Examine Critically The Dramatic Structure And Relevance Of The Cassand

Examine Critically The Dramatic Structure And Relevance Of The Cassandra Scene In The Agamemnon Examine critically the dramatic structure and relevance of the Cassandra scene in the Agamemnon. BY SARAH SIKKES. Cassandra, was a daughter of Hecuba and King Priam, the rulers of Troy during the Trojan War according to Homer's Iliad. Cassandra was a beautiful young woman, blessed with the gift of prophecy by Apollo, who was infatuated with her. Unfortunately, she shunned Apollo at the last minute and he added a twist to her gift; Cassandra was doomed to tell the truth, but never to be believed. I promised consent to Apollo but broke my word... and ever since that fault I could persuade no one. [Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1208ff.] Have I missed the mark, or, like true archer, do I strike my quarry? Or am I prophet of lies, a babbler from door to door? [Cassandra. Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1194] For this reason Cassandra was not believed when, near the end of the Trojan War, she said that there was an armed force hidden in the wooden horse that the Achaeans had abandoned. King Priam did not know what to do with her, so he tried to keep Cassandra locked up and out of the way of the warriors of Troy. When Troy finally fell to the Greek invaders, Cassandra was attacked and supposedly raped by the Greek warrior Ajax of Locris, but eventually avenged by Athena. When Cassandra accompanied the Greek hero Agamemnon as his mistress to his homeland, she was killed by his vengeful wife, Clytaemnestra. Aeschylus's Agamemnon tells the story of the Greek hero Agamemnon's fateful return home to Myceneae, where his wife Clytaemnestra waits to kill him. Cassandra is a powerful figure in this play, foretelling the doom of the hero and herself through visions of a curse upon his household. On his arrival Agamemnon fell victim of a conspiracy conceived by his own wife Clytaemnestra and her lover Aegisthus, who murdered both Agamemnon and Cassandra. This too Cassandra predicted: ... for me waits destruction by the two-edged sword. [Cassandra. Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1149] The tragedy begins with Clytaemnestra awaiting Agamemnon's return from Troy, her secret lover and accomplice Aegisthus waiting for her instructions in the palace. Clytaemnestra has perfectly legitimate reasons for despising Agamemnon; he killed her former husband, Tantalus, and her baby, he married her by force, he ordered the sacrifice of their daughter Iphigeneia in order to calm the winds when the Greeks prepared to set sail for Troy, and he left her alone, sailing away to a war which lasted ten years. (Euripides Iphigeneia in Aulis 1148, Sophocles Electra 531) Plus, Clytaemnestra hears that Agamemnon is bringing back with him a concubine who was said to be a prophetess. Agamemnon and Cassandra enter the stage in a great parade. The parade is important to visualise the transformation in Agamemnon's fortune. Three visual images represent three stages in his downfall: the parade, the purple cloths, and the tableau exhibiting the dead bodies. The intensity of these images is built up progressively. The more impressive the procession and the treading upon the purple cloths, the steeper the fall. The procession leads both characters and audience into the web, impelling Agamemnon towards his death and the city into chaos. The procession is a starting point as well as an end: Agamemnon's and Cassandra's entrance from Troy in the beginning finds its closure in the tableau of the exposure of the bodies. A movement that started with a victorious parade ends in death and defeat. The reversal of man's destiny is clearly manifested on the stage: the victorious procession becomes a slaughterhouse. When Agamemnon and Cassandra arrive, Clytaemnestra greets them warmly and tries to comfort her in her misery of slavery. But Cassandra ignores Clytaemnestra, ready to face her fate. During the dialogue between Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, Cassandra is present and silent. Her silence reinforces the power of her role as witness to the double meanings and irony in the encounter. Her presence augments the already heightened tension on stage and moves the meeting between the two into a multiplicity of triangles: the royal king, queen, and war prisoner; the husband, wife, lover; the religious king, queen, and the virgin priestess. Cassandra's silent presence throughout the arrival scene of Agamemnon fills the scenic