and Electra Symbol Analysis

One of the few healthy relationships in the play is the connection between Orestes and Electra, siblings who desperately love each other and who have mourned for each other while apart. This bond takes on a visual element early in the play, when Electra finds Orestes’ hair and footprints at Agamemnon’s burial mound, and realizes that they both match her own. Both the hair and the footprints emblemize the sense that Orestes and Electra are two halves of one person, and make clear how closely the two are linked. The strength of this bond will become even more apparent as the siblings conspire to kill their mother. They are completely in sync about their motives, their actions, and their need for vengeance.