The Oresteia Literary Analysis

In Aeschylus' trilogy, the Greeks' justice system went through a transformation from old to new ways. In the beginning of the trilogy, the characters settle their matters, both personal and professional, with vengeance. Vengeance is when someone is harmed or killed, and either the victim, or someone close to them takes revenge on the criminal. This matter is proven in the trilogy numerous times.

The female characters portrayed in Aeschylus and Sophocles’ works have considerably different personalities and roles, yet those females all have the common weaknesses of being short-sighted and stubborn. They intensify the conflicts within their families while being inconsiderate of the impacts that they may bring to their nations and societies, which leads to consequences that they are incapable of taking responsibilities for. Clytemnestra and Antigone, two major characters in their respective author’s works, possess different motivations for their deeds in the stories. While Clytemnestra is driven by the desire of revenge to murder her husband Agamemnon, Antigone acts against Creon’s will and strives to properly bury her brother. Despite having different motivations and personalities, Clytemnestra and Antigone both commit

Clytemnestra also gives her justification for murdering her husband, and for ten long years she thought about how sweet revenge would be when Agamemnon arrived. She also tells her lover, Aegisthus, "Our lives are based on pain" (1690). Clytemnestra does not realize how ironic her statement will be later on when pain controls her. Aegisthus sums-up their code of justice when he says, "There are gods in heaven avenging men, / blazing down on all the crimes of earth" (1607-1608). He also is foreshadowing that his crime must also be paid for and he will suffer the consequences of killing Agamemnon and revenge.

Clytemnestra is Agamemnon’s wife and has been ruling Argos while he was away fighting. With help from Aegisthus, Clytemnestra made a plan to kill Agamemnon. She killed Agamemnon for the political power, for the ruthless revenge and for the curses blame. (Core 22: Series of introductory phrases using the same preposition – phrases must have balance.) Clytemnestra murdered Agamemnon to avenge their daughter Iphigeneia. Agamemnon sacrifice her in order to have success in the war, but never told Clytemnestra. Clytemnestra, feeling fake sadness over her daughter’s death, felt that she was wronged and had to get back at her husband. Not only did she kill him, but she had an affair while he was away. The sacrifice is why she had the affair with Aegisthus.

Have you ever acted out in retribution for something done to you? Some examples could be if you punched someone for intentionally kicking you, or if someone deliberately hurt the feelings of someone you love and you retaliated in kind. You probably thought the punishment you received for your actions was too harsh or lenient. Many factors went into the decision of what discipline you received for this act and some were fair while others probably were not. This is true for the actions of many people in Aeschylus’s Oresteia. In each of the three plays, someone is seeking vengeance for a wrong done unto them, someone they know/love, or both. For this paper, I will be focusing on the vengeance enacted by Clytemnestra, Orestes, and the Fates. The vengeance that each person enacted was deemed just or unjust depending on many factors including the people who were doing the judging. Vengeance in Aeschylus’s Oresteia is viewed through the social lens of the society that it was enacted in. This lens is made up of the popular values, beliefs, and social conventions of the period as well as the judge’s personal views and/or experiences. These factors (such as gender and relation to the victim, as well as the presence or absence of transgressions on the characters part) lead to different opinions about the guilt of the accused individual and the individual themselves. The view of vengeance in Aeschylus’s Oresteia is very subjective.

The bad actions of Clytemnestra are immediately seen in a negative way but she, at first, has avenged her daughter’s murder. What the chorus thinks of her is that she is an imposing figure, she is not noble and her information is unreliable. She is kind of underestimated and misjudged. She is presented as the bad woman but it is clear that the aim of Clytemnestra is taking her revenge. Aeschylus’ portrait of Clytemnestra can be seen as negative and positive; on one hand she seeks justice for her daughter, on the other she is completely incurable for the act of murder. She does not hide from her actions, instead she freely admits her murder and embraces the power and authority. It is through the inversion of traditional gender roles, adopting masculine speech, behaviors and activities, that she achieves her revenge for the sacrifice of Iphigenia. On one hand Clytemnestra’s revenge may have been seen as an upsetting act but on the other hand it let people (the audience) reflect on the traditional gender role of women in society. The power of Clytemnestra can be also seen through the chorus speech. It highlights her authority even if the chorus

Even though Agamemnon made a success for his homecoming, what was waiting for him was her wife’s conspiracy with Aegisthus and his death (262-263). Namely, his nosmos was rather a failure and he also faced fate of his failed household. This Agamemnon’s gives a comparison with Odysseus future success for preserving his family and throne. Furthermore, Clytemnestra’s unfaithfulness and infidelity provides a foil to Penelope’s faithfulness and loyalty. Clytemnestra’s merciless and brutal actions, not sealing Agamemnon’s eyes while he was dying, adds contrasting characteristics between Odysseus and Agamemnon’s wives. Note that here, the story of successful vengeance for Agamemnon by Orestes gives a foil to Telemachus’ weakness and deficiency. Orestes here is depicted as a heroic example with murder of Aegistus after he comes of age (264). On the contrary to Orestes who saved his household and restored order in his family’s kingdom, Telemachus, as he came of age, couldn’t serve as protecting his household and repel his mother’s suitors in the absence of his father. In the light of comparing each heroic figures’ sons, the son of Achilles is also depicted as successful warrior with great strength and fame in the battlefield against Trojan, adding a foil to Telemachus’ unsuccessful position as a son (266).

