Clytemnestra And Iphigenia In Aeschylus Agamemnon
analytical Essay
1302 words
The main characters in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon formulate two different narratives about the death of their daughter, Iphigenia. As a result of their stories and coping mechanisms being different, the unity of their home is disrupted. Like most stories with multiple authors there are discrepancies, exaggerations, disregarded information, and changes in the way the story is told in order to support the narrators’ agenda. In Agamemnon, Aeschylus reveals through the transformed relationship between Clytemnestra and Agamemnon-as a result of the death of Iphigenia-that when marital partners have discrepancies in shared personal memories that their ideas of home and homecoming are also inconsistent. Clytemnestra as the mother of Iphigenia develops a story about her daughters’ demise; this story ultimately …show more content…
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how the main characters in aeschylus' agamemnon form two different narratives about the death of their daughter, iphigenia.
- Analyzes how clytemnestra's refined image of homecoming contrasts immensely with agamemnon’s supposition.
- Analyzes how agamemnon and clytemnestra's retelling of iphigenia affect their view of home.
- Analyzes how agamemnon develops a story about the sacrifice of his daughter and his view of home which is different from clytemnestra’s.
- Analyzes how agamemnon's version of the story is different from clytemnestra’s because they share the same home but view it differently now.
Her version of the story reveals her agenda to redeem revenge in the form of justice for her daughter. Her narrative focuses on the turpitude of Agamemnon’s act and never accommodates the information the chorus communicates to her about how difficult it was for Agamemnon to make the decision; that when Artemis requested the sacrifice he felt like “[his] hands [were] stained” and that he had no other option (page 110, line 210). In Robert Fagles’ translation of Agamemnon, this does not get incorporated into her story because she was not present, when this occurred. Had she been present she might have been more empathetic to Agamemnon creating a more nuanced version of the story; not to say she would have spared his life, but had she still decided to execute him her reason might have been more geared towards justice than revenge. As a result of her absence during the murder, she now only perceives him with resentment, and this is the beginning of the discrepancies in their stories. A problem in the retelling of the story of Iphigenia that
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- analytical
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- Analyzes how clytemnestra's innocence is questioned in the play the oresteia by aeschylus.
- Analyzes how clytemnestra sees the killing of her daughter as just being killed for her husband's gain and feels that he could have chosen a different virgin to sacrifice.
- Analyzes how agamemnon sacrifices his daughter, iphigenia, to get the wind needed to go to battle.
- Analyzes how clytemnestra has the ten years of the trojan war to plan her revenge on agamemnon.
- Explains that agamemnon's killing of iphigenia was for a sacrifice that the gods asked for, but it wasn't the kind of murder that clytemnestra committed.
- Explains that clytemnestra could use the idea of blood vengeance, stating that agamemnon and orestes were married. marriage bonds are not nearly as strong as blood bonds.
- Argues that clytemnestra's killing of cassandra was not exactly in her original plan. she was blinded by rage and hatred.
- Analyzes how clytemnestra spent ten years thinking about killing agamemnon. she then discusses the thought of killing her husband with the chorus.
- Analyzes how clytemnestra displays the bodies and tells the story of how she killed the two. she is proud of what she has done and does not feel bad about it.
- Analyzes how clytemnestra was a person of great guilt. she plotted the death of her husband, committing the murder, and they discussed what she did.
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- Analyzes how odysseus and agamemnon are heroes who fought side by side to take down the city of troy during the trojan war.
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- Opines that it was she who decided who lived and who died.
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In this essay, the author
- Narrates the story of iphigenia in aulis, an ancient greek play written by euripides. agamemnon's brother argues with him about how foolish it would be to put his family before all of the greeks.
- Analyzes how agamemnon's wife, clytemnestra, and daughter, iphigenia, are tricked into believing that they traveled to aulis for arranged marriage to achilles.
- Analyzes how iphigenia decides she wants to die heroically and be known as the woman that saved greece. disregarding her mother's pleas, she exists with her servants to her death.
- Analyzes how clytemnestra and her infant son weep and the audience hear iphigenia's scream offstage. the servants enter, and agamemnon enters with blood covering his hands and forearms.
- Opines that the play was an excellent play with excellent performers and singers, especially the lead singer out of the servants.
- Narrates how they struggled to maintain interest in the story, especially after iphigenia's heroic speech. the ending left them with many questions like why did agamemnon walk out with his hands covered in blood?
- Opines that the purpose of this story is to show that when the gods ask you to kill your own daughter to save your country, you have no choice but to obey
666 wordsRead More