In Aeschylus' tragedy Agamemnon the character of Clytemnestra is portrayed as strong willed woman. This characteristic is not necessarily typical of women of her time. As a result, the reader must take a deeper look into the understanding of Clytemnestra. In Agamemnon she dominates the action. Her most important characteristic is like the watchman calls it, "male strength of heart." She is a strong woman, and her strength is evident on many occasions is the play. Later in the play after Clytemnestra murders her husband, Agamemnon, and his concubine, Cassandra, she reveals her driving force and was has spurned all of her actions until this point.

Clytemnestra is seen by the Elders of Argos (the Chorus) as untrustworthy and although suspicious of her they still could not foresee the impending murders. Her words are plain but her meaning hidden to all those around her. She more or less alludes to her plan of murder without fear of being detected. Only the audience can seem to understand the double meaning in her words. One example of how Clytemnestra hides meanings in otherwise plain words is stated in her hope that Agamemnon and his soldiers do not commit any sa

crilege in Troy that might offend the gods.

This can be interpreted in two ways. The first being that her wish for Agamemnon to return safely is so she may kill him herself. The second, is that of sarcasm. Perhaps she really does wish for Agamemnon to upset the gods. That way when she murders him she will divine sanction.

After fighting back and forth over the matter, the Elders are torn between love of their king and whether Clytemnestra was right in killing him.

Clytemnestra believes that she was in the will of the gods because she was seeking revenge not only for her sacrificed daughter, but Agamemnon's cousins (the brothers of Aegisthus, Clytemnestra's lover). She was carrying out punishment for being unfaithful. According to her, she was "allowed" by the gods because of these and other repeated sins toward them (i.e. walking on the tapestries) as well as carrying out the curse of his household. This situation arouses mixed emotions in the Elders and perhaps the same in the readers. But if the audience would put themselves in the time and culture of the Greeks, was a person not shunned unless revenge was taken for their loved ones. The entire Trojan War was based on one act of vengefulness after another, spawned from the seduction of Helen. So in that sense the reader can offer only sympathy for a broken hearted mother whose rage encouraged by her culture drove her to kill her husband and his concubine. And with this same tradition of revenge for one act to another, she too will face a day when she is killed for revenge by her son, and the cycle will continue.

...my husband-the darling of each Chryseis in the Trojan camp!-and with him his captive, his auguress, his oracle-monger mistress, who shared with him faithfully even the ship's bench and the canvas! But they did it not unpunished! For here lies as you see, and she, having sung swanlike her last sad song of death, lies by him lovably,

Some common words found in the essay are:
Argos Chorus, According Clytemnestra, Elders Argos, Chryseis Trojan, Aegisthus Clytemnestra's, Trojan War, Clytemnestra Agamemnon, Aegisthus Chorus', Agamemnon Aeschylus', Agamemnon Cassandra, clytemnestra believes, meaning words, elders argos, wish agamemnon, double meaning words, double meaning,
Approximate Word count = 1303
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)