Agamemnon- A successfull greek revenge tragedy PDF

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Agamemnon- A successful greek revenge tragedy...

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Submission of Assignment Agamemnon: As a successful Greek Revenge Tragedy

ENG 421

Submitted to: Tania Tabassum Department of English University of Information Technology & Sciences

Submitted by: Name

ID

Nusrat Jahan

142020100003

Date of Submission: 12th April 2021

Introduction Aeschylus was born in Eleusis, a Greek town near Athens, in 525 B.C. He was the first of the great Greek tragedians, leading both Sophocles and Euripides, and is credited by many as having invented tragic drama. Before Aeschylus, plays were more rudimentary, consisting of a single actor and a chorus offering commentary. In his works, Aeschylus added a "second actor" (often more than one), creating a new range of dramatic possibilities. He lived until 456 B.C., fighting in the wars against Persia and attaining great acclaim in the Athenian theater world (Greek Tragedies, n.d.). King Agamemnon is a mythological character from Greek legend, most famously appearing in Homer's "The Illiad," and found in other source material from Greek mythology. In the parable, he is the King of Mycenae and the Greek army leader in the Trojan War. There is no historical verification of either a Mycenae king name Agamemnon or a Trojan Was as described by Homer. Still, some historians find tantalizing archeological confirmation that they may be based on early Greek history (Gill N. S., 2018). Agamemnon never takes accountability for anything, uses his power to tyrannize others, and even sacrifices his daughter to get more favorable sailing weather. His mistakes nearly cost his side the war. This man is hardly suited to rule, yet he is one of the most powerful Achaean commanders. Agamemnon: the plot A tragic hero, as stated by Aristotle, must fall into the following criteria: "good or fine," meaning high stature, their "fitness of character," they must be "true to life," they must be consistent, "necessary or probable" to the plot, they must be "true to life but yet more beautiful," they must have hamartia or an error of judgment, there must be a "peripeteia" where there is a change of fortune, they must have an "anagnorisis" where they realize their faults, and we must have "pity and awe" over the character. We will use these criteria to determine whether Agamemnon is a tragic hero of the play. The context of the play is simple, and it has a simple plot. Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter, Iphigenia, for Troy's war, and this is his tragic flaw. After the war has ended, he returns, and this leads to his death. It is crucial to assess Agamemnon's character in Homer's works before concluding the revenge plot as successful. More importantly, one has to ask how much Homer's character has been

transposed into Aeschylus' Orestia. Does Aeschylus's character have similar character traits to the original? Does Aeschylus alter the emphasis of Agamemnon's character and his guilt as he has altered the theme of his murder? Agamemnon's Character What is clear from Homer's representation of Agamemnon is that he is a deeply flawed character (Johnson, n.d.). One of his most notable faults is his inability to realize that he must not surrender to his desires and emotions as a king. He refuses to hold that the position of authority that he finds himself in demands responsibility and that his impulses and aspirations should be secondary to his community's needs. The revenge of Clytemnestra Agamemnon, the Greek army leader in the Trojan war, has returned to Mycenae after 10 years. When Agamemnon returned from Troy, he wasn't alone. He brought another woman as a concubine, the prophetess Cassandra, famous for not having her prophecies believed. This was at least a third punch for Agamemnon as far as Clytemnestra was concerned. His first strike had been killing Clytemnestra's first husband, the grandson of Tantalus, to marry her. His second strike was killing their daughter Iphigenia, and his third strike was unashamed disrespect shown for Clytemnestra by walking another woman in her home. No matter that Clytemnestra had another man. Clytemnestra's vengefulness saw no bounds. Various stories tell different versions of the exact way Agamemnon died. Still, the reality is that Clytemnestra and Aegisthus murdered him in cold blood out of revenge for Iphigenia's death and other circumstances he had executed against them. Agamemnon's son Orestes took vengeance by killing Clytemnestra, his mother. The Furies (or Erinyes) took revenge on Orestes, but in the end, Orestes was justified because Athena judged that killing his mother was less dreadful than killing his father (Gill N. , 2019). Agamemnon's title character appears only concisely and comes across as a cold husband and arrogant King. With her icy determination and fierce sense of self-righteousness, Clytemnestra is far more charming to the patrons; we sympathize with her for much of the play. However, her affair with the odious Aegisthus and her murder of the innocent Cassandra reminds us that she is not an avenger in the larger context of the trilogy adulteress murderer whose crime leads inexorably to Orestes' revenge in the next play.

Agamemnon is a revenge drama; there is a little scholarly argument about this point. Agamemnon takes vengeance on Troy and then returns home to fall victim to Clytemnestra's desire for revenge. However, if indeed one exists, the connection between these two acts of vengeance has been a point of considerable scholarly disagreement. Of course, payback is not limited to Agamemnon and Clytemnestra because many acts of revenge are mentioned in this play. We may see Agamemnon's death as crossing two paths of revenging actions: those concerning the house of Tantalus in particular and those including the Trojans and the Greeks. Besides, each deed of vengeance may also be perceived differently as an expiatory action by others. For example, Aegisthus' stabbing of Agamemnon can be viewed either as Aegisthus' revenge or as Agamemnon's expiation for depriving his cousin of a royal home and power (as well as Agamemnon's expiation for the cruelty of his father to Thyestes) (Shelton, 2014). Troy's siege can be viewed either as the Greeks' revenge or as the Trojans' expiation for Paris' rape of Helen. There are two tracks of avenge, more precisely three, as Clytemnestra's desire for revenge on Agamemnon can be separated from Aegisthus's desire; her feelings of injury result from only Agamemnon assumed leadership of the Greek expedition against Troy. Conclusion Agamemnon is the first play in a trilogy, the Oresteia, considered Aeschylus's most significant work and perhaps the greatest Greek tragedy. Of all the plays in the trilogy, Agamemnon holds the most substantial command of language and characterization. The poetry is magnificent and moving, with the experienced depiction of major and minor personalities equally. The play's state carries a heavy sense of impending end. From the Watchman's opening speech through the Chorus's foreboding words and Cassandra's foretells, the drama prepares the audience for the King's death. The actual act of brutality happens behind the stage, a widespread practice in Greek tragedy. Thematically, we must understand the murder of Agamemnon in the context of three other acts of violence, all of which lead to the action of the play. Agamemnon appears on stage only momentarily and performs imperiously. Agamemnon goes to his deathbed, unaware of his fate.

Bibliography Gill, N. (2019). ThoughtCo. Retrieved April 07, 2021, from https://www.thoughtco.com/agamemnon-116781 Gill, N. S. (2018). ThughtCo. Retrieved April 09, 2021, from https://www.thoughtco.com/howdid-the-greek-king-agamemnon-die-111792 Greek Tragedies. (n.d.). Retrieved April 09, 2021, from https://sites.google.com/a/trinity.edu/nguyenteach/reading-guidances/theoresteia/agamemnon Johnson, B. (n.d.). FB. Retrieved April 07, 2021, from https://freebooksummary.com/analyzeagamemnons-character-from-homers-iliad-and-aeschyluss-agamemnon-37715 Shelton, J.-A. (2014). CambridgeCore. Retrieved April 09, 2021, from https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ramus/article/abs/revenge-or-resignationsenecas-agamemnon/448DDFF76888A910CCDECCC257C5AAAD Sparknotes. (n.d.). Retrieved April 09, 2021, from https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/agamemnon/section9/...