Oresteia at the Almeida theatre is one of the best plays I
have seen recently. Aside from the imaginative set designed by Hildegard
Bechtler, the part of Klytemnestra grippingly portrayed by Lia Williams, a
beautifully re-imagined script by Robert Ike; the key themes, of reality vs.
perception and justice vs. mercy of this ancient text by Aeschylus continue to be relevant
in today’s context.
Some of the questions raised for me were - to what extent is
society responsible for an individual’s brokenness and her or his subsequent
misdemeanour? And since there is no such thing as an objective perception, how
valid is each individual’s subjective perception[1]?
Orestes’ matricide and murder of his mother’s lover can be
directly traced to his father’s murder of his daughter, Orestes’ sister,
Iphigenia. Agamemnon, the King of Argos and Orestes’ father had, “for the
greater good”, sacrificed Iphigenia in order to win the Trojan War. They triumphed in the war and Agamemnon
returned to a seething wife, Klytemnestra who, in her husband’s absence, had
taken on a lover, Aegisthus. Klytemnestra then murders Agamemnon in a revenge
act reminiscent of a sacrifice with three symbolic strikes. Later on Orestes,
Klytemnestra's and Agamenon’s son, spurred on by his sister Electra, kills their
mother and her lover to avenge their father’s murder. The same people who
encouraged Agamemnon to sacrifice his daughter – an act that kick started the
cycle of violent murders - then try Orestes in a law court setting. The cycle
of violence in Oresteia began with a prophecy stating, "The child is the
price". This same prophecy that led to the sacrifice of Iphigenia now stands as a
judgement over Orestes during his trial. Thus the prophecy unchangingly ran
parallel to a series of murders it had catalysed. Who then is really guilty of the
murder of Klytemnestra and Aegisthus? Agamemnon? Society? Electra[2]?
Orestes? All of the above? None of the above?
On an episode of QI (J5) Stephen Fry mentioned how the Traore and the Kone tribes in Africa have staved off revenge wars
for hundreds of years. When another member hurts a member of the tribe, instead
of retaliating, the wronged individual goes to an innocent third party and
takes the anger out on him by saying “your mother is a bean eater”. That
innocent third party then passes on this insult to another etc. This practice
ensures that the wronged person is (sort of) avenged whilst preventing a cycle
of never ending violence. This Traorean and Konean practice is similar to
divine justice, except that divine justice does not diss your mama.
The rest of this article will discuss
divine justice not as a substitute for the judiciary but rather as mitigation
for personal revenge. The judiciary is absolutely necessary for an orderly
society and does oftentimes satisfy the need for anger and/or personal revenge
at another’s wrongdoing.
Divine justice offers mercy to anyone who recognises her/his
own guilt. The murder of Christ, also an act of self-sacrifice on his part,
serves as a surrogate for the wrongdoings of others and puts an end to the
cycle of revenge violence. This, sadly, is not always realised in the present.
And even sadder is that Christianity has been used, and is being used, to
justify violence. However, this does not take away from the power of Christ’s
self-sacrifice via his crucifixion. His sacrifice demands participation on
human part. It demands that we allow God to forgive us as well as to give us
the grace to forgive others. There is a scientific dimension to forgiveness: Judith
Orloff, the Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA, in an article
entitled Emotional
Freedom in Psychology Today, explains that revenge not only reduces one to
one’s worst state but also leads to stress and low immunity. She goes on to
argue that the survival of the human species is dependent on forgiveness.
The words “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin
against us” are part of the Our Father, a prayer from the bible described as
being taught to the disciples of Christ by Christ. To forgive others begins
with recognition of one’s own imperfect state. Charles Griswold in his book Forgiveness: A Philosophical Exploration
suggests that “forgiveness is more at home in an ethical scheme that emphasises
our irremediable imperfection”. The family, friends and church members of the
victims of the recent Charleston shootings powerfully embody the divine justice
of mercy by their radical forgiveness of the shooter. The son of one of the
victims, less than twenty-four hours after his mother and eight other church
members had been gunned down in a hate crime down during a prayer meeting,
declared, “we forgive him because love is stronger than hate”. The loving
self-sacrificial act of Christ, the Son of God, can and does serve as a
cycle-of-violence-ending, redemptive act (if we choose to participate). The
Oresteian prophecy of “the child is the price”, perceived through the
crucifixion, breaks the cycle of violence instead of catalysing never-ending
acts of revenge.
[1] I hope
to attempt an engagement with the issue of perception in the near future
[2] In the
re-imagining of the play at the Almeida theatre, Electra was a figment of
Orestes’ imagination. Orestes had invented a sister, resulting in a split
personality, perhaps as a result of his childhood trauma.
