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"ELECTRA" (SOPHOCLES).   Term Paper ID:24257 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Feminist critique of Clytemnestra, Electra's evil mother.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Feminist critique of Clytemnestra, Electra's evil mother. Paper Introduction: The figure of Clytemnestra in Sophocles' tragic play Electra seems ready-made for a feminist critique, or for a critique from any school which seeks to advance a cause based on morality or integrity. Clytemnestra appears to embody every human sin, every human weakness, every human evil imaginable. As Meyer Reinhold writes, "Clytemnestra's character has been completely blackened by Sophocles in this play" (57). Reinhold adds that Clytemnestra is "delineated as completely evil" (59). Clytemnestra has taken part in the murder of her husband Agamemnon, has married Aegisthus, the other murdering conspirator, has mocked and made life hell for her daughter Electra because Electra will not let her mother forget her horrible crimes, and shows nothing but delight when she is tricked into believing that her son Orestes is dead. Clytemnestra believes that Orestes was the last real Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Unlike Chrysothemis, Clytemnestra is not a womanwho has redeeming qualities but is without the will or morality to exercisethose qualities at critical moments. She consistently agrees withClytemnestra as the nature of their predicament, of the need for justice,but when the time comes to act, she always warns her bolder sister to becautious, not to do anything rash. That the passive Chrysothemis isshown to be the worst of the lot is a testament to the same, for she ishardly the most despicable character in the history of theater. Clytemnestraappears to embody every human sin, every human weakness, every human evilimaginable. . In that regard,Clytemnestra certainly invites a feminist critique. She has so lost touch with hermotherly feelings that she can only verbalize what she knows she should befeeling, but she actually feels no grief whatsoever, unless it is grief forthe death of her own heart and soul as a mother, a woman, a wife, and ahuman being. Clytemnestra believes that Oresteswas the last real threat to expose her and Aegisthus and punish them fortheir crimes. Harold Bloom. As Jones writes in Bloom, Sophocles heightens and isolates [the play's] sexual aspect. What makes such criticism appropriate, however, is the fact thatthere are three women in the play who represent three entirely differentresponses to life, and the role of a woman in life. "outrage" gains further stress in her long face-to-face arraignment of Clytemnestra during which she tells her mother that living with Aegisthus and bearing children to him are her "foulest deeds of all." The Chorus have already asserted, . Clytemnestra is meant to stand instark contrast with the heroine Electra who refuses to compromise in herdesire for justice and vengeance, whatever the cost. Clytemnestra was as wildly obsessedwith having what she wanted (i.e., the death of Agamemnon, the mating withAegisthus, and sharing the throne with the latter) as Electra is nowobsessed with avenging her father's murder. She kills her husbandto sleep with and wed another man, virtually tortures the one offspring whoprotests, and has only a moment of grief, if that is what it may begenerously called, upon hearing of her son's alleged death. What Electra calls . The figure of Clytemnestra in Sophocles' tragic play Electra seemsready-made for a feminist critique, or for a critique from any school whichseeks to advance a cause based on morality or integrity. Orestesand Electra are truly heroic characters, in the sense that they boldlymove, if belatedly, to avenge their father's murder, including collusion inthe slaying of their own mother. If so, then she would not be especially vulnerable to feministcriticism. Reinhold adds thatClytemnestra is "delineated as completely evil" (59). This genetic combination, along with whatever turbulent homeenvironment accompanied it, produced three children who can hardly becalled self-determined individuals. If there is any doubt about Clytemnestra's lacking in every qualityof a good woman and mother, it is removed when Clytemnestra unleashes herhatred toward Orestes and Electra only moments after hearing of her son'salleged death. She hasabandoned her children, murdered her husband, in order, at least in part,to expand her personal and queenly power. . Here is a woman who, Sophocles makes clear,has done what she has done in large part because of sexual desire forAegisthus. . She sounds here more like a philosopher than amother who loves and grieves for her son: Zeus, what shall I say? The Heroic Temper: Studies in Sophoclean Tragedy.Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.Melchinger, Siegfried. Orestes does indeed returnto exact revenge, but he has delayed interminably, and even now, at thecrucial moment of arrival in the beginning of the play, he has to be pushedby his servant and friend. Works CitedBaldry, H.C. Clytemnestra hastaken part in the murder of her husband Agamemnon, has married Aegisthus,the other murdering conspirator, has mocked and made life hell for herdaughter Electra because Electra will not let her mother forget herhorrible crimes, and shows nothing but delight when she is tricked intobelieving that her son Orestes is dead. The third and final child, Chrysothemis, is athoroughgoing coward who goes along to get along. Classical Drama: Greek and Roman. Should Clytemnestra be seen as an evil person rather than an evilwoman? She certainly seeksjustice, but at this point in her life she is incapable of doing anythingelse, again, not a sign of self-determination. At the other end of the spectrum from Clytemnestra is the heroic andfearless Electra, the champion of her murdered father, the thorn in theside of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, the conscience and dedicated avenger ofthe play. Norton, 1971.Jones, John. The Greek Tragic Theatre. Clearly, however, this loyalty is not a universal characteristic ofthe women in this particular play. Even her cries forher husband have nothing to do with his safety and everything to do withher own survival. Hers is the self-centeredness of a child, a daughter'sselfishness rather than a spouse's. Perhaps a feminist critique of Clytemnestra at this point would makemention of her inability to juggle motherhood and a career. There is some suggestion that Clytemnestra believes her murder ofAgamemnon to be justified by the fact that Agamemnon sacrificed another oftheir daughters to appease the Gods after having committed some sin againstthem, and to save his army (Sophocles 146). As Meyer Reinhold writes, "Clytemnestra's character has beencompletely blackened by Sophocles in this play" (57). Clytemnestra isthoroughly evil, self-centered, ruthless, unscrupulous, and without anydiscernible redeeming quality as a woman or a human being. If there is a heart and soul to feminism, it is the argument thatwomen should not be controlled by men or by their desire to have a man ormake a man happy. Clytemnestra is so thoroughly evil, such a symbol of motherhood gonewrong, that she truly seems to invite a feminist critique of the most harshsort. From theplay, the reader does not know Agamemnon, except through others. . New York: Chelsea, 199 . She is everything a woman,wife and mother should not be. Her weakdaughter Chrysothemis is a woman who knows what is right but is unable orunwilling to put her knowledge into action. "Sophocles Electra: The Orestes Myth Rephrased." Sophocles.Ed. Woodbury, New York:Barron's, 1959.Sophocles. Clytemnestra is in those lines intellectualizing a mother's grief.She knows she should feel great grief upon hearing of Orestes' allegeddeath, but she knows that above all she feels relief that the last threatto her and Aegisthus and their place and power has been removed. Indeed,/ my state is terrible if I must save/ my life by the misfortunes of myself (Sophocles 154). The closest she comes to a sense ofconnection to a ny of her children or the husband she murdered is anintellectual acknowledgement that she should show some such connection, asin her reaction to the news of her son's alleged death in a chariot race. If the reader is to assume thatElectra's and Orestes' passion to avenge their father's murder accuratelyreflects his worthiness of such passion, then it seems safe to assume thathe was a powerful father as well as a powerful king. She appears tobe incapable of caring for any human being but herself. Aegisthus' ultimate . By clearly marking out the moral territory of each of the threewomen, Sophocles invites the kind of feminist criticism which targets suchevil females as Clytemnestra, just as he invites feminist praise for theheroic Electra. Her reaction tothat alleged death shows how far she is from feeling any truly motherlylove for her children. She is willing to stifle her conscience andenjoy the life she leads as obedient and passive daughter to the murderousand adulterous king and queen, the killers of her father. New York: W.W. Again, she shows nothing of a woman's sensibility,nothing of a mother's love, nothing of a widow's grief, but only a self-centered desire to have things her own way in ease and comfort. The liberated woman is the woman who thinks for herselfand acts for herself and according to her own conception of what is wrongand right, not according to what any man says or offers. If there is a feminist lesson to this family, it is that there needto be two good, strong parents to produce good, strong children. Sophocles. . She lives to