Retribution is a monster of appetite, eternally bloodthirsty and never filled. Rage, resentment and envy does not change the heart of others. A massive success is the best revenge for a woman. It is the only way to get back at someone for a pain they have caused. In Euripides’ Medea and Ovid’s’ Metamorphoses, Medea and Juno exhibit vengeance to defend their dignity.

Maintaining the rule of law is central to most societies ability to remain orderly. Initially, derived from the family, a transition occurred driving the origins of the rule of law to occur within society as a whole. Aeschylus’s The Oresteia provides an excellent illustration of this change from the instinctual law within the family to the positive law of society. Aeschylus shows this transition through the example of the aristocratic family of Argo’s, which culminates in a murder trial in the city of Athens. The Oresteia provides an excellent starting point for understanding the evolution of the rule of law from natural law to societal law through the breakdown of the family roles, the obligations of fate and duty, and the calming of the furies.

While frantically celebrating her appalling marriage to King Agamemnon, giving praise to Hymen, the god of marriage, she says, “O Mother, crown my triumph with a wreath” (I, i, 361). Here she does not show signs of terrible heartache about being sent to a bridal bed that will ruin her life’s work and sacrifice her virginity. Until she begins to tell her mother how she will try to take revenge for her family does she show pain by saying, “I shall kill [Agamemnon] mother, lay his house as low as he laid ours, make him pay for all he made my father suffer, brothers . . .”(I, i, 367-369). Raving, she prophecies, “If Apollo lives, my marriage will be bloodier than Helen’s,” and in time we see that she is right with the fall of Greece (I, i, 364-365). She also makes an interesting point on the defeat of Troy. She explains that the Greeks are just there to fight and conquer, and that their families are not there to soften their hearts. The Trojans fight as a family for their people. The Trojans have lost, but they died with great honor trying to save and protect their country and kinsmen. Cassandra refers to those soldiers, her family, who fought with a final divination, “Brothers, in Troy’s earth laid, my father, a little time and I am with you. You dead, I shall come to you a victor. Those ruined by my hand who ruined us” (I, i, 469-472). Even though she is portrayed as mad, the evidence of her wisdom, whether it be given to her by the god she has devoted her life, or just insane predictions, shows us that women could be intelligent and know of things to come just as men. Giving us our second example of feminism, Cassandra shows her intellect equivalent to

They declare that it is a law laid down by Zeus "that we must suffer,

What is one to make of the city of Omelas? It is a fantastical place so transcendental that the author herself struggles to properly detail its majesty. Omelas has everything— it is beautiful, technologically advanced, and bears no need for organized religion. The atmosphere is rich with music, festivities, and orgies. And even with all this excessive indulgence, the people manage to remain elite: expert craftsman in every art, scholars of the highest caliber, gentle mothers and fathers, and all-around good people. However, all this prosperity comes with a price. The success and happiness of Omelas stems from the immense

In the Oresteia there seems to be a continuing cycle of revenge. Someone is murdered and then a relative must kill the murderer, therefore becoming a murderer himself. A new chosen one is then selected to take revenge on that person who killed before him and the cycle goes on and on. The furies also play a part in this cycle of revenge. They seek out those who kill their blood relatives and haunt them and torture them for eternity. So basically they also take revenge for the ones that have been murdered. Revenge is a continuing theme throughout the play until Athena has a hand in making it come to an end.

Destructive justice is first seen when Clytemnestra says, “My aim was so exact—I won’t deny it—that he could

No blame is placed upon him by the people and they believe he "slipped his neck in the strap of fate" 217, only after which did his spirit become "black, impure, unholy" 218. The people of Mycenae, typically represented by the elders, and thus the Chorus have absolved him of blame in their minds. All their words about the leader are nothing but in praise of their king. They are nearly "faint with longing" for the return of their king, though we can also partly attribute this to a desire to be rid of Clytemnestra more than their wish to return to the rule of Agamemnon. They indeed emphasise the tyranny of the Queen ("she commands, full of her high hopes...manoeuvres like a man" 13). The sentry echoes the love for the King though ("My king, I'll take your loving hand in mine" 37), and the herald is similarly well disposed toward him, and he hasn't been under the yoke of Clytemnestra ("he brings us light in the darkness...Agamemnon lord of men"). The people absolve the King of blame over Iphigenia, and give him unconditional loyalty, but Clytemnestra rests it all upon his shoulders ("girl of tears...here you are repaid" 1554). She understands the grandeur of her action and the scale of it but believes that "what we did was destiny" 1692. Though, it is my belief that the honourable King of Mycenae was commanded by the fates to kill his daughter, and it was by no means his will to carry