The Agamemnon of Aeschylus - Assignment Example

The Agamemnon of Aeschylus Aeschylus (525- 456) was a great Greek tragedy writer. He was the first of two other writers of that genre which included Euripides and Sophocles. Aeschylus had a very unique style of writing. Being the pioneer of the tragedy literary style of writing, showed how bold he was. He wrote mainly for the theatre audience and his works revolved around pertinent issues of the day. His writings were Athenian and were greatly influenced by history. They always carried moral messages and very strong themes that resonated well with the public. He literary set a trend for later playwrights and writers of to follow (Herington, 2005). The tragedy style involved writing sorrowful and sad events in a serious and noble way. One unique aspect about Aeschylus writing is the way he used to draw a connection between people and gods. For example, his famous play Prometheus Bound, depicted the main character, Prometheus as being punished ruthlessly by the community for disrespecting Zeus, the god. He had defied the god by burning the humankind. In another play, the Amagemnon, he depicted prophetess Cassandra getting punished for defying a god as well (Beck, 1995). The punishment meted on him involved having him tied to a mountain peak. Zeus is portrayed as having a dominating personality whereas Prometheus is defiant. Both Zeus and Prometheus have a lot of pride and none is willing to humble himself and apologize or at least compromise on their stand. The play emphasized Aeschyulus’ philosophy about how people have to learn through suffering like Zeus and Prometheus did in that play. The writer was trying to put across the message of how god was supposed to mix justice and mercy in judging Prometheus who was to obey the authority in return. Aschyulus is noted to have completely changed the way playwrights in the ancient Greek used to write plays. Those days, plays were written for one actor and a choir. He changed that by including one or two more actors in his scripts. Besides that, his stories also had great ideas that he could express so well and put across to the audiences. His most acclaimed plays was the Oresteria trilogy that had three plays; Agamennon, The Eumenides, and Choephori. In one of them, the Agamennon, the story was the epitome of his genious style of tragedy. It depicted the tale of a king named Agamennon, who comes back home from the Trojan War. The war had taken place in 490-480 BC between the Greeks and Trojans. He had fought bravely and survived the war but to the audience’s surprise, his wife connived with his lover killed him in cold blood. That was not the reception that we could have expected to befit a heroic gesture like that of King Agamemnon. Aeschylus had a way of presenting tragedies in the play when the audience least expected it to happen ( Raeburn, & Thomas et al. 2011). The writer’s unique style of writing thrived on the portrayal of the vicious cycle evil and the great consequences of permitting evil it in the society. All the three plays in this trilogy have a similar theme of justice. Aeschylus believed in the world order whereby he had hoped the there could be justice in the world. He also believed that people must suffer for them to learn. His view of the world was the world order in which people did things according to the gods will and there were severe repercussions for those who tried to defy the god’s authority and will. Thus, he belived that people did a wrong deed that lead to breeding guilt and agony but following the will of god could enable them to acquire knowledge about god’s will (Herington, 2005). His writing included many other stylistic devices used in literature to describe ideas, objects, and emotions. He used similes, and metaphors, to bring out his imaginations from his mind and paint a clear picture on the audiences’ minds (Raeburn, & Thomas et al., 2011). He was fond of using metaphors and similes continuously in one sentence to capture the audiences’ imagination. For example, in one of the stories,one of Aschylus' character prophetess Cassandra recites an oracle that has these phrase "scents with keen nostril the trail of ancient evil" (Beck, 1995). He was particularly enchanted with personification that he used elaborately to bring out his concepts and ideas. He used metaphoric and personified phrases such as golden- helmed, travel-trodden and beam-compacted to express his ideas( Beck, 1995). He was thought to have borrowed the style from his predecessors in the literary world such as Homer but his use of personification showed greater prowess and imagination to articulate them (1995). He personified inanimate objects which rendered his works the feel of poetry. Such phrases included when he said that Swords are both "savage-hearted" and "swift of foot,". In another instance, he described that the waves of the sea quiver with "endless laughter His use of vivid description is evident in phrases such as when he was saying that god’s wrath would “trample with heavy feet over Persia” and that a decision is immovable and “pegged down with a bolt.” Aeschylus is also known to have written in a manner that had a high word