What kind of person is Clytemnestra?
Clytemnestra is decisive, resolute, and aggressive, and her femininity is often called into question. However, she is able mask her anger in public moments in order to carry out her revenge plot. The nobility of her revenge is complicated by her affair with Aegisthus.
How is Clytemnestra portrayed in the Odyssey?
Similarly in Agamemnon, Clytemnestra is portrayed as a strong, independent, and quick-witted character who defies every convention of the female gender role. Within the beginning of the tragedy, the watchman and the chorus describe Clytemnestra as, although being just a woman, a man in strength of purpose.
Who is Clytemnestra in The Odyssey?
Clytemnestra, in Greek legend, a daughter of Leda and Tyndareus and wife of Agamemnon, commander of the Greek forces in the Trojan War. She took Aegisthus as her lover while Agamemnon was away at war. Upon his return, Clytemnestra and Aegisthus murdered Agamemnon.
Is Clytemnestra a sympathetic character?
Clytemnestra is Agamemnon’s wife and has ruled Argos in his absence. She plans his murder with ruthless determination, and feels no guilt after his death; she is convinced of her own rectitude and of the justice of killing the man who killed her daughter. She is, a sympathetic character in many respects.
Is Clytemnestra justified?
In Aeschylus’ The Agamemnon, Agamemnon and Clytemnestra have to make tough decisions throughout the play, decisions they believe are justified. The actions of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra are not justified because they are caused by their blinding hubris and desire for power.
How are Clytemnestra and Penelope different?
Clytemnestra is a disloyal wife and a cruel woman, while Penelope is a devoted spouse and a wonderful lady. When King Agamemnon goes away to fight at Troy, his wife, Clytemnestra, has an affair.
Why is Clytemnestra angry with Agamemnon?
Clytemnestra was angry with her husband, both because of her daughter’s sacrifice, as well as because Agamemnon had killed her first husband and taken her by force.
How and why is Clytemnestra compared to a man?
Within the first few lines of Agamemnon (11) Clytemnestra is described by the watchman as a ‘woman in passionate heart and man in strength of purpose. ‘ This statement provides a clear distinction between gender roles but also presents Clytemnestra has having ‘manly’ qualities.
How sympathetic a character is Clytemnestra?
Was Clytemnestra justified?
Is Clytemnestra The protagonist of Agamemnon?
Clytemnestra. The play’s protagonist, Clytemnestra is Agamemnon’s wife and has ruled Argos in his absence. She plans his murder with ruthless determination, and feels no guilt after his death; she is convinced of her own rectitude and of the justice of killing the man who killed her daughter.
What happened to Clytemnestra?
Clytemnestra is one of the main characters in Aeschylus’s Oresteia, and is central to the plot of all three parts. She murders Agamemnon in the first play, and is murdered herself in the second. Her death then leads to the trial of Orestes by a jury composed of Athena and 12 Athenians in the final play.
Was Clytemnestra a good wife?
Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon, is often described as the quintessential “bad” wife. Although she outwardly speaks like a “good” wife when Agamemnon returns from Troy, lamenting “all the long years this man was gone at Ilium” (Aeschylus 850), she is actually plotting to kill him.
What does Clytemnestra symbolize?
The man-axe thus represents Clytemnestra’s “man-killing” qualities: those which allow her to avenge her daughter and seize power over Argos, but which also condemn her in the eyes of the Greeks and lead to her ultimate downfall.
How does Clytemnestra challenge the patriarchy?
These two plays challenge the societal norms of that time-period. On particular, Medea in Euripides and Clytemestra in Agamemnon both challenge the patriarchy society that exists by confronting authority, displaying power, and confronting male authority.
Why do the characters in Agamemnon compare Clytemnestra to a man?
Nearly every male character in the play criticizes Clytemnestra for exhibiting qualities associated with men, and in the end, these very qualities—decisiveness, aggression, and sense of justice—are in fact what allow her to carry out her revenge plot.
What does Clytemnestra do in the absence of her husband?
With her husband absent, Clytemnestra began an affair with Aegisthus, a cousin of Agamemnon. Together, the pair began to plan their revenge on the king. In older versions of the story, including that told by Homer in the Odyssey, Aegisthus murders Agamemnon upon his return from Troy.