Justice, Revenge, Ongoing Violence: AG

Justice, Revenge, Ongoing Violence:

AG -- "Heaven sends the vengeful fiends of hell. Even so doth Zeus, the jealous lord and guardian of the hearth and board, speed Atreus' sons, in vengeful ire, 'Gainst Paris -- sends them forth on fire, Her to buy back, in war and blood, Whom one did wed but many woo'd!" Here, the Chorus lays out the premise of Aeschylus' Agamemnon: the theme that runs through the play is one of revenge. The war that Agamemnon has gone off to fight is one based on vengeance and justice: Paris has stolen Helen for Agamemnon's brother. So all of Greece has gone to get her back. Troy finally falls after a long battle (ten years) and much violence. But Agamemnon's wife has been waiting for the return of her husband so that she can exact her own revenge -- for sacrificing their daughter to the gods!

KC -- "The law is explicit, I am indeed entitled to the office. But what the constitution of the Republic gives me, an amendment voted under conditions of doubtful legality takes away." Christophe thus establishes the problem that lurks at the heart of his Presidency and at the heart of the Republic -- one of distrust and spite: it will of course grow to violence -- and then Christophe will take his own life. The justice he seeks is rather revenge.

LB -- "On the life-giving lap of Earth blood hath flowered forth, and now the seed of vengeance clots the plain -- unmelting, uneffaced the stain." The Chorus states the problem that haunts Orestes: by avenging his father's murder, he has slain his mother -- but that means he has committed matricide. Now he is haunted by the Furies and the doubt that plagues him. Was it correct of him to seek blood for blood? That is the question put to the gods.

2. Idealism and the loss of Ideas:

KC -- Christophe's idealistic attitude is seen in his desire to restore dignity to his office by assuming dignified titles: "It's a lofty idea, gentlemen, and I'm glad to see that you have fully understood it…" But the reality is expressed by Magny: "Damn your esthetic foolishness! If he'd taken my advice, instead of having himself anointed with cocoa oil…he'd have buckled on his sword and led us to Port-au-Prince, where there's so much fine land to take and so many scoundrels to shorten by a head." Magny identifies Christophe's failure -- he is more concerned with pomp than with deed.

DD -- "Let me prophesy unto you…Our statue of Liberty is not cast. The furnace glows, and we may still all burn our fingers at it." Here, Danton alludes to the fact that the ideals of the French Revolution, liberty, fraternity, equality, have not been achieved yet -- and in the work that they must do to achieve those ideals, they may very well all perish. Danton points out the danger of their efforts: in fact, they are losing even as he speaks.

3. Attempts to build a new and better society:

KC -- Christophe wants to restore his people to the grandeur he feels they used to know: "In the past they stole our names, our pride, our nobility…Since we can't rescue our names from the past, we'll take them from the future." Christophe sees a path to a better world and restoration of pride -- but his vision has a fault: short-sightedness.

AG -- Agamemnon has desired to restore the order in his kingdom, Helen to her rightful husband: but he has offended the gods by boasting that he is a better hunter than they. Thus the Chorus cries: "Too far, too far our mortal spirits strive, Grasping at utter weal, unsatisfied…"

DD -- "We're the people, and we want no law: that's the law. In the name of the law no law. So that's death." Such is the mantra of the citizens as they are led by Robespierre onward to more bloody violence: those who stand in the way of their ideals must die: that is the law of the new republic -- the new and supposedly better Republic leading the way to the new and supposedly better society.

4. Murder and Execution:

DD -- The Young Man pleads to the blood thirsty crowd: "If you hang me to this lantern, will that make you see any clearer?" The demands of the crowd for more blood are thus momentarily stifled by the good sense of their next victim: he points out the erroneous rationale that leads them to murder and execution: it is no way to reach an ideal.

AG -- Cassandra the seer has a vision of the murder about to take place: "Home cursed of God! Bear witness unto me, Ye visioned woes within -- The blood-stained hands of them that smite their kin…!" Clytemnestra has determined to murder Agamemnon -- it is her revenge; and Cassandra sees it as a curse about to be carried out.

EL -- "O my father Agamemnon! In Hades art thou laid, butchered by thy wife and Aegisthus…" Thus wails Electra, fueling the hatred in her blood that will not be satisfied till it spills out the blood of the woman who murdered Agamemnon. Thoughts of murder consume Electra.

5. Abstraction:

DD -- Robespierre begins to see that he is living in a nightmare reality: his dreams seem real and what is real seems like a dream: "What's walking then but a clear dream? Are we night wanderers, and all our doings dreams? Hard, definite purposeful dreams? Who can blame us for that? Our souls in an hour act more in thought than the clumsy machines, our bodies, could bring off in as many years." Robespierre is lost in an abstraction -- he cannot quite reconcile his fancy with the horrible reality he is pursuing.

KC -- Christophe is lost in his abstracted state: He refuses to attack as Magny advises. Magny attempts to convince Christophe that all will be lost if he does not get his head out of the clouds, but Christophe only replies: "We have to believe it's possible, Magny." Magny answers: "I only hope that your eyes aren't opened too late." Christophe's eyes will be opened -- but as Magny fears, they will be opened too late.

MC -- Abstraction comes in the form of the song, repeated throughout: "Christians, awake! Winter is gone! The snows depart! Dead men sleep on! Let all of you who still survive Get out of bed and look alive!" This is the motivating force of the soldiers who are doomed to constantly keep moving, one foot in front of the next in a war that never ends and in which all is lost.