After reading Christa Wolf’s four essays at the end of the book, I now understand method and the madness behind her research and writing of the novel of Cassandra, the story of Troy from Cassandra’s perspective.
My suspicions from the beginning about the theme of gender and particularly the role of women was confirmed during my reading of Wolf’s last two essays: her work diary and her letter. Wolf talks about how the original societies in Greece were matriarchal. The main deity was Gaia, mother Earth, along with a host of other goddesses. Slowly over time, males started to dominate the social and private scene and women started to become oppressed. They became objects, defined by who they marry and confined to the home. Wolf argues that the story of Troy has been retold by male authors in order to emphasize the male dominance and patriarchy of society: “The epic, born of the struggles for patriarchy, becomes by its structure an instrument by which to elaborate and fortify the patriarchy. The hero is made to serve as a model, and still does down to the present day.†(296). In addition, “the line the narrator pursues [in Homer’s Illiad] is that of male action. Everyday life, the world of women, shines through only in the gaps between the descriptions of battle†(233). Thus, not only does Wolf strive through this book to point out the destruction of a male-dominated culture and rise women to respectability, but she also attempts to start a trend of women writing about women, something that she argues has been absent in the history of literature.
Another aspect that Wolf explores is the difference between the historical Cassandra and that of the one depicted in stories about her: “the question I am really trying to get at: Who was Cassandra before people wrote about her? (For she is a creation of the poets, she speaks only through them, we have only their view of her.†(287). For example, Cassandra in myth is a moon goddess. This makes sense because prophetic power was once linked closely with the moon deity. The historical Cassandra lived in a period of peace in between two major disasters, a volcanic eruption and an invasion by foreigners. The only occupation for a woman of high status, like Cassandra, would have been to be a seer or prophetess. And as a prophetess, she would have had to alienate herself from her family, her society and even her lovers. However, it was because of this ability to release herself, that she is able to perform her role of forseeing the future, not because of any special powers, but rather because she is able step back and see the flaws of Troy and its leaders from a realistic perspective.
Finally, Wolf demonstrates how to relate history to every part of life. As she researches and writes this book, there are two main world conflicts that headline the news in 1980. One is the Cold War and its armaments race between the United States and the USSR and the second is the war between Iraq and Iran. For example, she discusses the prospect of world destruction by nuclear weapons and especially that of Europe, her home, due to war from world powers on either side of the continent. She compares this to Troy and wonders what Cassandra must have felt to imagine the pending destruction of her home. Furthermore, Wolf mentions how England is doing nothing to prepare for a possible invasion. In the same way, Cassandra, in the novel, is astonished at the inactivity and lack of preparation of the Trojans with the Acheans on their shore. And finally, the question is posed of whether one should flee the destruction of the homeland, such as what Aeneas did. But the answer to this question for both Christa Wolf and Cassandra was no. There was no desire to flee the homeland. This style of reasoning is pertinent to my own study of history. By relating it to current events, not only do I learn more about history and more about the world I live in right now, but I also make those historic events come alive for me. Thus, one way to study history is to view it through parallel events today. For isn’t it true that history often repeats itself?
