, Research Paper

Due to the fact of similarities between writers composing in the same topographic point and

clip, we frequently make the error of assuming their point of views are indistinguishable on

the given topic. It would be a error to anticipate Aeschylus? Agamemnon and

Euripides? Medea to show indistinguishable positions on the topic ; each writer had a

alone manner. The sentiments of these two authors on this topic are really

different. Aeschylus? dramas revolved around moralss, and normally he presented

every bit objectively as possible, by inquiring the audience to judge the ethical

inquiries for themselves. Agamemnon is non truly approximately Agamemnon every bit much as is

about Clytemnestra, his married woman. Clytemnestra tells us early on that she has

suffered awfully in her life, and references the loss of her girl Iphigenia.

Aeschylus has doing us sympathise with Clytemnestra. After Agamemnon arrives,

Clytemnestra treats him about like a God, take a firm standing on wrapping him in a immense

royal robe as he descends from his chariot. Agamemnon protests that this sort of

welcome is unneeded, but Clytemnestra is repetitive, and he eventually gives in.

Clytemnestra, nevertheless, has an another motivation ; she uses the immense robe to do it

hard for him to contend against her ; as Clytemnestra subsequently confesses, ? Our

ceaseless, all embracing cyberspace, I cast it/ broad for the royal draw, I coil him

unit of ammunition and round/ in the wealth, the robes of day of reckoning? ( Norton, 559 ) . Once

trapped, she stabs him three times. Killing a male monarch is a really public act, and

Clytemnestra makes no attempt to conceal what she has done. Rather, she comes out

into the public square outside the castle, bearing the gory robe, and

tells the Chorus that she has killed their male monarch, and why. Agamemnon had

sacrificed his ain kid. Despite the fact that Agamemnon looked upon his title

as a public necessity, Clytemnestra saw her girl? s decease as a private

loss, and accordingly could non forgive it. The point is that Aeschylus has

created a adult female with whom his audience could sympathise, and whose hurting felt

existent to them. This was no little attempt, sing the fact that in antediluvian

Greece adult females were looked same as slaves. Euripides, in composing Medea, nowadayss

adult females in a much different manner. There is a similarity between Euripides? narrative

and Aeschylus? ; both Clytemnestra and Medea is strong, passionate adult female who

commit a awful offense. But so the similarity stops. In Agamemnon, we

understand why Agamemnon did what he did, but somehow we feel that Clytemnestra

was wholly justified in be aftering ten old ages worth of resentment against the

adult male who killed her kid. And under her fortunes, we wholly sympathise

with her desire to kill the adult male who separated her of the girl she loved.

Part of the rhenium

ason we have so much understanding for Clytemnestra is that Aeschylus

presented her as a tragic character. We feel her hurting, she does non look insane

to us. In the other manus, with Euripides? Medea is the opposite. In the

opening speech the Nurse warns us that Medea is unsafe ; she is non presented

like a agony animal every bit much as the incorrect adult female to muss with. Later, the

Nurse cautiousnesss Medea? s kids to remain clear of their female parent for a piece:

? What did I said, my beloved kids? Your female parent Frets her Hart and frets her

choler. Run off rapidly into the house, And good out of her sight. Don? T go

anyplace near, but be careful Of the abandon and acrimonious nature Of that proud

head. Travel now run rapidly indoors. ? ( Norton, 644 ) In the really following address Medea

curses her kids, she is non a nice adult female. The ground why we can forgive

Clytemnestra but non Medea is based in the artlessness or guilt of their victims.

Medea has killed her brother ; she kills her hubby? s new bride ; and later she

putting to deaths her kids. One can non sympathise with these Acts of the Apostless ; they are all out of

proportion to Medea? s grounds for making them ; and they clearly show Medea to

be out of her head. But what does it state about Aeschylus and Euripides? positions

on the function of adult females? Aeschylus would look to hold a much more unfastened position of

adult females, he gives Clytemnestra some recognition. Furthermore, he makes her sympathetic

enough that even his audience would hold understood Clytemnestra? s position, and

excused her erstwhile invasion into an country usually reserved for work forces & # 8212 ; seeking

retribution. On the other manus, Euripides seems to fear adult females, if his

word picture of Medea is any indicant. Medea is non the least human being ;

she is portrayed as if she were from another planet. She is barbaric, and what

we would now name a inhuman slayer. Euripides knows that most of the adult females

of his people are non like that, but he is clearly reacting to what he senses

is the? other? . Because adult females are non precisely like work forces, he seems to be

stating, they could be capable of making something like these. Unfortunately, in

Athenian society Age, there would look to hold been many people who agreed with

Euripides than with Aeschylus. Women had no legal rights ; their map, aside

from maternity, was to see that the place ran swimmingly and the lives of their

work forces were secure and comfy. From this point, what is genuinely singular is

that Aeschylus managed to do Clytemnestra sympathetic at all.

Maynard Mack, and Editors. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Vol.

1. New York: Norton and Company, 1998. Aeschylus ( translated by Robert Eagles ) .

The Orestia. Agamemnon The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Vol. 1. Ed.

Maynard Mack, and editors. New York: Norton and Company, 1998.