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PLAYS: Agamemnon |
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Agamemnon is the first play in a
trilogy by Aeschylus called Oresteia.
Aeschylus’ Agamemnon opens on the evening of
the fall of Troy and tells of Agamemnon’s
ill-fated return to Mycenae. In the play, the House
of Atreus is under a curse and has been for a long
time, which Agamemnon had furthered by sacrificing
his daughter, Iphigenia, so that the winds would blow
to Troy. When Troy fell, Agamemnon returned in
triumph to Mycenae with the Trojan princess Cassandra
as a spoil of war. His wife, Clytemnestra, greeted
him lovingly, but while he was in the bath, she threw
a net over him, and her lover, Aegisthus, struck
Agamemnon with a sword. Then Clytemnestra beheaded
him with an ax for the murder of her daughter. At its
conclusion, Clytemnestra and Aegisthus retire
triumphantly into the palace of Atreus as the new
rulers of Mycenae, but they are soon to die by the
hand of her son Orestes when the trilogy continues,
as does the blood curse that plagues the
family.
The sacrifice of Clytemnestra’s daughter was the basis on which she planned her revenge. Agamemnon had not been the perfect husband, and his blind ambition overcame his paternal and humanitarian concerns when he sacrificed Iphigenia. The curse that has been on the family is continued when Clytemnestra and Agamemnon’s cousin murder him. This play was about vengeance and the theme of the family curse. Agamemnon was written as a rich Greek tragedy. It is the first in a trilogy called Oresteia. The method of writing plays in threes was common, with one myth or theme throughout them. It also became the fashion of Greek tragedies to involve the chorus, which traditionally commented on the action of the play and was used for foreshadowing, directly in the action of the play, as when the chorus of Elders quarrels with the queen’s lover in Agamemnon. Aeschylus introduced this method among others, such as the use of two actors, which is also demonstrated in Agamemnon, and his methods stayed in use in Greek plays until the appearance of Sophocles. This play looks at the difference between revenge and justice. Death as a sacrifice is also a constant theme. The symbolism sometimes depicts sacrificial death, such a when twin eagles devour a pregnant hare, and this is referred to as a "sacrifice." Agamemnon’s murder could be seen as justice for the murder of his daughter, but his death was not a sacrifice as was his daughter’s. His death/murder is not justice but a savage crime; it shows the difference between religious sacrifice and murder. Aeschylus makes good use of imagery to make a more powerful impression. He uses striking, innovative words to drive an image into the mind of his audience. It is used as a tool for manipulation and as a way to sway the feelings of the audience. The language describes and creates the characters and themes in the play. |