Oresteia Feminist Critique Aeschylus Patriarchy Analysis Term Paper

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Response: The Feminist Critique of the Oresteia


I would agree with feminist critics that both the decision of the court as well as the establishment of the court itself (to replace the avenging judgment of the Furies) is significant. The court explicitly states that the status of the father is superior to that of the mother. The woman’s role in defining a son’s identity is deemed lesser than that of the father. Thus, Orestes was deemed to be right to kill his own mother.
It should be noted that Agamemnon, the husband that Clytemnestra kills, killed his own daughter Iphigenia to get a fair wind to bring him to Troy, and also was unfaithful with his wife with other women. This was expected of men, but not of women in patriarchal ancient Greece. Clytemnestra hated her husband (and was unfaithful to him) on very legitimate grounds. But once again, this shows the devaluation of women in Greek society.
In fact, the creation of an all-male tribunal to replace the Furies itself symbolizes the triumph of males in patriarchy. They replace the female-centered justice that condemned Orestes for…

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…and men may dispose of them as they will.
The ultimate decision is a highly gendered one. The impersonal law that is laid down by the court is that the death of a man (a father) is the ultimate crime—patricide is worse than

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wikipedia.org/wiki/Matricide" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">matricide. This creates a law so there is no tension or paradox in terms of what should be done when someone is facing a conflict like Orestes. But the law ultimately favors the male gender in the system of justice. Yes, impersonal laws are put into place, but they are laws which are….....

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