Sophocles’s Women of Trachis11, however, deals solely with the tragic drama occurring on the mortal realm, devoid of any cosmic underpinnings. The play, like Heracles, can be divided into two portions. Unlike Heracles, however, Heracles’s world is divided not so much into the microcosmic and the macrocosmic, but into the masculine and feminine. This division is causal, serving to highlight the tension between the domestic world which values emotion, empathy, and feeling and the heroic world which champions duty, honour, and glory. Despite the evident causality, however, the play is marked by Heracles’s and Deianeira’s seemingly implausible deaths, highlighting the illogical aspect of male and female relations as a whole even outside the striking of the inexplicable cosmic event. In both plays, the Herculean body is the locus of a female tension in which the female struggle at being pushed aside is foregrounded.
In Sophocles’s play, Heracles acts like Lycus, ravaging a foreign land in order to marry the king’s daughter. Heracles’s inability to be restored into society due his insatiable appetite for women causes endless issues for Deianeira, as she is left at home wasting with desire… like the mournful nightingale” (107-8) in a “strange household” (41) for “fifteen months… without tidings” (46). While the Euripidean hero “is honourable and, as the play resolves itself, more and more an identifiable man”, “the Sophoclean suffering hero is repellent as well as distant” (12 Silk)12. While Heracles acts out the hero’s pathos, thus, Women of Trachis views how the self-serving character of the Herculean hero can inflict suffering on the feminine realm by providing the audience with a point of sympathy from the female angle. Like Her...
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.... While Women of Trachis addresses the position of the feminine in a male-dominated warrior society on a microcosmic level, Heracles also highlights the feminine perspective, only on a macrocosmic level. Both plays, thus, foreground the pathos of the individual in the grips of forces beyond their control when conflicting realms meet and erupt. Heracles’s body, in being a liminal space where definitions of the cosmic and divine are blurred, is the site where the individual’s larger struggle is acted out. Unlike Heracles, however, Women of Trachis proposes the idea that humanism cannot save the day unless the very definitions of what is means to be heroic are changed so the young, helpless and the female are taken into account. In order for the king to be a proper king, he has to leave behind his heroic, divine self and “choose (Amphitryon) (as his) father” (1265).
Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus can be argued that it is related loosely to Rita Dove's The Darker Face of the Earth. This comparative and contrasting characteristics that can be seen within both plays make the reader/audience more aware of imagery, the major characters, plot, attitudes towards women, and themes that are presented from two very different standpoints. The authors Sophocles and Dove both have a specific goal in mind when writing the two plays. In this paper I will take a closer look of the two, comparing and contrasting the plays with the various elements mentioned previously.
One can hardly deny that in Euripides’ plays women are often portrayed as weak, uncertain, and torn between what they must do and what they can bring themselves to do. Other women appear to be the root of grave evils, or simply perpetrators of heinous crimes. In a day when analysis of characters and plot had yet to be invented, it is easy to see why he might have been thought to be very much against women. However, when looking back with current understanding of what Euripides was doing at the time, armed with knowledge of plot devices and Socratic philosophy, this argument simply does not hold up. In fact, a very strong argument can be made to the opposite, that Euripides was in fact very much in support of women’s rights, and thought they were treated unfairly.
For the Greeks, Homer's Odyssey was much more than just an entertaining tale of gods, monsters, and men, it served as cultural paradigm from which every important role and relationship could be defined. This book, much more so than its counter part The Iliad, gives an eclectic view of the Achean's peacetime civilization. Through Odyssey, we gain an understanding of what is proper or improper in relationships between father and son, god and mortal, servant and master, guest and host, and--importantly--man and woman. Women play a vital role in the movement of this narrative. Unlike in The Iliad, where they are chiefly prizes to be won, bereft of identity, the women of Odyssey are unique in their personality, intentions, and relationship towards men. Yet, despite the fact that no two women in this epic are alike, each--through her vices or virtues-- helps to delineate the role of the ideal woman. Below, we will show the importance of Circe, Calypso, Nausicaa, Clytaemestra, and Penelope in terms of the movement of the narrative and in defining social roles for the Ancient Greeks.
This essay explores the role of women in Homer's Odyssey, James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) and Derrick Walcott's Omeros (1990), epics written in very different historical periods. Common to all three epics are women as the transforming figure in a man's life, both in the capacity of a harlot and as wife.
Pitt, Angela. “Women in Shakespeare’s Tragedies.” Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from Shakespeare’s Women. N.p.: n.p., 1981.
