DescriptionThe paper discusses the theme of shame in his play The Flies. The people of Argos allow themselves to be manipulated by religious and political forces, who play on the Argives' personal feelings of shame. Orestes, on the other hand, feels no shame, but also behaves rashly and alienates himself. Sartre's philosophical works and Erich Fromm's psychoanalytic theories are consulted as a means of discovering some balance between the two extremes.