Booth and Agamemnon

March 10, 2011 by toberlove 16 Comments

Man’s Will vs God’s Will

 

Hm. Where to start?

 I suppose, first of all, I’ll tell you where this all came from. On Tuesdays, I have Therapy, Greek & Roman Theatre, and History of Theatre 2. That being said, I apologize now for the complete and utter nerdiness of this.

Tuesday started off, per usual, with a discussion of my life in relation to Bones. We discussed the finale of Season 4, D-Day [100^th], and the finale of Season 5. The woman I was talking to even brought up Hannah. On the whole, it was unexpected. Anyway, we were discussing Booth’s two proposals: One to Brennan, One to Hannah.

Booth keeps getting turned down. This led to the woman saying, “It’s interesting that it’s the ‘manly-man’ in the show that wants it all: Marriage, a family, the whole shebang. But he keeps getting turned down. It’s like he’s cursed.”

Now, let’s move on my first class of the day: Greek & Roman Theatre. For the last few classes we’ve been discussing The Oresteia Trilogy. For those who don’t know (or care!) what that is, it’s a series of three plays that tell the story of Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, and Orestes, their son. The quick, fast, and dirty version of the plots are this: Agamemnon’s ancestors screwed up. This led Atreus, Agamemnon’s father, to kill his nephews and feed them to his brother, Thyestes. Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter in order to gain favorable winds for war. He goes to war, leaving his wife, Clytemnestra, to be in charge. She sends Orestes away, teams up with Aegisthus, the only remaining son of Thyestes, and kills Agamemnon and his mistress when they arrive back from the war. Orestes finds out, kills his mother, Clytemnestra, and is then brought up on the Ancient Greek equivalent of charges. He is put on “trial” and the trilogy ends with Orestes not getting punished.

This whole series of violence and problems was started by Tantalus, the first in the lineage. He did something bad [cooked his son and fed to the Gods]. From then on, the descendants were cursed. It became known as The Curse of The House of Atreus. From Tantalus to Orestes, they were all doomed.

Okay. That class ended and I moved to History of Theatre 2.

We are currently discussing English Language Theatre in the 1800s. Edwin Booth, son of Julius Brutus and brother of John Wilkes and JB junior, has almost an entire page in our textbook dedicated to him. [BTW, JB junior? JB? Jared Booth? Coincidence?] We spent the majority of the class discussing the Booth family, their actor legacy, and pictures of them. The Booth men were, quite literally, household names and the best in their profession.

 And then John Wilkes had to go and shoot the president. [He literally shoots Lincoln, jumps onto the stage yells “Sic Semper Tyrannus” and runs off. Only an actor would do it that dramatically. BTW.] From then on, the Booth name was very much a “Kiss of Death”. Even estranged relatives that married into the family were looked down upon.

So here is where it all comes together. There is The Curse of The House of Atreus. A last name that is considered cursed. And a man, albeit fictional, who keeps getting shut down. Coincidence? I think not.

So, here’s my question. Does this connection even apply? Can Seeley be the Booth version of Orestes? Can he be the one to break “The Curse of The House of Booth”? Or is he stuck in the cycle, like many before him, and it will be only his heirs who have a chance to “transfer the duty of imposing justice” and break the cycle?

Back to the beginning, to my title. I am not a religious person, but a major theme in The Oresteia Trilogy is Man’s Will vs God’s Will. Can Booth break this self-perpetuating cycle of loss? Or is this something from “The Gods” or God?

Thoughts from you? Can Booth get past himself in order to be himself? Can the man who believes in fate escape what seems to be his? Does that even make sense? That’s where you come in! Let’s discuss!