The Oresteia by Aeschylus
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In the three plays of the Oresteia by Aeschylus, legal issues are discussed and used as important motivations for much of the action. Different legal metaphors are utilized in the first two plays, culminating in the courtroom references and structure of the third play, The Eumenides. The first two plays in the trilogy present an image of private vengeance as something that goes against the grain of the law, while the third play emphasizes the need to replace this private vengeance with the rule of law, embodied here in the courtroom. Throughout, the actions of the leaders of Athens determine the fate of the society of that city, whether the people prosper or not, because the gods--her represented by the Eumenides, will punish the entire region for the transgressions of the House of Atreus.In the first two plays, Agamemnon and The Libation Bearers, the legal issues are played out in the kingdom in terms of the clash between mother and daughter. Clytaemnestra and Electra have very different natures, though both women are devoted to revenge. Clytaemnestra takes revenge on her husband, Agamemnon, not simply because she has a lover but because Agamemnon had killed her first husband and her child. Her vengeance is thus bound with her sexuality and with the way Agamemnon had forced her to submit to him. Electra is non-sexual in her behavior--though she has been married off by her mother, she does not consummate the marriage. Her entire being is shaped to revenge for the
. . .
ime, he has brought Cassandra with him and tells his wife to be kind to her. Clytaemnestra does not comment on the presence of Cassandra at all, and in fact she goes into the house leaving the strange girl outside in the chariot. The irony of the discourse between husband and wife is not lost on the Chorus, which here expresses the feeling that something is about to happen, referring to a "persistent fear" and a "strain unwanted" (65). Clytaemnestra tells the Chorus a few minutes later that she has no time to waste on this girl, and it might see that the wife is merely jealous. However, her sexuality has become bound with Aegisthus during her husband's absence, and both have reason to hate Agamemnon and to seek revenge. Her sexual nature has thus become enmeshed with the very idea of revenge, leading her to help Aegisthus kill her husband:
No shame, I think, in the death given
this man. And did he not
first of all in this house wreak death
by treachery? (84).
She refers to the death of her daughter, Iphigeneia, sacrificed by Agamemnon some years earlier, as one of the reasons she is seeking revenge:
The flower of this man's love and mine,
Iphigeneia of the tears
He dealt with even as he has suffered (84-85).
Her j
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Clytaemnestra Watchman, Agamemnon Aegisthus, Agamemnon Clytaemnestra, Aegisthus Clytaemnestra, Oresteia Aeschylus, Clytaemnestra Electra, House Atreus, Iphigeneia Electra, Clytaemnestra Aegisthus, Libation Bearers, house atreus, private vengeance, dead father, rule law, father's house, normal female sexuality, third play, actions agamemnon, female sexuality, daughter iphigeneia, normal female,
Approximate Word count = 1524
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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