ipl-logo

Gender Roles In The Oresteia

1009 Words5 Pages

In society, men and women are given roles solely based on their genders. Sometimes, these gender roles can bring about conflict. This idea of social conflict is a main theme in the Greek play, The Oresteia. During the time that this play takes place, men and women were given distinct roles that they had to carry out. Usually, the men were the head of the household and took care of every important matter. Women, on the other hand, were made to follow the rules that the head of household had set out. What happens when a woman does decide to take matters into her own hands though and, in a sense, take over the role of man? In stories like this one, women who hold power end up with a different fate than women who abide by the rules set before them. …show more content…

The chorus depicts this when they respond to her story of how the city of Troy now belongs to them by saying “Spoken like a man, my lady, loyal, full of self-command (Aeschylus 116).” While people do recognize her as having a manly way about her, she still manages to fool them. No one in the story can foresee that this power will lead her to murdering someone, let alone her own husband. This is because Clytaemnestra knows how to play the role of the submissive female as well as the bruiting role that a male carries. While the citizens despise the way she acts when Agamemnon is away, they see that she does play the role of the loving wife whenever he is around. It is almost as if she takes on a position of power only when he is away. It isn’t until Agamemnon’s death that people truly recognize the power that Clytaemnestra holds over …show more content…

What happens to women who hold power and take on the role of the man? This scenario has been depicted several times in stories like Porphyria’s Lover and The Wife of Asdrubal. Women in literature like these all end up the same, dead. Whether that be by someone else or suicide, they always end up with the same ending. Clytaemnestra meets her untimely demise as a result of being murdered by her own son, Orestes. The characters depicted in The Oresteia see power as an amazing tool, but it can actually be the very thing that tears people down and leads them to their death. What if women were able to hold their own without meeting such a fate? Clytaemnestra came close by playing both the role of the loving wife and the bruiting male role, but lost it the moment she murdered Agamemnon. What if she had continued with the

Show More
Related
1509 Words | 7 Pages

1) I believe that Moore, the author, is trying to say that the second chance is trying to rewrite the first mistake and the last chance could be your last chance. The author’s last chance to stop his drug dealing was when he was sent to military school. His temper against his mother, bad grades, absences from classes and an incident with a smoke bomb were the reasons his mother sent him to military school. (Moore 87) The “other” Wes had the decision to stop selling drugs while raising his family.

Read More
2082 Words | 9 Pages

Women have always been portrayed as the weaker sex compared to men. It has been demonstrated in history itself and throughout literary works. Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Homer’s The Odyssey, however, portray women to be more powerful than men, even when their society thought otherwise and underestimated them because of their gender. Lady Macbeth, The Three Witches, Queen Arête and Penelope demonstrate the astute, charming, and ambitious side of women that was overlooked by men when it came to having power and making decisions.

Read More
297 Words | 2 Pages

I have a sense of right and wrong, what's more—heaven's proudest gift,” and scared what the gods may think if he accepts these actions his wife is doing to him. The larger work of this passage includes Clytemnestra murdering her husband and not denying her actions. That she takes responsibility for it and it

Read More
1260 Words | 6 Pages

In Greek epics, tragedies, and mythology women are portrayed in various ways. Women are mainly considered to be weak and less important than men, but there are some women who are shown to be strong and heroic, despite the reputation that was placed onto them in Ancient Greek civilizations. There were two particular women that were strong and took the roles of their husbands while the men left to fight in the Trojan War. These two women were Penelope, wife of Odysseus, and Clytemnestra, wife of Agamemnon. These two women were different in how they chose to rule while their husbands were at war and how they acted once they got back.

Read More
704 Words | 3 Pages

What is worth mentioning in Sophocles’ play is that he not only showed the weak side of women but also the strong ones. For example, Ismene is the traditional role of women in ancient Greek—coward, fear of men power and feeble. For Ismene, "we must remember we were born women, not meant to strive with men" (Antigone). She even chose to die with Antigone while hearing her sentence, for she was afraid that she would be alone, she could not be able to fight against Creon, this men-dominant society. In contrast, her sister Antigone presents the “women power”.

