

Feminist Christa Wolf, in her retelling of the story in a novella fittingly titled Cassandra, relates the tale through the point-of-view of Cassandra instead of Clytemnestra, as the sympathetic reader might initially expect. Paper NOW! ⬇️ TOPIC: Essay on Cassandra Written by Christa Wolf to Aeschylus's AssignmentBy usurping her husband's authority and taking a lover, Clytemnestra is a threatening figure to male power, although she treats her own daughter Electra cruelly, and kills Agamemnon's unwilling concubine Cassandra. Her decision to take a lover stands in marked contrast to good, faithful wives in Greek mythology, like Odysseus' wife Penelope, who patiently waits for her husband to come home.

But in the Aeschylus play, Clytemnestra is portrayed as evil and vengeful. Agamemnon tricked his wife into bringing their daughter Iphigenia to be slaughtered at the temple of Apollo, so he could keep his obligation to fight for Helen of Troy and lead the Greek forces. Clytemnestra's anger, even her infidelity, seems understandable to a modern reader. He expects a warm welcome and instead meets death at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra and her lover. In the mythological drama, the great leader of the Greeks, General Agamemnon, comes home after fighting the Trojan War. It was explicitly designed to be performed before an all-male audience. Cassandra Written by Christa Wolf to Aeschylus's AgamemnonĬhrista Wolf's Cassandra: A woman finally believed?Īeschylus' ancient Greek tragedy Agamemnon is a work told from the point-of-view of male eyes.
