The Oresteia

Essay: Greek Drama

Select one - and only one - of the topic options listed below.

Write a composition of five (5) to eight (8) paragraphs, including a clear introduction, a well-developed body, and a summary conclusion.

Use specific details and examples, fully explained reasons, and/or clearly organized incidents from the work to develop your essay response. Be specific.

Have a definite plan for the organization of your paper - either on paper in the form of an outline or in your head in the form of clearly logical thought. (You need not turn in an outline.)

Use linking expressions and transitions to identify the movement of your thoughts, the organization of your plan, the relationship of your points. (For example, use words such as first, second, third, another, additionally, on the contrary, on the other hand, since, because, although, however, consequently, and so on.)

Stick to the question you select. Do not attempt - do not even ask - to combine any of the options below.

Remember that an A paper is superior in content and style, going beyond merely answering the question to answer it in a pleasing, engaging, or creative way. A B paper may differ from an A paper on points of style: the B paper may not have employed sentence or diction variety, for example. A C paper is an average paper: it answers the question but with a minimum of detail and little concern for style. A D or F paper depends primarily on trying to do a “snow job” on the teacher. It substitutes generalizations for specific details and deceptive reasoning for clear thinking. In all cases, of course, the grade depends on readability and mechanical correctness, too.

Prompt

Explain Aristotle’s concept of catharsis. Make your explanation specific by demonstrating how each play in the Oresteia trilogy evokes catharsis.

Essay: A Guide to Writing

I. Select the prompt on which you will write your essay as soon as the teacher makes the assignment.

• A. Choose a prompt that you understand.
• B. If you understand none of them, ask the teacher at the earliest possible opportunity. Have specific questions ready to ask. [Forgetting to ask is not a satisfactory excuse.]
• C. Make a list of questions that you will have to answer in order to write an essay response to your chosen prompt.

II. Start gathering material to create a thorough and specific essay in response to the prompt. Keep a separate section in your notebook with plenty of paper for this purpose.

• A. As you read, take notes of any information - plot events, character traits, setting detail, or theme ideas - that relates to your chosen prompt. [You should especially keep track of passages from the text that have a direct bearing on your chosen prompt. Either note their page and paragraph location or copy them out on the spot.]
• B. Watch for study questions that relate to your prompt or contribute information themselves.
• C. In class, take notes on any material that the teacher or other students bring up that could contribute to your essay.
• D. During class discussion, ask questions about the day’s assignment to discover any material that you might use in writing your essay. [Asking “Is there anything in today’s assignment that I could use in my essay?” is not a good idea. Ask questions that your chosen prompt will need answered.]
• E. Keep your notes organized and together.

III. After a few days of notetaking, review what you have recorded and write a preliminary thesis statement.

• A. Study the prompt to see if you can turn a question into a statement or if you can take a statement from the prompt to serve as your preliminary thesis.
• B. List the points you will need to make to prove that preliminary thesis. Leave plenty of space between each point. [Try to have at least three points you will use to prove your preliminary thesis.]
• C. Under those points, list the specific details from the literature that you will need to use to prove each point. [Make sure you have at least three details for each point.]

IV. After you have read the last assignment, review your notes, your preliminary thesis statement, and your preliminary plan. Revise your earlier work to make a thorough topic outline or map of the essay you will write in response to your chosen prompt.

• A. On a fresh sheet of paper, write your first idea for a title on the top line. [Do not use the title of the book or play which you have just read. Create a title that focuses on your thesis, but keep it brief.]
• B. Skip a line and write out your revised thesis statement. [It should be one complete declarative sentence that clearly states the central idea of your essay- in-progress.] Or, if you are doing a map, write the central idea in the middle of the page and draw a box around it.
• C. Skip a line. Write the Roman numeral I and after it the word Introduction. Or, if you are doing a map, draw one line leading out from the box for each main point you will use to prove your thesis.
• D. Skip another line. Write the Roman numeral II. After it write the first main point you will use to prove your thesis. Skip several lines and repeat the process with III, IV, and so forth for each main idea you will use in proving your thesis. Or, if you are doing a map, write one main idea on each line you drew out from the box.
• E. Under each point, list the examples you will use to make that point. Label each of them in order with a capital letter. Or, if you are doing a map, draw little horizontal lines from your long “main point” lines and indicate at each line a different example you will use to prove your thesis.
• F. Under each example, list the specific details or quotes you will use to illustrate each example. Label each of them in order with the numbers 1, 2, 3, and so forth. Or, if you are doing a map, draw lines out from the examples to connect details to them.

V. Write a rough draft of your essay.

• A. Follow your outline.
• B. Try to write just the body paragraphs in about thirty minutes. [Do not bother with either the introduction or conclusion at this point unless you have clear ideas about how you want to handle either or both of them.]
• C. Write the introduction using one of the following methods.
• 1. Start with your thesis statement. Follow with sentences that outline the body of your paper. [Make sure you do not use these sentences again anywhere in your essay.]
• 2. Use the inverted triangle that moves from a general statement through progressively more specific ones until you get to your thesis statement. [If you do not know how this works, do not use it.]
• 3. Define the key term that lies at the heart of your essay, using two to four sentences to do so. [Do not cite a dictionary definition. Use your own ideas.]
• 4. Offer a brief anecdote that sums up the character, event, theme, motive, or image that your body paragraphs discuss.
• D. Write the conclusion using one of the following methods.
• 1. If you did not use option #1 for your introduction, summarize the main point of your essay. [Do not, however, repeat any sentences you have already used.]
• 2. Study the prompt to see if it hints at or directly suggests the content of the conclusion.
• 3. Explain the significance or relevance of the idea on which you have written.
• 4. Relate your subject to human nature in general or to the world we live in.

