Реферат: Progression Towards Light Essay Research Paper Progression

seen in the second play of the trilogy, The Libation Bearers. Orestes is the

embodiment of this light, a beacon signalling a possible end in the evil that

has infected the house of Atreus. It is true that Orestes, in revenge for

Agamemnon, kills his mother Clytaemestra. Yet the darkness that is expected

from such a murder, a matricide, is negated by one of the main reasons that

Orestes commits the murder: his fear of the wrath of Apollo, who has ordered

him to commit the deadly act. Aeschylus provides Orestes with a justification

for his action in the form of the oracle from Apollo. For not only does

Orestes’ murder of his mother fail to differ greatly from Clytaemestra’s murder

of Agamemnon, but it can in fact be seen as a worse crime because of the blood

ties. Therefore, in order to convincingly prove his assertion that Orestes is

justified in killing his mother, Aeschylus must include the order from Apollo,

who by no mere coincidence is the god of light. With the divine support of the

light god on his side, Orestes is the beginning of the progressive illumination

towards goodness and order in the Oresteia.

Another example of Orestes’ introduction of light into a story of

darkness occurs later in The Libation Bearers. The chorus is describing the

dream that Clytaemestra has had of giving birth to a snake, which represents

Orestes. The chorus sings of Clytaemestra’s fear as she awakens from the

nightmare: ?She woke screaming out of her sleep, shaky with fear, as torches

kindled all about the house, out of the blind dark that had been on them? (lines

535-537). Aeschylus describes the house of Clytaemestra, the rightful house of

Atreus and the Atridae, as dark; this darkness has been caused by none other

than her own murderous deeds. She has dreamt of the coming of her son Orestes

to avenge his father, and the torches that light up the house signal this coming.

Clearly, Orestes is the man who will restore light to the house of Atreus.

Orestes is looked upon by those characters sympathetic to his plight

(namely Electra and the chorus of The Libation Bearers) as the light which will

bring an end to the evil in the house of Atreus. Soon after Orestes reveals his