By Adrianna Aguilar - Dance

At one point Helen states: “ I wander alone and entranced” 68 Jocasta, too, is a wandering
soul. She wanders through her memory and re-experiences the emotions of each pivotal moment
of the time shared with Oedipus. Helen too wanders amid her questions and her identities in Troy
and Egypt. It is uncertain who Helen is in Egypt because her move to a new environment leaves
her without a true existence. She wants to hide her identity as Helen of Troy, but it is not
possible. Helen is conflicted over who she is in this space of Egypt with Achilles by her side.
Jocasta passes through her journey in movements and interactions with other dancers onstage—
more specifically her duets with Oedipus. Her journey is “a night journey towards rebirth
(through death).” 69 Jocasta travels through a mental state of the present into the past while
questioning her identity.
The space in which Jocasta and Helen struggle over their relationships with men links
them in an unconscious Modernist environment. Graham’s work is more effective in presenting a
visual space in which the female unconscious is exhibited in movement and a theatrical setting.
H.D.’s language is dense in its imagery and use of italics and questioning vocabulary to establish
the environment of Helen’s unconscious, but Graham’s work is able to visually create a more
realistic space for the audience: “Yet even without a sufficient background to plumb the depths
of the most complex references in her work, the audience could follow the story while
maintaining an awareness that the actual task at hand was to contemplate the effects of the
unconscious.” 70 The Oedipus Rex tragedy unites with the presentation of Jocasta’s unconscious
in movement through Graham’s work. It is this union that makes the work more raw and
relatable for audiences who experience the piece and its beauty. Martha Graham realized the
68 D.H., 88.
69 Or, 88.
70 Franko, 99.
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