Faith vs. Free Will - AnnaKate Burleson
The amount of faith and trust that Orestes and Electra have in their gods is insane. It seems like every other thing they say is some type of prayer to Zeus or Hermes. In fact, just to set this overtone of blind faith right away, this part of the story literally opens with Orestes praying to Hermes over his father Agamemnon's grave. Even the Chorus sends their prayers while Orestes enters his mother's home to kill her and Aegisthus. I commend their faith, and honestly encourage all of you to take some sort of inspiration from it. Their zeal is truly unparalleled. However, one question is burning in the back of my mind while I read their wordy, unceasing prayers - Why?
Their gods are not real. I'm baffled by their faith not simply because of how unwavering it is, but because it is grounded in absolutely nothing. It breaks my heart to read things like this, fiction or not. These people pour their hearts out to the walls. Their secret fears are thrown into the clouds and nothing catches them. How much more time, then, should we spend sending our prayers to the Creator that is really there?
But false gods aside, there is an interesting dynamic going on between the characters in this play. They're all murdering each other in the name of honor, but at the same time it has been well established that their house is cursed. So how much of this is free will? How much of it is simply an inevitable horror of the curse placed on the House of Atreus? Was it always Agamemnon's destiny to die? What about Clytemnestra and Aegisthus? I left this portion of this story with more questions than I did to begin with. Hopefully the Eumenides will provide us with some answers.
P.S. I commented on Zelda's and Kayla's
Their gods are not real. I'm baffled by their faith not simply because of how unwavering it is, but because it is grounded in absolutely nothing. It breaks my heart to read things like this, fiction or not. These people pour their hearts out to the walls. Their secret fears are thrown into the clouds and nothing catches them. How much more time, then, should we spend sending our prayers to the Creator that is really there?
But false gods aside, there is an interesting dynamic going on between the characters in this play. They're all murdering each other in the name of honor, but at the same time it has been well established that their house is cursed. So how much of this is free will? How much of it is simply an inevitable horror of the curse placed on the House of Atreus? Was it always Agamemnon's destiny to die? What about Clytemnestra and Aegisthus? I left this portion of this story with more questions than I did to begin with. Hopefully the Eumenides will provide us with some answers.
P.S. I commented on Zelda's and Kayla's
I tend to think that around 75% of killings are done out of free will. The characters might be influenced slightly by the gods, but ultimately the gods are not the ones who are stabbing their husbands, children, and mothers. I think the family is just feeding off of each other's anger and blames their actions on the curse and the gods. I agree with you about the questions thing though, after finishing the reading I am left feeling very unsatisfied.
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the narrative of the story, both of the twins had nothing left but their faith in the gods. Their own mother had sent them away and turn her back to them in times of grief. Their sister had just been killed and their father headed to war. Faith for me is an amazing way to overcome adversity. There are points where faith was the only thing that got me through. The same goes for these two siblings.
ReplyDeleteI think free will had much to do with how the characters acted. While the House is cursed and as such, something bad was BOUND to happen, I think part of it comes back to the character's free will. Clytemnestra choose to kill Cassandra -- who was innocent -- and Aegisthus (I am about 87.3% I spelled that name wrong, sorry) became their step-father by choice. These two actions seemed especially crueler, so perhaps it was more from the character's own heads than the curse. I'm not really sure how much is which, but it's interesting to ponder.
ReplyDeleteI would like to comment on just how beautifully phrased your thoughts were when you stated, "These people pour their hearts out to the walls. Their secret fears are thrown into the clouds and nothing catches them." I also wholeheartedly agree with you about it being truly sad to witness such unwavering faith towards absolutely nothing. You made a great point!
ReplyDeleteAll the suffering that takes place in Aeschylus' Oresteia proves that one must suffer to learn. Agamemnon learns that fate is not responsible for his actions. Clytemnestra discovers that it is impossible for a strong vindicated woman to achieve justice in a male dominated society. Greek society learns that those who commit wrong willing or unwilling shall be punished. That regardless of how actions are interpreted, one does not escape punishment. There is no distinction in punishment between a fated action and a free willed action. All roads lead to the same punishment.
ReplyDeleteI had similar questions whenever I finished the story. How likely was Orestes to kill Clytemnestra before the leader and Electra talked him into it further? Orestes seemed like he could have been convinced either way but his faith in the gods motivated him further into killing his mother which is very upsetting. It also highlights the difference in Christianity and other religions in terms of what the teachings are and practiced. In these stories it's honor above all and although the bible mentions your love for Jesus should be great enough to where it looks like you hate your parents it in no way motivates killing of any kind.
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