In Colm Toibin's House of Names, the point of view varies between Clytemnestra, Electra, and Orestes. Clytemnestra and Electra's parts are pretty similar to Aeschylus's classic poem The Oresteia. However, the final point is very different from the famous original. The final part follows Orestes and his journey back his home Mycenae and how he deals with the turmoil in his family. Before he decides to travel home he ends up staying with Leander and an Elderly Women. While staying there he and Leander become Lovers. Instead of going back to Mycenae and suffering, what if rather than return, he stayed and tried to live a happy life with his lover. How would the rest of the story play out if Orestes never traveled home and killed his mother? What would happen to Clytemnestra, Electra, and all of Mycenae? If Orestes did this, I think the story could have gone down in three different ways. I think the most likely thing to happen is that Electra convinces someone else to kill Clytemnestra. Electra was very crafty and could have convinced a guard, civilian or even Aegisthus. Electra was becoming more and more like Clytemnestra every day, and I think she could used that to even convince Aegisthus to kill Clytemnestra to take soul power of Mycenae for himself. (Orestes) Whether she got Aegisthus to kill her or someone else, Electra would have used the death of her mother to become ruler of Mycenae. With Orestes gone, and Leander out of the picture (assuming she dealt with Aegisthus) Electra would be the only person capable of becoming the ruler of Mycenae. Electra could take power after killing Clytemnestra, or Clytemnestra could remain in power and spend her days ruling with Aegisthus at her side. With Orestes gone Electra could not have been able to take down Clytemnestra. With Electra not able to kill her, Clytemnestra would be the sole ruler with no opposition. With no opposition I think Clytemnestra would rule Mycenae until Aegisthus would kill her and take power for himself. I do not think that they had a real relationship. I think Clytemnestra wanted to fill the void Agamemnon left after she killed him and Aegisthus just wanted the political power that would come with being with her. I don't think there was any real love in their relationship, so I think Aegisthus would eventually kill her to gain more power. The final and what I think is the least likely way things would happen is that Electra either sends someone to find Orestes or searches for him herself, and they go back to Mycenae. I think this is highly unlikely because it would be incredibly hard for Electra to find Orestes and bring him back. If she was even able to find him, I think it would be hard to convince him to go back as he had been living with his lover and was happy. But if Orestes was willing to go back to Mycenae, I think the events of the book would play out rather similarly except Clytemnestra would have been around longer. Once Orestes arrives, Clytemnestra will die and Orestes will marry Leander's sister. If Orestes stayed with Leander the events of the book could have changed drastically.
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AuthorZach Knackstedt Archives
November 2021
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