Importance of the Tutor in ElectraWhen delving into a novel, play, or other character-based text, analysts often focus their research on the supposed "main characters" who appear to most directly influence the Work. Considering Electra, however, just as valuable as Orestes, Clytemnestra or Electra herself is a somewhat minor character, the Guardian. This servant of Orestes emerges only three times and is on stage for less than twenty percent of the lines, yet his role in driving the plot is as great as any. If Aristotle, one of the true masters of ancient thought, is right in saying "The plot is therefore the first principle and, so to speak, the soul of tragedy", then the Guardian can truly be considered one of the most significant characters of the whole drama. The relationship between the Tutor and the Aristotelian conception of tragedy can be taken further, since in his Poetics Aristotle states: "Tragedy is an imitation of an action which is complete and entire... A whole which has a beginning, a a middle and an end." If this is believed, the Guardian's apparitions become an even better match to the tragic form. His three stage presentations are numerically auspicious and geometrically form an almost perfect distribution from the beginning to the middle to the end. With each of these apparitions the Preceptor sets in motion some critical aspect of the plot, thus interpreting another of Aristotle's notions: "But the most important thing of all is the structure of the incidents. Because tragedy is an imitation, not men." , but of action and life, and life consists of action." The Guardian truly drives the action of this play, functioning as a glue to hold the plot together and as a catalyst to keep it moving forward... . in the middle of the paper… calls him “the only one “I have found / Remaining true to our father's murder” (1351-1352). Such an idea exposes the true depth of the Guardian: he is perhaps the most tenacious character in the entire drama, the one who is committed to Orestes' cause not out of family obligation but simply out of loyalty. The Guardian sets this game in motion, pushes it halfway through, and then continues it towards the end. Such a determined nature contrasts markedly with that of Electra, and without the Tutor's influence this may have simply been a fifteen hundred verse saga of her personal troubles. Although traditional analysis makes the role of the Guardian seem secondary, it is deceptively important, another entirely appropriate deception for such an individual. Works Cited: Euripides. Electra. Trans. Philip Vellacott. Medea and other comedies. Baltimore: Penguin Classics, 1963.