#8 - Specific Reference, Must Be True, Subject Perspective

[voodoochild]

Experts,
Honestly, I was completely lost on this one.

I tried reading and re-reading the quotation .... desires a victorious battle COLON "If this sacrifice will loose winds, it is permitted to desire it fervently"

How am I supposed to know what is the antecedent of "it"? It could be "battle" by going through the parallelism between the object of the verb "Desire," or "sacrifice."
While reading this passage, I knew that the test makers have planted this trap, and there WILL be a question on this. To my surprise, there are two questions 7 and 8.

I chose B on this one. Can you please help me? This passage was really difficult for me.

Thanks
Voodoo

[Frank Cozzarelli]

Hi Voodoo,

I can certainly see how B looked like a tempting answer to pick. The way that the word "desire" is used in this question to seemingly refer to two different concepts makes it a more challenging question. In the passage, the speaker is torn by his desire to win the battle versus the need to sacrifice his daughter in order to do so. We must keep this tension in mind when interpreting the quote in lines 48 and 49.

We know that Agamemnon is desirous to win the battle, but the source of drama in the tragedy is whether he is "permitted to desire it fervently" - in other words, is he permitted to desire victory to such an extent that he will do whatever it takes to win (in this case, sacrifice his daughter)?

We see that Agamemnon comes to the conclusion that, yes, if the sacrifice will help him win, it's okay for him to do so.

The answer choices B and C are identical except B refers to whether it was appropriate to desire victory, whereas C refers to whether it was appropriate to desire to kill his daughter. The key word here is "appropriate." The heart of the drama here isn't whether a deep desire for victory is, in and of itself, appropriate or inappropriate, but whether it is appropriate that he would be willing to sacrifice his daughter. C is thus the better answer because it gets to the heart of this conflict.

[voodoochild]

Hello Frank - Thanks for your reply. I think I have a different view about "appropriate."

Interpretation #1 - I thought that because Agamemnon will have to pay such a huge price for a victorious battle, then it is appropriate for him to desire for victory. (i.e. if the Gods require paying a huge cost to, say, buy a ferrari, then it is perfectly appropriate to win a racing competition : the guy has paid a huge price for the car, and he desires to win the battle). This also corroborates that Agamemnon was torn between "desiring victory" (=self force) and "God's wish" (=sacrifice.)

Interpretation #2 - Now, looking from a different angle where "it" = sacrifice. I see how his commitment to victory is causing Agamemnon to desire to sacrifice his daughter.

However, can you please explain why interpretation#1 is incorrect? While reading the passage, I thought about interpretation #1, and I knew that test makers will ask a question on the interpretation of "it"

Can you please help me?

Thanks

[Jamie Caulkins]

Voodoochild,

Let me chime in with another reading of this passage.

First, you seemed to read the quote "If this sacrifice will loose the winds, it is permitted to desire it fervently" to be ambiguous as to the meaning of the "it." Do you really think that the "it" could just as easily refer to desiring victory as to desiring the sacrifice, based on that quote? Can you make an argument favoring defining the "it" to mean the sacrifice?

Second, I want to compare B and C. As Frank pointed out, the whole of the passage helps us recognize that the focal point of this question is the decision to sacrifice his daughter, or not. Take a look at answer choices B and C. Do they move towards the same thing? Here's what I'm getting at... imagine that B and C are actually spoken by Agamemnon, just like the quote from the passage. If you sat and listened to him speak B, wouldn't you think he was justifying his desire to win the battle? Whereas with C, if you heard him say that, wouldn't it be clear that he was attempting to justify his sacrifice?