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Tragedy and The Oresteia
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Orestes' matricide has been presented in various ways by the poets Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides in each of their plays. I have observed the multitude of contrasting devices in each of the plays. Aeschylus has the most unique play of the three, as he does not include Orestes' sister, Electra, in the matricide directly. Instead of having Electra as the one to convince Orestes to commit the deed, as we see in Sophocles and Euripides, we see the character Pylades take on that role. Sophocles involves Electra more in his play "Electra" but she is still not directly associated with the murder. Although, in this play, the death of Aegisthus and the matricide of Clytemnestra are placed in the opposite order of the other plays where Clytemnestra is killed after Aegisthus. Euripides also includes Electra in his presentation …show more content…
In both Aeschylus and Euripides, Clytemnestra is killed after Aegisthus; but in Sophocles, Aegisthus is killed after Clytemnestra. Orestes, Pylades, and Electra trick Aegisthus into thinking Orestes is dead and then trap him and kill him by using Clytemnestra's dead body to lure him to the next room. I think that the reasoning for this is that the intensity of the matricide is so intense that Orestes and Pylades felt more of a need to kill Clytemnestra first. Given that, the murder of Clytemnestra was rather fast and dealt with in a dismissive manner. The contrast between this play and Aeschylus is the more prominent role played by Electra. Although she is not the center of the play she is still a bigger part of this play compared to the others. Electra is portrayed as rather disliking her mother and voices that as often as possible. As seen in line 1391, she exalts at her mother's screams; "Strike her again if you have strength enough!" Electra feels as though she needs to express her hatred for her mother in order to show solidarity to her
Both Orestes and Apollo publicly state that Orestes’ motivation primarily came from Apollo. For Apollo confesses in the Eumenides, “I share responsibility for his mother’s execution.” (Eum. 585-86). Apollo takes partial blame for the murder of Clytamenstra, for it was Orestes’ fear of Apollo that drove him to commit matricide. While testifying to the jury, Apollo attempts to show that the murder of Clytamnestra and the murder of Agamemnon are completely inequivalent (Hall 260). Agamemnon, the champion of the Trojan War, came home victoriously from a ten-year campaign just to suffer a humiliating death at the hands of his wife. This same woman kills Argo’s king, yet doesn’t receive any punishment for her actions. Since Clytamnestra killed his father Agamemnon, Orestes has another reason to justify his actions. Apollo’s intervention as a witness give Orestes authority over what he says, since Apollo can never tell a lie (Eum.
10. And indeed Clytemnestra could be seen as a physical agent of the principle of revenge in her killing of Agamemnon.
It is without fail that throughout Aeschylus’ trilogy, The Oresteia, the presence of light and dark can be found in the characters, the plot and the themes. The trilogy follows the House of Atreus its emergence from darkness into the light. However, the light and darkness are often presented symbolically throughout the trilogy and often appear as pairs, which are constantly at odds with each other like Clytaemnestra versus Orestes and Apollo verses the Furies. Light and dark are not defined, nor strictly categorized, as good against evil, rather they move towards the primal versus civilized nature of the culture, and the two merging, and moving into a new era of Greek civilization. The dark is not pure evil, the light is not pure good; they are a coming together of two different times, and because of that transition, from primitive to civilized, tension builds and breaks, which causes the tragic events of The Oresteia throughout the three plays: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides.
human nature that necessitates justice and power. At the end of his series of plays in the Oresteia, Aeschylus tells the story of Orestes and the progression of justice. The final play, The Eumenides, ends with a struggle between different definitions of justice. Orestes is a youth charged with matricide which is punishable by death according to the Furies and the traditional method of restoring equity. Athena, however, offers a form of justice that considers the context of a person’s actions when restoring equity. In the case of Orestes, the context of his case is the guidance given to him by Apollo and the wrongs that he had suffered as a result of his mother, Clytaemestra. Athena’s understanding of human nature is that the ideas of compassion and empathy coexist with the concept of justice in the minds of most people. As a result, Athena establishes a jury comprised of the peers of Orestes so that they may judge him with understanding for both the context of Orestes’s actions and the need for justice for the death of Cl...
