“I Am My Freedom” Myth and Existentialism in Sartre’s The Flies

Abstract

Rather than a close adaptation of the myth of Orestes and Electra, Jean-Paul Sartre’s The Flies (1943) adapts the story from an existentialist standpoint. This paper first considers the significance of classical myths for existentialist writers, as well as the common critical approach to Sartre’s theatre. Instead of using Sartre’s existential bent as a critical starting point of The Flies, this paper then examines the work as an example of Sartre’s theatre of situations, utilising the myth as a simultaneously familiar and distanced subject matter. Focusing on the representation of characters in particular, the paper tracks the steps they take in reacting to the situation of the play, until they reach the point of acknowledging freedom and its consequences. Lastly, this paper interprets the final responses of Electra and Orestes as enactments of bad faith and authenticity respectively, and the inconclusive ending of the play as a formal choice that correlates with the indeterminacy of freedom.