The Oresteia is a play that is filled with conflict, and malice. In the first play, Agamemnon, The king Agamemnon and his wife Clytemnestra are at ends because Agamemnon killed their daughter. Although Agamemnon has his own flaws and sins, I think that he is a better person than Clymestrea. But what does it mean to be a good person? I think that a good person is someone who is selfless, loyal, and loving. Clytemnestra shows none of these traits.
Agamemnon was selfless. This is apparent when he sacrificed his daughter. When he had to make his decision he said: “Oh but doom will crush me once I rend my child, the glory of my house- a father's hands are stained, blood of a young girl streaks the alter. Pain both ways and what is worse? Desert the fleets, fail the alliance? No, but stop the winds with a virgin’s blood, feed their lust, their fury? -Feed their fury! - Law is law! -Let all go well.” (P110) Agamemnon must make a decision. Fail his country or fail his daughter? He by no means wanted to kill his daughter, but he did it for the good of his country and allies. It would have been much easier to just give up, but Agamemnon was not deterred.
On the other hand, Clytemnestra is selfish. When Agamemnon came back from a war that he fought hard
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The detail that Clytemnestra goes into when describing the murder she committed is horrid, not to mention unremorseful. Clytemnestra said to the chorus “So he goes down, and the life is bursting from him- great sprays of blood, and the murderous shower wounds me, dyes me black and I, I revel like the Earth when the spring rains come down, the blessed gift of god, and the new green spear splits the sheath and rips to birth in glory!” She loved killing Agamemnon because she hated him for killing their daughter. It was more than that. Clymestria hated Agamemnon so much that she loved being covered in his blood. That is