ELECTRA COMPLEX

"No one ever loved him," Electra says of Vincent. "That's why I wanted to save him. I thought I could do it." She says she doesn't know if she loved him, but I believe it's made clear that she did. The Vincent she once loved lost his memory of her, and now treats her like a stranger; this Vincent is the man she wants to rescue, the man she wants to recall their past relationship, the man she wants to give up his murderous ways. In the end, she succeeds, and Vincent recalls his own memories along with the love he had for Electra, but this success is tainted by his death.

What type of person is Electra? She's strong, as evidenced by her fighting ability, her firearms skills, and her former membership in the M.A. Special Operations Forces. She's intelligent, enigmatic, and beautiful (this last trait confirmed by Spike). But her defining characteristic is compassion--a quality shown in her extreme determination to rescue Vincent. A multifaceted and admirable individual, her character is at least as interesting as that of her former lover.

I have named this section after Freud's compliment to his Oedipus Complex (the Electra Complex is where a woman lusts after her father and wishes to kill her mother to obtain her father for herself) but I must admit I see none of the Electra Complex in Electra. Is Vincent a father figure? Is there a mother figure that she tries to dispose of? Since the answer to these questions is no, it seems we cannot draw such a simple psychological parallel. Though her character intrigues me greatly, I regrettably have little else to say about Electra. Perhaps her ability to deflect a reductive psychoanalysis is what intrigues me.