clytaemnestra and Medea
Clytaemnestra and Medea are two women who are seeking justice for a wrong committed by their husbands. Clytaemnestra?s husband, Agamemnon, did not wrong here directly but rather indirectly. Agamemnon sacrificed their daughter Iphigeneia, in order to calm the Thracian winds. For Clytaemnestra this brought much hatred towards Agamemnon. Here Agamemnon had betrayed Clytaemnestra and their daughters trust, and for that she sought revenge. Medea?s husband, Jason, had dishonored her with his unfaithfulness. Medea sought to kill everything that was important in Jason?s life in order to seek justice. Clytaemnestra and Medea are similar but yet different in the ways that they define justice, setup up their victims, carry out the just sentence and in the end justify their actions.Clytaemnestra feels the only justice for the death of her daughter, Iphigeneia, is the death of Agamemnon. ?Act for an act, wound for wound!? is the only justification that Clytaemnestra cans see (Agamemnon 1555). Medea also sees death as the only justification for her husbands? unfaithfulness. ?To stay here, and in this I will make dead bodies / Of three of my enemies, -father, the girl and my hu
Clytaemnestra decides the way to kill Agamemnon is while he is bathing, there he is defenseless. Clytaemnestra carries out the sentence that she sees just by slashing Agamemnon with a sword three times. Then she kills Cassandra, Agamemnon?s concubine he received for defeating Troy, whom she sees as a nuisance if left alive. Medea, on the other hand does not use brute force at first to kill like Clytaemnestra, instead she uses what she knows best, poison. Medea sends the children with Jason bearing gifts for the princess. These gifts consist of a dress and golden crown laced with poison, which will kill anyone who comes in contact with it. The princess and Kreon both die as a result of the poison laden gifts. When Medea finds out that the gifts killed the princess and Kreon she now uses brute force like Clytaemnestra, by turning the sword on her children. Clytaemnestra is not as cruel as is Medea. Clytaemnestra could have killed her son for whom she saw as a threat, but chose not to because she loved her children so much (Hamilton 257). Could Clytaemnestra have caused the pain on Jason with out killing her children? Euripides. Medea. Trans. Rex Warner. Lawall 1: 642 - 672.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Clytaemnestra Medea, Cassandra Agamemnons, Euripides Medea, Agamemnon Act, Jason Clytaemnestra, Kreon Jason, Agamemnon Agamemnon, Medea Clytaemnestra, clytaemnestra medea, World Masterpieces, Warner Lawall, brute force, killing children, justice clytaemnestra medea, justice clytaemnestra, act wound wound, kill kreon, kill children, agamemnon 1555, medea kill, wound wound, clytaemnestra medea words, act act wound, princess jason, jason killing children,
Approximate Word count = 1108
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