exact justice from the killers of her father, andputs aside any other consideration in life, including marriage or her ownhappiness, until that justice is accomplished. At no point in theplay does she show the slightest sign of any admirable human quality. If there is one aspect of the feminist critique of Clytemnestra whichis most justified, it is the one which sees her as the stereotypical womanwho becomes evil through lust. Electra possesses an obsessive amount ofthat loyalty, and Chrysothemis at least shows a flicker of it now and then,but Clytemnestra shows none of it. The question of the role of the family and family authority in thecreation of self-determined individuals is a difficult one with respect tothis play, because of the contrast between the siblings themselves. She praysnot for love between her and her children, not for forgiveness for hercrimes, but only for prosperity and peace for herself. Whatever conclusions wedraw about this family, the parents and the children, will clearly not bewithout some ambiguity. If the children are asmuch the production of the combined genetics of the parents as they are ofthe family environment, then the variations among the children can in partbe explained by the imagined combination of the personalities and spiritsof Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, one a strong and good man, the other a weakand evil woman. Perhaps a clue to this family is the self-centeredness ofClytemnestra. Clytemnestra's cold-heartedness with respect to her family is heldout by Sophocles in stark contrast to the dedication of Electra to herfather's memory and murder. Clytemnestra is the embodiment of a woman who has abandoned everygood and loving quality of woman, wife and mother, and taken on everydestructive quality associated with "bad" women. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1974.Reinhold, Meyer. At the same time, to critique her as theembodiment of all a woman should not be is a little like shooting fish in abarrel. Sophocles II: Ajax, The Women of Trachis, Electra and Philoctetes. Sophocles has created her to be a simply evil character, with nosubtlety or contradiction. In fact, Orestes is alive and does indeed deliver punishmentin the form of death to both Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. As Baldry writes, after her long confrontation with Electra,Clytemnestra offers a "prayer to the god that she may live her life incontinued prosperity 'and with children/ as do not hate me nor cause bitterpain'" (Baldry 124). However,the reader knows Clytemnestra all too well, and, knowing her, it is atestament to the murdered Agamemnon that any of these three children turnedout sane, much less good or even heroic. Chrysothemis, however, child of the sameparents as bold Electra and Orestes, is a frightened, passive, obedientcharacter with no sign of independence whatsoever. Asidefrom the fear she has of her son Orestes, the only other moment ofvulnerability she displays is at her moment of death at the hand ofOrestes: "My son, my son,/ pity your mother!" (Sophocles 182). On the other hand, Clytemnestra certainly qualifies for at leastconsideration for such a dishonorable position. However, Sophocles makes clearthat Clytemnestra's primary aim in murdering Agamemnon was not vengeancefor her daughter's death but the desire to be with Aegisthus, as Electraargues: "I'll maintain that it was not with justice/ you killed him, butthe seduction of that bad man,/ with whom you are now living" (Sophocles147). She is a perfect targetfor a feminist critique. At the same time, perhaps Clytemnestra is so utterly evilthat a critique of her seems to by gilding the lily. However, inboth instances, her vulnerability is entirely self-centered. Shall I say "good luck"/ or "terrible, but for the best"? As Knox writes, "it is remarkable" that inSophocles' "grand design the old, primitive blood loyalty is associatedthroughout with the female" (Knox 78). She waits the return ofOrestes to help her bring about this justice, and when he does finallyarrive, justice is indeed done. Electra is a heroine, but herobsession certainly does not make her self-determined. "Lust was Agamemnon's murder" (Jones 4 ). In fact, Chrysothemis is a coward whowants the easier, softer path. Clytemnestra rages against her son for abandoning her (eventhough his life was in danger from her by virtue of his being next in linefor the throne), for claiming she had killed Agamemnon (even though sheopenly admits to the crime), and for "threaten[ing] terrors against me"(Sophocles 155), even though Clytemnestra would likely have killed Orestesherself if she could have and if he had not been in exile at Electra'surging. 33-47.Knox, Bernard M. . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969.----------------------- 1 If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.