When thinking about justice, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Is it the sense of atonement from someone’s actions or is it a sense of revenge? In many instances, justice is seen as equaling the playing field after someone does them or their family wrong. In the play Agamemnon and The Libation Bearer, characters are stuck in a revolving door of anguish due to their inability to distinguish justice and revenge. Although the characters try desperately to strive for a sense of pure justice, in the end their intentions have dire consequences.
In the play Agamemnon, characters, both humans and gods, help in perpetuating the bloodthirsty want for justice to be served. The domino effect of anguish starts off when King Agamemnon has “the heart to sacrifice his daughter”(Ag.223-224) to Artemis in order for Agamemnon to get to Troy. In causing Agamemnon to kill his daughter, Artemis is setting the ball into motion of sorrow and revenge to transpire throughout the play. It then trickles down into queen Clytaemnestra when she starts to plan her husband's death in order to avenge the death of her daughter. In the play Agamemnon “rushes at the doors” (Ag. 160 side note)and finds Cassandra, his concubine, on the floor next to Clytaemnestra “sword in hand” (Ag. 160 side note). Clytaemnestra kills Cassandra first, because she feels hurt by Agamemnon bringing another woman into their home. Then after she resolves that issue with her sense of justice, Clytaemnestra then turns her anger to Agamemnon. She sees his lifeless body as a “masterpiece of Justice” (Ag.1430) . In seeing as what she as done as a masterpiece means that she feels that now her daughter’s death has been atoned. These deaths all happen in the search for justice, but as seen in the play the characters sense of justice only leads to more bloodshed and despair.
In The Libation Bearer it is clear to see that justice has to be achieved in order for Agamemnon to rest in peace. The play starts off with both Orestes and Electra weeping separately at their father’s grave. Then they come up with a pact to kill their mother in order to achieve a sense of justice for their father’s death. In order for their father to have peace in death, the siblings feel that bringing the murder, their mom, will achieve a sense of redemption for Agamemnon. After Orestes kills Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus, it is said that he is seen standing over their bodies just as “Clytaemnestra stood over the bodies of Agamemnon and Cassandra.” (Ag. 221 side note). The fact that Orestes kills Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus the same way that Clytaemnestra killed Cassandra and Agamemnon shows how the sense of justice the siblings are trying to achieve is actually revenge. In killing them the same way their father was killed, shows how the siblings, Orestes and Electra, wanted their mother to suffer the same way Agamemnon did and feel the pain that they were having over the death of their father.
Even though in both plays there is a never ending cycle of death when it comes to justice, there has to be some point when the people decide that enough is enough. Justice does not always call for an eye for an eye mentality. Sometimes justice can come from someone feeling bad for what they have done and apologizing for their actions. Justice is interpreted by what a person views as morally right. However it is extremely easy for people to confuse justice with revenge. In order to keep the two straight, people need to take a minute in order to set back and think whether it seems morally acceptable to take a certain action towards the person their anger is directed to. In taking the time to think rationally about how to achieve justice, could be the very thing that individuals need in order to come up with the appropriate sense of justice for the situation.
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