Read More
630 Words | 3 Pages

On the surface we see Clytemnestra as a strong feminist character, taking on male characteristics, shocking at the time, and acting with purpose and justification. However, then we see Clytemnestra as an individual woman’s rebellion punished by death, reflecting Athenian restrictions on the role of women and unfortunately - although not as literally, seen in many areas of our current world. Today in one half of civilisation we battle for equal representation in corporate boards, fight against objectification in the media, and argue for equal pay. In the other half we battle to not be controlled by men, fight for the chance to marry for love not for money or family ties at 15 years old, and argue that our bodies are not property to be sold or hurt but ours and ours alone. In The Oresteia, we see the defeat of the powerful, savage, unyielding Furies at the trial of Orestes.

Read More
992 Words | 4 Pages

Women are still subjected to falling short of equal status with men on a daily basis. Throughout The Iliad women are treated like property. Women are not people but rather a prize to be won or lost, bereft of individual identity. In the opening of The Iliad, Agamemnon captures Chryses’ daughter, Chrysies.

Read More
1085 Words | 5 Pages

The women felt that the war was causing disruption and ruining the unity between the people. Particularly, the main protagonist Lysistrata herself, gathers the power of females in hopes for peace and the reunion of Greece. Although the women initially were dubious about ending the war with a sex strike, it was Lysistrata who brought leadership to the group, encouraging all to contribute their powers for good, as she says, “Our country’s fortunes are in our hands; and whether the Spartans shall perish and the Boeotians shall be completely annihilated” (Aristophane 34-35). During this process, the women were faced with corrupted men, who believed that females should have no participation in the topic of war. Rather than succumbing to the demands of the men, Lysistrata insisted and argued for women to take charge and restore Athens.

Read More
1025 Words | 5 Pages

Her choice eventually led to a series of tragic events in the play that would include her eventual death. Because of this, Sophocles conveys the idea that in a society dominated by men, women are able to challenge men by pushing forward their own ideas and by making their own choices. Sophocles utilizes character foil to illustrate how Greek society found women to be inferior. This inferiority

Read More
1175 Words | 5 Pages

Also women did not really have a say in what could happen in a situation because the men had to speak for them. Women had to be loyal to the husbands or there would be a consequence for there actions. An example for this is when Jocasta and Laius were deciding to expose Oedipus on Mount Cithaeron. Laius took the newborn Oedipus from Jocasta 's arms and sent him with someone to be left out and to be exposed. Mothers have a strong connection with their children, so it must have been very difficult for Jocasta to watch her baby be exposed.

Read More
212 Words | 1 Pages

However, the inferiority of women is largely explored by Euripides as the play is set where it situates the women into submissive and unjust roles. The Corinthian women do not have the right to speak out of turn or else they’d have face the unwanted consequences. The conformity within the society shows the fear embedded amongst them as they were obeying the men and showing docile behaviour. What Euripides is undermining is that within the Greek society women are portrayed to be man’s property, which begs the question of why it is present through its society as they have as much rights as men do. These were the times where in ancient Greece the status of women was inferior.

Read More
1079 Words | 5 Pages

Reorganization, likewise called Protestant Reconstruction, the religious insurgency that occurred in the Western church in the sixteenth century. Its most prominent pioneers without a doubt were Martin Luther and John Calvin. Having extensive political, financial, and social impacts, the Transformation turned into the reason for the establishing of Protestantism, one of the three noteworthy branches of Christianity. The universe of the late medieval Roman Catholic Church from which the sixteenth century reformers rose was a mind boggling one.

Read More
1568 Words | 7 Pages

Women’s power in the play contrasts the real women life’s conditions in Greece in 500/400 b.C. This sudden empowering of the female characters is the main reason why I have chosen to examine this comedy. The analysis will be focused on the figure of the women in the play and the contentious ideology of the author.

Read More
1205 Words | 5 Pages

This piece of literature demonstrates the roles for men as the dominant gender and women as submissive, which are obsolete stereotypes. Shakespeare portrays the roles of the dominant males when Egeus tells, “as she is mine, I may dispose of her, which shall be either to this gentleman or to her death, according to our law immediately provided in that case” (1. 1. 42-45). He states this to let readers know that Hermia will not marry Lysander, and he gets the final decision. He gives her options, which are to marry him or die.

Read More
986 Words | 4 Pages

The men of Athens feel threatened when women show agency because their whole patriarchal system depends on female complacency. Although Athenian society

Read More

More about Gender Roles In The Oresteia

Related Topics

Open Document