the light and the darkness in the Oresteia
...e the sacrifice of her daughter, Iphigenia.In fact the words of the Chorus describe very well her desire of justice: “Now the darkness comes to the force , now the hope glows through your victims, beating this raw,relentless anguish gnawing at the heart.” And , it’s more emphasized when the Clytamnestra call: “Let the new day shine , as the proverb says glorious from the womb of the Mother Night.” No one in Argos can ,definitely,forget this event:Iphigenia’s sacrifice.This tragic murder is ,almost,ruining the joy of the end of the war. Thet’s why through all these images ,Clytamnestra claims her revenge.She can’t let a such horrible thing without justice .Already,through the first verses of “Agamemnon”,and all these images,we begin to see the forshadowing of Clytamnestra’s revenge. But what will be light for her will become darkness for the others.And ,Agamemnon’s family will enter a revenge cycle that wil end just in the end, with built of the court-house.Moreover , we see by the words of the Chorus rhat they fear this new light: “Fire comes and the new is good, it races through the streets but is it true?Who knows? Or just anither lie from the heaven?” They know ,that , a new day has come, but will it bring the closur they are all waiting for? Nmobody knows,except the gods. A father like Agamemnon is not supposed to kill his own daughter. And ,Agamemnon , has violated blood bonds.And such terrible crimes are , always , to the expense of social harmony. Further on ,we see that Cassandra’s prophecy emphasizes the imminent disaster: “he is so blind,so lost to that detestable hellhound who pricks her ears and fawns and her tongue draws out (…) No,he cannot see (…)” The story is , here ,at the state of chaos .Is this justice have to be done?Will it definitely , bring a closure to all the suffering? The words of the Chorus show us that this murder will be followed by others and that the light expected,in the beginning, is not a real one,it’s fake. So ,the search for salvation continues, The anticipated homecoming of Orestes forshadows the lost of Clytamnestra. In fact, the explanations of Agamemnon murder form the subject of the two following plays of the Oresteia.But, for instance, we understand the coming of orestes as very bad for Clytamnestra.He wants to avege his father and to restore order. All in the “Libations Bearers” tells us ,that something dreadful is going to happen . Oretes is full of anger by the death of his father and the only thing that he wants is to avenge him.He wants justice to be done,but not some divine justice,he wants “his” specific justice to be done.And , one more time , the Chorus feel this: “Sunless darkness grips the house which all men hate ,for now their master’s murdered.” In this play, we see he apparition of the gods.they were not present in Agamemnon.It brings a moral dimension to the justice,Orestes is talking about.In “Agamemnon” Clytamnestra , never, talked to the gods or asked them some advice.But here,we see that Apollo ,himself, recommended Orestes to avenge his father,that is to say : kill his mother. Orestes will commit this matricide with help of his sister ,Electra. And ,it’s not so easy for them to murder their mother.So ,Orestes invokk the soul of his father: “Oh my unhappy father, what can I say for you or do to send you, where you rest so far away ,some light to drive away your darkness?” The brother and the sister want to fill themselves of savageness to be able to kill their mother. Their memories give to the past the power to work on the present.Again ,we see that the words of the Chorus are forshadowing the built of the court-house f the end.They show that the gods watch and judje justly.Although, solutions are not simple, we have here a sense that at the end of this trilogy ,all wil come to right.Clytamnestra’s death has to happen ,and her murder will prove that there is a justice in the world.Despite,the his mother begging him not to kill him ,Orestes kills her.So , in the ned of the “Libations Bearers”, there is a false ending through the light. The sin of Orestes brings a false closure.This justice comes from human.And the ultimate justice can , just, come through the light of the gods. The Eumenides have been summopned by Clytamnestra to rune after Orestes and to avenge her.The Eumenides are a “mix” of an ancient and simple justice.What Orestes has done isnot, morally, good and he can’t escape punishment. But the closure is not ready to come , unless the gods decide to be a part of these stories.And so they will bring the final closure.The Eumenides are bitter against the new gods , who overturns ancient ways and laws. The furies believe in their own form of justice.That’s why they want to kill Orestes.And , indeed, at the very beginning of the play ,Apollo send Orestes to Athena ,where he will be judged justly for his crime.But,just before Clytamnestra wakes up the Furies from their sleep: “Carve them in your heart! The sleeping brain has eyes that give us light; We can never see our destiny by day” We see , here, that Clytamnestra encourages the night.It seems that she doesn’t want a closure .Her thist for avengement doesn’t have an end ....