The Oresteia by Aeschylus follows the curse that has afflicted Agamemnon's family for several generations serving only to create a circle of violence and retribution. The character of Clytemnestra is described in the play as a shrewd, strong-willed, and a monstrous murderer. Her primary characteristic is masculinity; she solidifies her role, as a dominating and authoritative commander, demanding everyone’s respect and attention. Through the rejection of her traditional female duties, she skillfully reverses the roles between the male and female characters taking on the male dominating role and thus compelling her husband Agamemnon to play the submissive feminine role. We are first introduced to Clytemnestra from the Watchman opening scene; …show more content…
readers get a sense that he is not particular fond of her. He explains from Clytemnestra direct orders he has been watching the signal fires for a year, which would notify Argos of Troy's capture and Agamemnon's approaching return, and hint that all is not well within the house "so now I am still watching for the signal-flame, the gleaming fire that is to bring news from Troy and tidings of its capture"(10). The watchman, an inconsequential character, is privy to Clytemnestra rejection of her traditional role, serving as one of her most important characteristics when he refers to her as the "woman in passionate heart and man in strength of purpose" (11). She possesses a very strong and dominant presence throughout the play. The chorus a collection of old men approaches Clytemnestra inquiring of the story about the watches’ fire. "I have come, Clytemnestra, in obedience to your royal authority; for it is fitting to do homage to the consort of a sovereign prince when her husband's throne is empty. (260) The chorus explains, in the absence of her husband Clytemnestra is entitled to rule. They remain aware of her true sex by constantly pointing to the fact that she is a woman, who’s only in charge because her husband is unavailable. They bash her as a ruler, and admit that they are dissatisfied with her ruling in Agamemnon's absence. And claims without a male ruler, the throne has been left ‘empty" (260). Such belittling language shows they reject her rights to the throne, believing only a man should be in power. Despite the chorus' rejection and lack of faith, Clytemnestra effortlessly stepped into the position of power vacated by the king, with the intentions of making her reign permanent as she assumes the stance of political tyrannous. In Agamemnon's absence, Clytemnestra is able to reject her submissive feminine role in favor of a masculine one, thus embracing her true self. Clytemnestra is one accomplished conspirator and a vengeful murderer, her words and actions are very sneaky and disingenuous and are full of hidden meaning; therefore, no one can detect her plans.
For example, she orders the signal fire to be lit once Agamemnon had conquered Troy, and appoint the watchman as a look out awaiting the signal. She’ll be immediately notified of his return, and be prepared to deliver his judgment call. Like a true leader, she is always one step ahead of everyone else. However, once she broadcast the news of Agamemnon victory in Troy, and his impending return the men of the chorus were very critical, "what then is the proof? Have you evidence of this?” (272). They seem to want to rejoice the news of Agamemnon impending arrival, but have conflicting emotions and can't accept what the queens says at face value "but can it be some pleasing rumor that has fed your hopes?”(274), implying that they are very weary of the queen's actions and motives. To cast of any doubt that she could be planning her husband murder, she brilliantly performs the role of the loving wife in front of the Herald, and the Chorus. "I should hasten to welcome my honored husband best on his return. For what joy is sweeter in a woman's eyes than to unbar the gates for her husband when God has spared him to return from war?"(600-604). This is another example of just how cunning and manipulative Clytemnestra is; she then sends a message to Agamemnon. She claims to have remained …show more content…
a faithful wife while he has been away at war: "Give this message to my husband: let him come with all speed, his country's fond desire, come to find at home his wife faithful, even as he left her, a watchdog of his house, loyal to him, a foe to those who wish him ill; yes, for the rest, unchanged in every part; [610] in all this length of time never having broken any seal. Of pleasure from any other man or of scandalous repute I know no more than of dyeing bronze” (605-612). Clytemnestra is obviously lying, and this is all part of her elaborate scheme to bait her husband, because we know she has, in fact, been unfaithful to Agamemnon by carrying on a secret affair with his cousin Aegisthus. She also wishes, for Agamemnon to return safely and not annoyed the gods, or else they will be cursed, missing her opportunity to avenge her daughter’s death. It ironic, since we know what her true motives and intentions are, in any case if Agamemnon did upset the gods than his death would have been fate. Clytemnestra has always been known for her brilliant speeches, but it is in this powerful verbal exchange between herself and Agamemnon that solidify her as reign supreme. In this scene, Clytemnestra flatters Agamemnon to enter the palace by walking not on the ground, but on rich tapestries laid out on the ground like a god. Agamemnon, frightened of incurring the gods' vexation, does not want to, but stalwart and calculated Clytemnestra uses her cleverness to entice him in a debate which poses as a power struggle between male and female leading up to Agamemnon tragic and untimely death "Surely it is not woman's part to long for fighting."(940) "What? is this the kind of victory in strife that you prize?"(942). A shocking Agamemnon expects Clytemnestra, as a woman and as his wife, too timidly and cautiously obeys his orders. Instead, she uses her masculine powers of persuasion and audacious dialogue as he grovels at her commands. She orders him imperiously "Oh yield! Yet of your own free will entrust the victory to me"(943). After Agamemnon has yielded to her command and has entered the palace, Clytemnestra's masculine transformation is in full effect, as illustrated in the scene after she murders him.
