Regret Kayla Gill 09/15/18
I find the murder of Clytaemnestra by Orestes quite different from the rest of the murders in the play. In every other play, murders are committed out of revenge. After the murder is committed, no one seems to feel too bad about what they have done. In this play, Orestes is in exile. He learns that his mother has killed his father. He comes into the city posed as a traveler that needs help so he is able to get in close to Clytaemnestra so he can kill her and her lover. After he does, his reaction is much different than everyone else's. Rather than feeling avenged, he actually begins to feel guilty. He makes comments about seeing visions of goddesses that torment his thoughts. The leader in the play tries to convince him it is a dream, but he is set that it is real.
Orestes:
"No dreams, these torments, not to me, they're clear, real-- the hounds of mother's hate."
I'm not really sure why these strikes my attention. Maybe it is because no one else in the story seems to be bothered by the murders and sins they commit. But, for Orestes, whom we just met, seems to be one of the only ones who have any feelings of guilt. Even before he killed his mother, he second-guessed himself. Sure, he still killed her, he's still evil; but, he does show human characteristics we can relate to. Hopefully any person today would feel some guilt about killing someone. This makes me wonder if there is a reason for this. Will these lead to a bigger outcome, may be important factors we will need to know later, or is this completely useless information? What do you think?
PS: I commented on Will and Zelda's posts
Orestes:
"No dreams, these torments, not to me, they're clear, real-- the hounds of mother's hate."
I'm not really sure why these strikes my attention. Maybe it is because no one else in the story seems to be bothered by the murders and sins they commit. But, for Orestes, whom we just met, seems to be one of the only ones who have any feelings of guilt. Even before he killed his mother, he second-guessed himself. Sure, he still killed her, he's still evil; but, he does show human characteristics we can relate to. Hopefully any person today would feel some guilt about killing someone. This makes me wonder if there is a reason for this. Will these lead to a bigger outcome, may be important factors we will need to know later, or is this completely useless information? What do you think?
PS: I commented on Will and Zelda's posts
It's definitely an interesting observation! Orestes may actually be the only character in this play that isn't one-hundred percent a piece of garbage (except for Electra. I don't know enough about her yet to make that call). I wonder if Orestes is really the murdering type, or if he's simply acting out of the will of the curse on his household. It seems like everyone in that family is predestined to commit some sort of horrific crime.
ReplyDeleteI agree Orestes is the definitely the most humane of the characters we have seen thus far. At first, I thought the murder of his mother might just have been done out of peer pressure from Apollo, but then he also does seem to absolutely hate his mother for banishing him and killing his father. (Which is understandable I suppose.) My only problem with Orestes is that he still does decide to kill Clytaemnestra after reconizing that it is wrong. Although I really don't know, to be honest, this pay is such a mess and the decisions the characters make are questionable at the very least.
ReplyDeleteOresetes is very clearly in a lot of pain over something that he did. That is the interesting thing about guilt and remorse that is really fascinating. At first, it's as if you have no idea that what you're doing and then once it's done, the pain hits you, it consumes you. Getting out of it is the hardest part, and that's what I believe Orestes is now going to have to face. The wolves of his mother's pain atttacking him.
ReplyDelete