ESSAY INSTRUCTIONS

Gender Essay

Feminists or gender critics argue that the unavenged death of the woman Clytemnestra in Aeschylus’ Oresteia begins the literary journey for female characters as less worthy.  In the trilogy, Clytemnestra is killed by her son, Orestes, for killing his father.  But her murderer son is allowed to go home to Argos.  Our text tells us “More important than the arguments employed in the trial and the decision reached by the judges is the fact of the court’s establishment.  This is the end of an old era and the beginning of a new.  The existence of the court is a guarantee that the tragic series of events which drove Orestes to the murder of his mother will never be repeated” (251).    Feminists beg to differ.  Why not allow the unavenged death to be that of a male?    Our text also states, “[t]he system of communal justice, which allows consideration of circumstance and motive, and which punishes impersonally, has at last replaced the inconclusive anarchy of individual revenge” (251).  How is the decision to allow Orestes to be acquitted impersonal or ladened with gender messages? 

ESSAY MUST INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:
1.    Correctly integrate quotes into your answer using the attached copy of Aeschylus Oresteia. http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks07/0700021h.html  (Please only use the provided web link information as a source. DO NOT use any other sources)
2.    Must be 450 or more words.
3.    MLA format