Town (Simile)
Zeus is describing the aftermath of Agamemnon's murder when he says, "The whole town was like a woman in heat" (53). This simile allows readers to sense the fevered, excited, and aroused feelings of the citizens when Agamemnon, whom they had grown frustrated with due to his banning of public executions, is murdered by his wife and her lover. However, once a woman is no longer "in heat" and the town is no longer in this state of fervid arousal, everything returns to normal and there is a sense of letdown, of ennui. The woman's thrill is over and the town's is as well; the citizens now have to deal with the aftermath of their thirst for blood.
The Burden of Sin (Metaphor)
Clytemnestra chides her daughter, "But wait, my girl; one day you, too, will be trailing after you an inexpiable crime. At every step you will think that you are leaving it behind, but it will remain as heavy as before. Whenever you look back you will see it there..." (69). The metaphor is thus of some monstrous, heavy thing following Electra, dogging her steps persistently no matter how much she wants it to go away. She will look behind her and the creature is there, never to be eluded. Electra's crime, her mother suggests, will be the same: it will always nag her, vex her, force her to confront it even when she wants to run away. This is prescient, of course, for that is what happens to Electra at the end of the play.
Blood (Simile)
The crowd waits anxiously for the rite to begin, and once it does they cry out for forgiveness. The women also cry, "Yes, you are leaving us, ebbing away like life-blood from a wound" (78) to acknowledge that it is difficult for them to keep the memory of their dead at the forefront of their mind. The comparison of memory leaving the mind like blood leaving a wound is a good one, for the dead are like a wound that never seems to heal.
Wedge (Simile)
Orestes boasts to Electra, "I'll be an iron wedge driven into the city, like a wedge rammed into the heart of an oak tree" (91). These words come after he awakens to his true freedom and realizes that he has to give up his youth and embrace his role as "guilt-stealer." The use of "iron" suggests just how strong Orestes is, and the wedge shows how impactful and potentially divisive he will be.
Burden (Metaphor)
Orestes tells Electra after has killed Clytemnestra and Aegistheus, "I shall bear it on my shoulders as a carrier at a ferry carries the traveler to the farther bank. And when I have brought it to the farther bank I shall take stock of it. The heavier it is to carry, the better pleased I shall be; for that burden is my freedom" (105). He uses the metaphor of a burden that a man carries on his shoulder across a river. The burden is heavy but the man is pleased with it and revels in his own strength. For Orestes, the heavy burden is his freedom and he has a tough path to tread; however, he will endure and find pleasure in that endurance because it is his freedom he is carrying, and there is nothing more important than that.