VI. Revise your essay.

• A. Make sure that your paragraphs follow a logical order. Make sure that transitions between paragraphs help lead your reader through that order.

• B. Make sure you have stuck to your thesis without straying off into loosely related or totally unrelated ideas.

• C. Make sure you have provided as many specific and concrete details as possible.

• D. Try to eliminate as many instances of is, are, was, were, be, and being as you can. Replace them with action verbs in the active voice.

• E. Check to see if your sentences are all about the same length. If so, combine some to make longer sentences or break up others to make shorter ones.

• 1. Make sure your sentences do not all begin with the same word.

• 2. Make sure your sentences do not all begin with the subject.

• 3. Try to avoid the use of and and so.

• 4. Eliminate the use of there before words like is, are, was, and were.

• F. Check to see that you have not overused a word or words. If you have, use alternatives or pronouns whenever possible.

• G. Check your essay for fragments, run-ons, and rambling sentences.

• H. Check the grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling in your essay. [You have no excuse for misspelling any proper nouns connected with any book you have read in this course.]

• I. Remember to underline titles of books but not to underline or place in quotation marks your essay’s title.

• J. Make sure you have one-inch margins on each side of your paper. Make sure your paper is standard composition paper or standard typing paper.

• K. Make sure you have placed the proper heading in the proper place on the first page of your essay. Make sure you have page headings (your name and the page number) on the top line and to the right side of each page thereafter.

VII. Have your paper ready when you walk in the door on the due date. Staple it without the teacher’s having to remind you to do so.

Note

Late papers lose twenty percent (20%) per day late.

Papers copied from any source - but especially Cliffs Notes or Monarch Notes receive a zero (0) and cannot be redone.

Sample Essay

Derek Erhard

Great Books

October 13, 1993

Period 1

Catharsis

In his Poetics Aristotle asserts that through pity and fear tragedy produces catharsis, a purging of the emotions through pity and fear inspired by the play. Though scholars have debated his exact meaning for centuries, one theory of his meaning gives tragedy a particularly instructive purpose. It states that spectators vicariously participate in the action of the tragedy. They learn the destructive nature of the protagonist’s choices and learn to avoid them in their own lives. In much the same way, some modern film-makers assert that they tell tragic tales to persuade the audience not to make the same mistakes. Aeschylus’ Oresteia evokes just such emotions in each of its three plays.

In the Agamemnon the title character sacrifices his own daughter, razes Troy to the ground, and brings home a concubine. The first act indicates that he places his image as a general above his role of father. The second demonstrates that he does not observe the Greek commandment to do “nothing in excess.” The third shows his lack of respect for his wife and marital fidelity. His mistakes cost him his daughter, his kingdom, and his life. His horrible death - struck in the back by his faithless wife as he completes the ritual purification for having taken life - inspires terror as his death screams reverberate from offstage. The spectator pities his horrible end but fears the consequences of his arrogant choices.

Clytemnestra fares no better in The Libation Bearers. Not only does she assassinate her husband, but she also mutilates his body. The horror of the image of her cutting off his hands to prevent his ghost from strangling her strikes sufficient fear into the heart of any member of the audience. However, her dream of giving birth to and suckling an adder augments the terror. In contrast, her pleas that Orestes spare her life nearly move the sympathetic viewer to pity - if he did not already know from the Agamemnon how easily lies drip from her tongue and how shamelessly she admits to them after her crime. Orestes, too, communicates the horror of guilt as the hideous vision of the Furies begins to manifest itself to him. If the observer has accepted Orestes’ motives and the vendetta code, he may well feel pity for the afflicted young man. However, he may more likely recognize the haunting madness of a conscience racked by guilt as it meditates upon the heinous crime of matricide.

In the Eumenides, Orestes seeks to cleanse himself of the murder of his mother and exorcise the demons who hound his every step. However, the ghost of his mother spurs the pus-weeping hags to pursue her son. Later, in Athens, while Athena tries Orestes’ case, the Furies threaten to blight the city if the jurors vote against them - a most horrifying prospect. Orestes himself must grapple with the threat of death that looms before him should the jury vote to convict him. The split decision of that jury focuses on the terrible consequences of even the more civilized justice system instituted by Athena. If the spectator has placed himself in the court alongside Orestes, he must feel the young man’s dreadful burden of guilt and remorse. He must pity Orestes even as he remembers the ghastly scene of Clytemnestra’s final moments of life and the appalling image of the Furies. Surely, he will not desire to make such mistakes himself.

Though responses to any work of art will vary from individual to individual, few can deny that such tragedies as those of the Oresteia evoke powerful emotions and prompt serious thought. The monumental sufferings of Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, and Orestes both move and teach most involved spectators and readers. As the playwright says through the Argive elders, “truth is only learned by suffering.” Aristotle’s theory of catharsis holds true.