Medea and Lysistrata are two Greek literatures that depict the power which women are driven to achieve in an aim to defy gender inequality. In The Medea, Medea is battling against her husband Jason whom she hates. On the other hand, in Aristophanes' Lysistrata, the protagonist Lysistrata plotted to convince and organize the female gender to protest against the stubbornness of men. In terms of defining the purpose of these two literatures, it is apparent that Euripedes and Aristophanes created characters that demonstrate resistance against the domination of men in the society.
Pitt, Angela. “Women in Shakespeare’s Tragedies.” Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from Shakespeare’s Women. N.p.: n.p., 1981.
William Shakespeare is known to be the greatest writer in the English language, and till this day Shakespeare upholds the title of being the start of English literature. Something every reader has possibly observed is how Shakespeare portrays women. The majority of William Shakespeare’s plays objectifies women and in some ways shows his underline feelings towards women, and their roles in society. This is clearly shown through out Shakespeare’s play ‘Othello’. The society of Othello is completely controlled by men who are the military and political leaders of their homeland. Furthermore women are seen as powerless second-class citizens, who are in place for nothing more than to serve their men. But the horrendous actions and intense downfall of the men in Othello show how men are not nearly as authoritative and powerful as they seem. The boldness of the female characters proves that they are much more capable of just serving. Furthermore, by the end of the play, I admit the men of Othello are not the ones who perform courage and power instead; this title is given to the women in the play.
Just as this genre exemplifies the masculine ideal, it also promotes the feminine ideal, largely by casting female characters who do not meet this ideal in an antagonistic light, and thus maintains the male-dominant system of the societies which produced these works. This paper therefore argues that female characters in epic poetry, namely The Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer’s Odyssey, and Vergil’s Aeneid, play the role of an antagonistic “Other” group by employing their agency to act beyond the established gender roles of their societies, thereby disrupting the social order and creating obstacles for the male protagonists.
Despite the male dominant society of Ancient Greece, the women in Sophocles’ play Antigone all express capabilities of powerful influence and each individually possess unique characteristics, showing both similarities and contrasts. The women in the play are a pivotal aspect that keeps the plot moving and ultimately leads to the catharsis of this tragedy. Beginning from the argument between Antigone and Ismene to Eurydice’s suicide, a male takes his own life and another loses everything he had all as a result of the acts these women part take in. The women all put their own family members above all else, but the way they go about showing that cherishment separates them amongst many other things.
Emilia, one of only three female characters in Shakespeare’s Othello, plays a vital role both thematically and in the advancement of the play’s plot. Although her blind loyalty to her husband turns the wheels of this tragedy, it is not a static quality throughout it. When examining the gender roles in the world of this play, the change in Emilia’s allegiances, which determine her actions, reveals the divergence between duty and integrity for women. Throughout most of the play, Emilia is loyal to a fault. She remains subservient to Iago until her duty to him causes her to betray the one she has to her friend and mistress, Desdemona. After becoming cognizant of her involvement in Iago’s villainy, Emilia abandons all loyalty she previously held to patriarchal forces and is motivated exclusively by morality and dedication to Desdemona.
The ineffaceable impression which Sophocles makes on us today and his imperishable position in the literature of the world are both due to his character-drawing. If we ask which of the men and women ofGreek tragedy have an independent life in the imagination apart from the stage and from the actual plot in which they appear, we must answer, ‘those created by Sophocles, above all others’ (36).
The tragic play Medea is a struggle between reason and violence. Medea is deliberately portrayed as not a ‘normal woman’, but excessive in her passions. Medea is a torment to herself and to others; that is why Euripides shows her blazing her way through life leaving wreckage behind her. Euripides has presented Medea as a figure previously thought of exclusively as a male- hero. Her balance of character is a combination of the outstanding qualities of Achilles and Odysseus.
For centuries women have fought to obtain basic civil rights and today, they are still fighting to obtain equal rights. From the right to vote to their right to birth control, women have always been trying to assert their own independence in order to expand their freedom. While much progress has been made, there is still room for improvement. However, the evolution of women’s rights and the role of women is mirrored in literature and can be used to illustrate the progression throughout history. Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex is no different. Through the character Jocasta, Sophocles creates a counterpart to Oedipus and uses her to reveal the oppression of women by contrasting her and Oedipus’ relationships and reactions to the prophecy. Throughout the play Oedipus Rex, Sophocles illustrates Jocasta’s vulnerability and supportive nature in order to women as fragile, doting, and obedient wives and mothers to facilitate the necessity of self-assertion.
Women’s lives are represented by the roles they either choose or have imposed on them. This is evident in the play Medea by Euripides through the characters of Medea and the nurse. During the time period which Medea is set women have very limited social power and no political power at all, although a women’s maternal and domestic power was respected in the privacy of the home, “Our lives depend on how his lordship feels”. The limited power these women were given is different to modern society yet roles are still imposed on women to conform and be a dutiful wife.