The deeds enacted by Agamemnon and Orestes were the same by definition, but different by motive. Agamemnon's motives were impure in his decision between his daughter and his war. He chose to conquer Troy at Iphigenia's expense. For such a ruthless act, consequences are inevitable, and Agamemnon met his punishment at the hands of his vengeful wife, Clytemnestra. Orestes was able to escape such a fate due in part to his faith in the gods, his reluctant desire to kill, and one goddess' (Athena's) mercy. The matricide committed by Orestes was padded by vengeance, and validated by retributive justice. Athena identified with Orestes during his trial on the basis that neither she nor Orestes had a true mother, and thus cast the final stone in favor of Orestes.
Killing the person responsible for one of your family member's deaths is Athenian justice. This type of lethal justice is executed by Orestes and Electra. Before proceeding to the house of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, they plot the murder of their father's murderers. They decide Orestes will murder his mother, and Electra will dispose of Aegisthus. Orestes is the most focused of the two; but Electra, although timid in the beginning, is the most masculine. Both of these personality traits are key to their plan coming to fruition. Once her brother devises the plan, Electra verbally encourages him to follow through with it. After thrusting his blade into Clytemnestra only once, Electra cries that "[i]f thou beest a man, [s]trike twice!" (Sophocles 5...
In this essay I will examine the war-of the-sexes taking place in The Eumenides, the final play of The Oresteia. The plot of The Eumenides pits Orestes and Apollo (representing the male gods and, to a certain extent, male values in general) against the ghost of Clytemnestra and the Furies (equally representative of female values.) Of more vital importance, however, is whether Athene sides with the males or females throughout the play.
There is a distinction between men and women within the Oresteia that presents a detachment within the house of Atreus and in turn Athens. However, the three plays of the Oresteia provide a conclusion to the battle of the sexes. Characters within the play show their side of misogyny or misandry. It is quite obvious that the women are misanadvertising, while the men are misogynists. This division between men and women within the Oresteia reflects the division within the household, but is overcome through women rather than men.
While Orestes hides he watches Electra mourn her fathers murder. Electra is more involved in the beginning of this play rather than the end. Not only is Electra mourning the loss of her father she is also infuriated by the treatment of her mother. Electra appeals to the sprit of The Fury and Agamemnon. Electra’s motivation for revenge is based upon her father’s death but also because she has been deprived of love, wealth, and marriage.
When a person is accused of a crime they are either found innocent or guilty. This is the basic idea of justice and it is what many feel needs to happen if someone has done something controversial. In the play The Oresteia by Aeschylus, the story of Clytemnestra guilt or innocents is questioned. She does many things that people are not too happy with and those controversial actions throughout the story, mainly in the first part Agamemnon get her into the trouble. As we explore the case that builds against her innocents by exploring the killings of Agamemnon and Cassandra and the boastful expression about the killings.
Seeing that in the two similar stories there are slightly different endings shows that when Aeschylus first wrote the myth, thus this story being the traditional story, he wanted revenge on the mother and that meant that he was going to have the mother’s lover killed first by her son. When Sophocles wrote the story he added his new ending to the piece, this made the myth a innovation of the older myth, he wanted the mother to die first because he thought that Aegisthus killed Orestes and Electra’s father; therefore, he is killing
no help to Electra and refuses to help in the murder of her mother and
Despite the male dominant society of Ancient Greece, the women in Sophocles’ play Antigone all express capabilities of powerful influence and each individually possess unique characteristics, showing both similarities and contrasts. The women in the play are a pivotal aspect that keeps the plot moving and ultimately leads to the catharsis of this tragedy. Beginning from the argument between Antigone and Ismene to Eurydice’s suicide, a male takes his own life and another loses everything he had all as a result of the acts these women part take in. The women all put their own family members above all else, but the way they go about showing that cherishment separates them amongst many other things.
This paper aims to study two significant playwrights, Sophocles and Euripides, and compare their respective attitudes by examining their plays in respect to plot and character structures. To achieve this goal, the paper is organized into two main sections. In the first section, we provide a brief biography of both Sophocles and Euripides. The second and last section includes summaries of Sophocles’ Electra and Euripides’ Electra which were based on same essentials and give an opportunity to observe the differences of the playwrights. This section also includes the comparisons that are made by our observations about the plays.
After Agamemnon’s death, Aegisthus is next in line to become king and Clytemnestra is his queen. Her desire for power is hidden by her claims of justification. She challenges anyone to take her power. “[H]e who conquers me in fair fight shall rule me” (45). She threatens the Chorus to a fight for power. She knows she has all the power now the king was dead and she is his queen. Clytemnestra is aware she killed him for his power, but her arrogance makes her put the deed on the curse of the House of Atreus and vengeance for