Bringing Psychology to Greek Lit The Oresteia is a trilogy about the house of Atreus. This intense trilogy largely focuses on the contrast between justice and revenge, or in other words good versus evil. Orestes plans on revenge in order to retaliate after the murder of his father. In Aeschylus we read that the difference between right and wrong and good versus evil is not as clear cut as we once thought it was. This is a very complex theme to unpack as there are many important factors going into this statement. For example, are all people inherently good or evil? Are some of us naturally born one way or another in the sense of good or evil? And most importantly is it really as black and white as good versus evil? Maybe we are all just human and make some mistakes and are neither fully good nor evil. Personally, I believe that people are naturally good...or at least that's what I want to believe in my own little world over here. Realistically though, as much as I want to believe people are naturally good, there have been many studies arguing both sides of the debate, like the Milgram study. Stanley Milgram researched how some people would (or would not) be willing to harm other people. The results concluded that humans are programmed to obey orders, no matter what the order is, even if that means hurting someone. Again, tying this back into our theme here, so does that make them a naturally evil person if they were willing to hurt someone? Or does that just mean that they made a mistake? Or, get ready - here’s the real kicker, did they just do it because that’s what they are told to do which in reality, doesn't even really portray their good versus evil mannerisms very well. The play hints at the fact that the characters in it are not necessarily bad, or evil, per say, but rather they just happen to get unlucky in their experiences. Personally, I think this may be the author's way of portraying our reality of unluckiness. Life as we know it is not fair, we experience many unfortunate events and hardships throughout our lives -- and some more than others. Some of us are more blessed in this aspect, that we are born into a wealthy family, or are privileged in more ways than we think. But not everyone gets that lucky. Though it's not fair the cards that we are dealt, we still must push on and be our best that we can be each and every day. So once again, as a psychology student, my brain immediately goes to the nature versus nurture theory and how that has an effect on people turning out as good or evil. Does who we are raised by affect if we become a good or evil human being? As psychologists unravel this controversial and classic debate about the role of nature (inherited) versus nurture (learned), we learn that nurture is commonly known as the influence of external factors after we are born into/with. There is evidence to support both sides of the argument and most conclusions with the argument end in people agreeing that people are affected by both nature and nurture. Though our environment and background help improve us being a good person, some of this goodness we display is also affected with what we were born with. In short, nature and nurture are always working together to contribute to the aspect of good versus evil, even though truly there is not simply not just a good or just an evil. We should be conscious of this black and white thinking. Oresteia spends the majority of its plays warning against this thinking. We all have many aspects of both good and evil, and it is affected by both our nature and our nurture. You can read more about the Milgram study here: https://www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html
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AuthorHi! My name is Alyssa and I am a fourth year Psychology major! When I'm not busy with work and school I enjoy cooking new recipes, and binging Schitt's Creek on Netflix. Archives |