Cassandra's importance in Oresteia

Aeschlyus’s trilogy, The Oresteia, is a tragic manifesto that painfully paints a bloody chain of murder and revenge within the royal family of Argos. In the first respective play of the trilogy, “Agamemnon,” the character of Cassandra plays a vital role to the play and the trilogy as a whole, in numerous distinct ways. Cassandra, as seer and prophetess, connects the present with the past, and more importantly, draws a foreshadowing veil of doom …

…into the past, present, and future, and create an infinite amount of sympathy and compassion for all of the inhabitants of the doomed house of Argos. Without the vital role of Cassandra, the trilogy becomes extremely one-dimensional, dealing with each respective story separately and without continuity. Without the important bridge and window that Cassandra gives the audience, passion falls short and we’re left with three different interludes, instead of one sorrowful masterpiece. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**