Orestes Daredevil Good Evil Myth Comparative Analysis

The character of Orestes in Aeschylus\\\\\\\'s Eumenides can be seen as having some influence on the Marvel superhero Daredevil if the two are compared in a thematic way. Both have narrative arcs that parallel one another as they include themes of justice and vengeance. The characters themselves must deal with unique legal and moral dilemmas. Aeschylus presents Orestes in a struggle for moral justification, as he faces judgment for the murder of his mother, Clytemnestra. This ancient myth might seem far from the modern story of a superhero named Daredevil, but the two are closer in spirit than one might think. Daredevil’s story is actually somewhat similar as he wrestles with his role as both a lawyer and a vigilante in Hell\\\\\\\'s Kitchen, where he tries to instill justice in a flawed world where justice seems all but missing. One big difference between the two is that Orestes is ultimately bound by the decision of the gods—he is acquitted by the gods, but he is still bound by them; Daredevil, however, exists as a vigilante outside of the system of justice; he is somewhat like a god or like the Furies in that he answers to no one and haunts the guilty in his own way. This difference perhaps indicates a cultural shift in terms of how moderns view justice compared to the ancients. Nonetheless, the ancient’s influence on the modern is still apparent to a degree when Orestes and Daredevil are compared.

In The Eumenides, Orestes is haunted by the Furies, spirits of vengeance, who pursue him for killing his mother—which he did only because she killed his father. Orestes\\\\\\\'s vengeance was in fact divinely sanctioned by Apollo—yet he is not free from punishment: the Furies haunt him, and he cannot find peace. His life reflects a kind of internal conflict between moral duty and the law. Apollo justifies the matricide as necessary for upholding justice. Still, and in spite of this divine endorsement, Orestes experiences terrifying anguish from the unrelenting torture of the Furies, who alone are permitted vengeance of the type that Orestes dealt to his mother. The conflict is a deep one because it questions the very system and nature of the gods. Orestes represents the moral ambiguity at the heart of ancient Greece’s justice. This ambiguity is not resolved until he is eventually granted sanctuary and a trial in Athens. Here, Athena’s creation of a court to judge his actions could be seen as symbolic—as the beginning of a legal system that probes intent, motive, context, and what can be permitted??.

Daredevil (real name Matt Murdock) is a character who also has an inner struggle centered on a conflict between law and vengeance. Murdock is a lawyer by day and vigilante (Daredevil) by night. He knows the limitations of the legal system, and he feels compelled by honor, duty, integrity, and justice to act outside the legal system to protect his community from corruption and evil. Much like Orestes, Daredevil is not bound by a legalistic idea of right and wrong. He believes the letter of the law is inadequate. He represents a spirit of justice. Yet, interestingly, he is also a man of faith—like Orestes. He does not believe in gods but rather in God, Christ, Who preached forgiveness. As a Catholic, Murdock/Daredevil is conflicted: should he follow the law and try to forgive, or should he pursue justice? His vigilantism represents a form of justice that is extrajudicial. He questions if his actions actually serve the public good or if they simply satisfy his own desire for vengeance. This moral ambiguity and tension stems from religious beliefs, which affect his sense of justice and sin. Indeed, according to Rosen, “Murdock is a practicing Catholic, one of few superheroes who prescribes to any organized religion, which also contributes to his strong sense of social justice” (383). Murdock knows the legal letter of the law; he also knows the spirit of the law (social justice) according to the Christian framework. Where the tension comes from—and this is where his narrative arc really mirrors that of Orestes—is the problem of how to reconcile social justice with divine justice. God says vengeance is mine in Scripture. Yet social justice demands some kind of order and meeting out of punishment lest social order itself fray and society become chaos. Orestes grapples with the guilt and divine retribution associated with his sanctioned matricide (how can the gods be conflicted?—well, they are), and Daredevil’s religious conviction compels him to seek justice, even when doing so requires breaking human laws—and perhaps even divine ones?.

In Orestes’ case, Apollo literally commands the young man to avenge his father. This amounts to divine authorization. The problem is not all the gods seem to agree, and the Furies especially do not agree. Thus, Orestes’s plight is that the act’s merit is debatable, and his agency of divine justice has to be clarified. Daredevil is kind of in a similar situation—although he is not so explicitly called by God to dole out punishment to evildoers. Yet, he has been given a special gift by Providence as it were: a radar sense, which could be considered a manifestation of divine intuition. His unique perception helps him know the “truth” of situations in a way that somewhat reflects Orestes’s divine mandate.

Likewise, Orestes’s guilt-driven torment by the Furies parallels Daredevil’s inner conflict, especially as it relates to his Catholicism. Both characters find themselves bound by obligations that seem to go above human law and question the consistency of divine law. Orestes seeks absolution from Athena, who establishes a trial that allows for a new interpretation of justice. In Daredevil’s case, his actions as a vigilante often lead him into conflict with the very laws he upholds in his career as a lawyer, and inevitably raise questions about justice vs. mercy, order vs. chaos from a Christian perspective.

The evolution of justice in The Eumenides, as seen in Athena’s establishment of a court, contrasts the primitive vengeance-driven practices of the Furies with a new rule of law. The rule of law is a parallel to Daredevil’s own courtroom justice, where the modern narrative critiques the modern justice system as being inadequate. In a sense, Daredevil is reverting back to the ancient vengeance-driven style of justice personified by the Furies. He himself is like the new Fury. But is it Christian? The Furies in The Eumenides represent an ancient, merciless, blind form of justice where retribution is unstoppable. They argue that Orestes deserves punishment because sin is sin and cannot be undone or washed away, no matter the pretty face one puts on it.