She fully embraces her masculinity, as she triumph over his lifeless body, and speaks exultantly of her victory "fallen thus, he gasped away his life, and as he breathed forth quick spurts of blood, he struck me with dark drops of gory dew; while I rejoiced no less than the sown earth is gladdened in heaven's refreshing rain at the birth time of the flower buds"(1389- 1402). She arrogantly concludes that her actions are just and that justice has been served in Agamemnon murder. With glee and delight she proudly announces to the chorus of Agamemnon death, "you are testing me as if I were a witless woman. But my heart does not quail, and I say to you who know it well and whether you wish to praise or to blame me, it is all one here is Agamemnon, my husband, now a corpse, the work of this right hand, a just workman” (1402-1405). However, the chorus does not agree with what the queen has done and shows their anger with her actions, "you, pathetic- the king had just returned from battle. You waited out the war and fouled his lair, you planned my great commander's fall" (1625-1627). The chorus feels that Clytemnestra has only wronged Agamemnon, rather than accomplishing justice she only perpetuates to the circle of violence that has riddled the family, “violence beget violence”. In their opinion, she is
nothing but a cold calculated murderer. She dismisses the chorus, stating that she wanted vengeance for her daughter " an eye- for an -eye "and, therefore, Agamemnon's death is just. Clytemnestra plays the masculine roles in order to achieve her desires, she accomplishes this task by being able to effectively manipulate and control all the men surrounding her. These brazen characteristics are not common of women of her time. She uses both cunning dialogue and masculine authority in order to bend the other characters in the play to her will. As a result, she is able to demand her husband, to succumb to female domination as the subordinate male before murdering him for the purpose of revenge as well as for the purpose of gaining in power.
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.
10. And indeed Clytemnestra could be seen as a physical agent of the principle of revenge in her killing of Agamemnon.
The Oresteia trilogy follows a series of murders among the family of Orestes. In the first play, Agamemnon, the blood of Orestes’ father, Agamemnon, and his father’s war prize, Casandra, spills at the hands of Orestes’ mother, Clytamnestra. Following suit, Orestes avenges his father’s cold-blooded murder in the second play, The Libation Bearer, by killing his mother and her lover, Aegisthus. The acts of revenge by Orestes come to a climax in the third and final play of the trilogy, The Eumenides. With a monumental trial between Orestes and the Furies, a question of justification arises. Did Orestes have a justified reason to commit matricide? Or did his actions reveal a dark, unjustified moment of kin murder? Orestes’ murder of his mother, Clytamnestra, is justified because of the gods’ interference throughout the Oresteia trilogy.
Clytemnestra has the ten years of the Trojan War to plan her revenge on Agamemnon. Upon his return Clytemnestra shows him some love. That love she showed quickly changes to rage and hatred when Clytemnestra she’s Agamemnon with his mistress Cassandra.
Euripedes tugs and pulls at our emotions from every angle throughout The Medea. He compels us to feel sympathy for the characters abused by Medea, yet still feel sympathy for Medea as well. These conflicting feelings build a sense of confusion and anxiety about the unfolding plot. In the beginning, the Nurse reveals the recent background events that have caused Medea so much torment: "She herself helped Jason in every way" (13) and now he "has taken a royal wife to his bed" (18). Right away we are angry with Jason for breaking his wedding vows, and we are building up sympathy for Medea as the Nurse describes her acts of suffering. When we first see Medea, she speaks passionately to the women of Corinth and convinces them to side with her. She evokes their sympathy by drawing further attention to her suffering and speaking in terms that bring them all to common ground. Aegeus becomes Medea’s first victim when he, unknowingly, provides the final building block in her plan for revenge against Jason. We sympathize for Aegeus in his ignorance. Medea now has confidence in her plan, so she reveals it to the women of Corinth. She is going to send her children to Jason’s bride with a poisoned dress that will make her die in agony. We are still compelled to sympathize with Medea at this point because she has justified her reasons for seeking revenge. However, the princess is oblivious to Medea’s plot; she will accept the gift for its beauty then meet an unexpected, agonized death. The image of pain and agony elicits our sympathy as well. Medea presents her most perverse speech when she explains how she will kill her own children then flee Corinth. Alone, these acts provoke pure disgust, but Euripides has developed Medea’s character as a coercive force; we still sympathize with her for her plight, yet we also hate her for her decisions. The women of Corinth try to persuade her away from this morbid choice, but their arguments are ineffective. Euripides employs stichomythia in the exchange between the women and Medea to show Medea breaking down boundaries between self and other, which prevent sympathy (811-819). Euripedes focuses on suffering, ignorance, and rhetoric to leave us torn in our sympathy for every character.
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.