volume. He used compound words a lot making his works be extremely rich in language. His writing was considered to be of a high standard in those early years and they are revered up to today. Probably because of his ability to present the society as it was and confronted the issues that were people of Greece were dealing with at the time. His boldness in writing is likened to that of Shakespeare and is apparent when he uses contradicting metaphors in one sentence to express an idea. For example, Aeschylus wrote this phrase "no hope to wind off anything profitable from the burning flames of their mind," (Beck, 1995). Generally, his style was simple, had freedom and dignity. He defied the rules of writing to come up with his well written stories. Part 2: Creative writing The tale of Calvin Bryce Calvin was born in 1980 in Chicago. His family was not well of financially but they managed to lead a modest life. Their home was just a tiny house in the suburbs of the city. His father was of Caucasian descent and his mother French. His mother hailed from a wealthy family but she was disowned after felling in love and married a Caucasian man. Calvin’s father was the sole bread winner in the family and he worked in a company as a mechanic. He worked hard and ensured that his family never lacked the basics. One day however, while at work, the father was hit by a loose metal and he sustained very serious head injuries. Calvin was sixteen and in high school. He was perturbed when he received the news that his father was rushed to the hospital with in a critical condition. His father’s company was kind enough to pay for the hospital bill and have his father treated by the most qualified doctors at the hospital. Unfortunately, the father succumbed to the injuries four days later. Tom and his mother were very devastated by the tragic news. They had hoped that his father would come out of the coma one day and go home with them, but it was never to be. After the burial, Calvin and his mother tried to compose themselves and see what they were going to do in order to survive. His mother took longer than normal to come to terms with her husband’s demise. She became withdrawn and did not speak much. Calvin had composed himself and gone back to school. He was determined to work hard and take the role of his late father as the breadwinner in the home. He tried to console his mother and ease her pain by cracking jokes for her but day by day she sank deeper and deeper in depression. Tom watched as his mother’s health deteriorated by the day. One day, he just returned from school to find her lifeless body on the bed. Calvin cried uncontrollably over the loss of his mother. Within only six months, he had become an orphan. Fearing that he will be taken away by the social service people to a foster family, he dialed 999 and informed the police of the dead body, packed his clothes and left the house. He was prepared to live on the streets rather than end up living with some strangers in a foster home. He survived in the streets with other homeless people, selling anything and doing odd jobs just to survive. Then one fateful day, as he was heading to his shanty after toiling the whole day, some two guys splint past him and there were police chasing them. He got caught up in a police shoot out and was hit by a stray bullet. He laid there on the sidewalk, blood oozing from his various bullet wounds, and as the light dimmed in his eyes, he said his last prayers. He appeared peaceful and had a sly smile pasted across his face. He knew perfectly well that he was going to be reunited with his parents. He believed that he had not wronged God in any way, it was just his will that things had to he had to suffer so much in his lifetime. Reflection Aeschylus style of writing is very phenomenon. He believed that every evil action attracted a punishment from god. He was also keen and noticed all the injustices that he saw around him and went ahead to include it in his writing. His ability to use the literary works to pass on moral messages and criticize the leadership has been borrowed by writers many years after Aeschylus died. Additionally, the philosophy about people learning through suffering is still valid today. It is true that we all draw lessons out of our most painful experiences. He held a very controversial belief that the tragedies that befall us are due to defying the gods which are still debatable up to today. Aeschylus had a very unique way of writing that goes to show that you can be innovative even in writing and create your own style of expressing yourself without fear. We can also deduce from his work that, life cannot be how we expect it to be and that our all actions indeed attract consequences. The observation underscores the importance of thinking carefully before making any small or big decision in our lives. Works cited Beck, Robert Holmes. Aeschylus: Playwright, Educator. The Hague: Nijhoff, 1995, Print. Herington, John. Aeschylus. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005, Print. Raeburn, David, Thomas, Oliver, and Aeschylus, The Agamemnon of Aeschylus: A commentary for students, New York, Oxford University Press, 2011, Print. Read More