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Gender Conflicts in the Oresteia


            This piece of literature, Oresteia, tends to focus on the simple question "Why Orestes is declared innocent?"" While all the different forms of violence propagated by Orestes, shows that there is a need to alter the justice system, it is not clear whether carrying out a trial is the legitimate approach towards acquiring justice. The Erinyes are justified for their dissatisfaction with the results of the judgment, since Apollo's argument concerning pollution is less convincing than their own version. The Erinyes strongly believe that Orestes is polluted, while on the contrary, Apollo's asserts that Orestes has been cleansed and it is the Erinyes who are polluted. Apollo's argument that mothers have no generic connection with their children, leave more questions to be asked pertaining to the issue of pollution. It also presents a serious analysis and evaluation of gender issues emerging throughout the text.
             Fowler deduces that masculine power is threatened by the murder of the King, Agamemnon by his wife Clytemnestra. The masculine power is further threatened by the acquittal of Orestes. Gender and the role of women and men are some of the greatest concerns throughout the trilogy. Fowler further holds that both Agamemnon and the Coleophora explore gender related issues by the use of imagery, mostly the animal imagery. The importance of imagery in this context is that it is rich in rhetoric and therefore supports masculine power. In this case, it either displays the positive portrayal of Agamemnon or criticizes those threatening masculine power. This is as indicated by the two women Clytemnestra and Helen. The Imagery here supports masculine power by arranging it into a new configuration of the human relationships. The family is perceived as the basis of gender with the elevation of the father to the status of the sole parent while the mother is completely removed and does not play any role in the family (Fowler 54).


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