The cyclic thread of vengeance runs like wild fire through the three plays in Aeschylus’s Oresteia. This thread, with its complexity of contemporary and universal implications lends itself quite well to – in fact, almost necessitates – deeply interested study. While a brief summary of the Oresteia will inevitably disregard some if not much of the trilogy’s essence and intent, on the positive side it will establish a platform of characters, events, and motives with which this paper is primarily concerned. As such, I begin with a short overview of the Oresteia and the relevant history that immediately precedes it.
Aeschylus' The Oresteia features two characters burdened by seemingly hopeless decisions. First is Agamemnon, king of Argos, whose army was thwarted by the goddess, Artemis. Agamemnon was faced with the decision to call off the army's sail to Troy, and thus admit defeat and embarrassment, or to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, to satisfy Artemis whom had stopped the winds to delay Agamemnon's fleet. Second is Orestes, son of Agamemnon, who was given the choice by Apollo to avenge his father's murder, thus committing matricide, or face a series of torturous consequences. Although both Agamemnon and Orestes were faced with major dilemmas, their intentions and their characters are revealed through their actions to be markedly different.
After coming out of the house with blood stained hands while announcing her murder, all the Chorus can do is talk about what a great loss they suffer. They accuse Klytaimestra for being a backstabber, and tell her she should be punished. When Klytaimestra defends her actions by pointing out how Agamemnon killed her daughter, they ignore her and keep mourning. Even though they can see with their own eyes that Klytaimestra killed her husband and Cassandra, they still refuse to really listen to her, as if they do not want to believe that a woman committed the murder of their almighty king.
Euripides'version is much more dramatic. The play begins with Electra's marriage to a peasant. Aegisthus had tried to kill Electra. but Clytemnestra convinced him to allow her to live. He decided to marry her to a peasant so her children will be humbly born and pose no threat to his throne. Orestes and Pylades arrive. Orestes says that he has come to Apollo's shrine to pledge himself to avenge his father's. murder. Orestes, concealing his identity, talks with Electra about the recent happenings in Mycenae. She admits that she is sad that her brother had been taken away at such a young age and the only person that would recognize him to be her father's old servant. She also discusses her scorn of Aegisthus desecrating the monument over. Agamemnon's grave and his ridicule of Orestes. When the old servant. arrives, after being summoned by Electra, he recognizes and identifies.
Clytemnestra, after Agamemnon was at war for a few years, began to cheat on Agamemnon with his cousin, Aegisthus. When the two got word of Agamemnon’s return from Troy they began to plot against Agamemnon. Clytemnestra prayed to the Gods to let Agamemnon make it home because she wanted to punish him herself. Even though most of the other ships did not make it home after the storms, Agamemnon’s did. Many believe this is because of the prayer that was prayed by Clytemnestra.
Klytaemnestra in Agamemnon is a strong and wilful woman, who relishes her part in the downfall of Agamemnon himself. She is proud of her action, accepts full responsibility for his death at her hands; she takes her vengeance against him for the death of Iphigeneia2. This is shown in lines such as 'I exult' (A 1417) and after she kills him, 'you think I'm some irresponsible woman?' (A 1425). Aeschylus uses her to embody the powerful 'heroic' ethic of vengeance - blood for blood.
“Lysistrata” is a tale which is centered around an Athenian woman named Lysistrata and her comrades who have taken control of the Acropolis in Athens. Lysistrata explains to the old men how the women have seized the Acropolis to keep men from using the money to make war and to keep dishonest officials from stealing the money. The opening scene of “Lysistrata” enacts the stereotypical and traditional characterization of women in Greece and also distances Lysistrata from this overused expression, housewife character. The audience is met with a woman, Lysistrata, who is furious with the other women from her country because they have not come to discuss war with her. The basic premise of the play is, Lysistrata coming up with a plan to put an end to the Peloponnesian War which is currently being fought by the men. After rounding up the women, she encourages them to withhold sex until the men agree to stop fighting. The women are difficult to convince, although eventually they agree to the plan. Lysistrata also tells the women if they are beaten, they may give in, since sex which results from violence will not please the men. Finally, all the women join Lysistrata in taking an oath to withhold sex from their mates. As a result of the women refraining from pleasing their husbands until they stop fighting the war, the play revolves around a battle of the sexes. The battle between the women and men is the literal conflict of the play. The war being fought between the men is a figurative used to lure the reader to the actual conflict of the play which is the battle between men and women.
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
Agamemnon is the first part of the trilogy known as the Oresteia. Agamemnon is a story where the main character sacrifices his own daughter to a God, Artemis to win a battle and then his wife revenge him for the sacrifice. The concept of fate plays an important role in the tilogy Agamemnon which led to the tragic endings of the play. According to the meaning of fate it means the development of events outside a person’s control, regarded as predetermined by a super natural power. Fate is what send Agamemnon to the war with Menelaus to fight against Paris, fate is what predetermined Agamemnon to sacrifice his own blood for the sake of his ship and companions and fate is what determined Cassandra his wife to plot to kill him and to revenge him for her daughter.