The children are their mother's power in a very real sense. When Medea must appeal to the best intentions of Creon, she presents the case of her poor unfortunate children that are no deserving of any punishment. It is through his pity for the childr Continue Reading...
Though Medea has been repeatedly referred to as a 'witch' with magical powers, she being the niece of Circe, she is, first and foremost, a woman. She is as much a human being as anybody else, and at the same time, she is in the possession of Divine Continue Reading...
This familial violence represents the violence of the culture on a larger scale. Euripides wants to shock the audience in order to show that violence should not be acceptable in any form what so ever. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet also has an anti Continue Reading...
Medea does not so much get help from outside as she makes her own aid, supernaturally. She uses magic to prepare the poisonous dress. She also uses magic to foretell a cure for Aegeus, so as to procure his promise of shelter when all is done. The cr Continue Reading...
Medea as Tragic Hero The pattern of the tragic hero was first defined by Aristotle. Aristotle's work The Poetics discusses the art of Greek tragedy, and defines the rules for a tragic protagonist. If we examine these rules from Aristotle alongside t Continue Reading...
Aristophanic invective against a rival dramatist: the fragment from the lost Lemnian Women included in Henderson's edition as number 382, attested to in two separate ancient sources (suggesting it was considered a particularly choice joke): Because Continue Reading...
Oedipus the King At the beginning of Oedipus the King by Sophocles, Oedipus clearly sees it as his purpose in life to be the best leader he can. In his mind, this meant to be as close to his people as possible, especially when the play opens and the Continue Reading...
Women of Ancient Greece: The Plays of Euripides The plays of Euripides reveal how poorly women were viewed in ancient Greece. From Medea to Sthenoboea to Phaedra, Euripides' women cover a wide range of forms: the vengeful, jilted lover; the plotting Continue Reading...
killing of a child in real life has no symbolic meaning, no power other than that of an expression of evil and is, therefore, one of the worst acts a human, let alone a parent, can commit. In literature, however, the killing of children is symbolic Continue Reading...
The tragic hero always elicits sympathy from the audience. According to Struck (2002): "Finally, Oedipus' downfall elicits a great sense of pity from the audience. First, by blinding himself, as opposed to committing suicide, Oedipus achieves a kin Continue Reading...
Greeks The narrator is coy about whether or not he views Alexander as Great. He makes a lot of jokes about people want to be great and starts off the lecture with a bit about Kim Kardashian -- but it's not really a fair comparison in my estimation. Continue Reading...
Nietzsche's Twilight Of The Idols Nietzsche mischaracterizes the Christian tradition when he states that "the Church fights passion by cutting it out." The Catholic Church has never dogmatically opposed passion, but it has opposed sin. Nietzsche is Continue Reading...
Crucible and What I Have Learned Arthur Miller's The Crucible is a dramatic, engaging work that challenges the reader/viewer to see beneath the "black and white" dichotomy by which the world is simplistically characterized via such "venerable" inst Continue Reading...
Mourning Becomes Electra It must have come as something of a shock for the original audience of Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra in 1931 to take their seats, open their programs, and discover that this extremely lengthy trilogy of plays doe Continue Reading...
