The Role of Feminine Rhetoric in The Oresteia
Samantha Rhoads
Literature Humanities
Essay One, Wordcount: 2029
4 October 2014
The Role of Feminine Rhetoric Aeschylus’s The Oresteia explores the nuances of persuasive rhetoric. One of the most verbally powerful characters of the play, Clytaemestra, maintains her command solely through her effective use of persuasion. At the point in Greek history when The Oresteia takes place, war is in an interlude and the remaining warriors of the Trojan War carry out with their nostoi, or homecomings. Since the power of physical strength is no longer a driving force in Greek culture, as war no longer dominates society, this art of the womanly deception of speech evolves into the most powerful means of control in Greek society. The fervor of speech retains a feminine connotation because women were deemed duplicitous and conniving on a much broader level than men ever were. Masculine speech encompassed more political or public matters. Aeschylus develops this notion through Clytaemestra’s character by offering her a voice of intelligent deception, so illusory to the point of being masculine. In each play of The Oresteia, Clytaemestra employs specific rhetorical devices tailored to the audience she intends to cajole in her favor. She effectively alters the mode of her persuasion depending on the gender of her audience and her audience’s personal relationship witha her. Although Clytaemestra eventually meets her downfall due to a lapse in poise, her rhetoric introduces to the audience the idea that the confident and clever manipulation of words can play a pivotal role in influencing others’ decisions. Clytaemestra first employs her art of deception as she convinces Agamemnon, her husband, to traipse on the holy tapestries that are meant only for the gods. Although Agamemnon retains the dominant masculine role in their relationship, Clytaemestra’s subterfuge of words connotes that she truly possesses the power in their marriage. After her husband initially refuses her
Literature Humanities
Essay One, Wordcount: 2029
4 October 2014
The Role of Feminine Rhetoric Aeschylus’s The Oresteia explores the nuances of persuasive rhetoric. One of the most verbally powerful characters of the play, Clytaemestra, maintains her command solely through her effective use of persuasion. At the point in Greek history when The Oresteia takes place, war is in an interlude and the remaining warriors of the Trojan War carry out with their nostoi, or homecomings. Since the power of physical strength is no longer a driving force in Greek culture, as war no longer dominates society, this art of the womanly deception of speech evolves into the most powerful means of control in Greek society. The fervor of speech retains a feminine connotation because women were deemed duplicitous and conniving on a much broader level than men ever were. Masculine speech encompassed more political or public matters. Aeschylus develops this notion through Clytaemestra’s character by offering her a voice of intelligent deception, so illusory to the point of being masculine. In each play of The Oresteia, Clytaemestra employs specific rhetorical devices tailored to the audience she intends to cajole in her favor. She effectively alters the mode of her persuasion depending on the gender of her audience and her audience’s personal relationship witha her. Although Clytaemestra eventually meets her downfall due to a lapse in poise, her rhetoric introduces to the audience the idea that the confident and clever manipulation of words can play a pivotal role in influencing others’ decisions. Clytaemestra first employs her art of deception as she convinces Agamemnon, her husband, to traipse on the holy tapestries that are meant only for the gods. Although Agamemnon retains the dominant masculine role in their relationship, Clytaemestra’s subterfuge of words connotes that she truly possesses the power in their marriage. After her husband initially refuses her