Euripides’ Electra is a tragedy that encourages readers to consider the problematic nature of humanity’s response to injustice: its quest to make fair that which is unfair, to correct unjust actions, and to mark the fragile border between what is ethically correct and morally wrong. Aristophanes’ Clouds is a tragedy disguised as a comedy that illuminates Strepsiades’s profound disregard for justice, conduct, and the establishment of civilization. Underneath Aristophanes’ comedic approach lies a dark conclusion that alludes to a problem that civilization faces today: ignorance and its resistance to evolution. Electra adheres to its respective form as a tragedy while Aristophanes’ Clouds outgrows its comedic structure to form a darker, more serious conclusion.
Euripides establishes Electra as a character plagued by grief. In the beginning of the play, Electra introduces a “black night” that consumes her while “bearing this jar” (Electra 55-56). The tone she creates through personifying the “black night” identifies her grief-stricken approach to a preexisting tragedy and her susceptibility towards destined conflict. In addition to her uneasy mental state, Electra’s mother “casts Orestes and [her] from [their] own house” leading to her “spirit wearing thin, exiled from home and heritage” (Electra 65 and 218-219). Collectively, these misfortunes fuel Electra’s ambition to “arrange [her] mother’s death” (Electra 671). By justifying her mother’s death as an exchange for the adversities that Clytemnestra contributed to creating, Electra looses her ability to reason and act rationally. While preying on Clytemnestra, Electra asserts, “I delivered myself. I gave birth alone” (Electra 1164). These lines distinctly mark Electra’s insanity. A...
... middle of paper ...
...ution. These limitations lead Clouds to a dark ending that continues to plague civilization today.
Does the inability to foresee progress, good or bad, create a dark ending to a tragedy? Aristophanes’ Clouds suggests that nature of ignorance leads to a claustrophobic ending, one that leaves readers pessimistic about the prospects of Strepsiades’ future. While, Euripides’ Electra ends with the full maturation of Electra allowing for a reader to foresee infinitely different directions that the characters’ lives could lead. Despite it’s comedic beginnings, Clouds evolves into a dark tragedy while Electra adheres to a tragic plot from beginning to end.
Works Cited
Aristophanes, and Jeff Henderson. Aristophanes' Clouds. Newburyport, MA: Focus Information Group, 1992. Print.
Euripides, Janet Lembke, and Kenneth J. Reckford. Electra. New York: Oxford UP, 1994. Print.
Throughout Aristophanes’ “Clouds” there is a constant battle between old and new. It makes itself apparent in the Just and Unjust speech as well as between father and son. Ultimately, Pheidippides, whom would be considered ‘new’, triumphs over the old Strepsiades, his father. This is analogous to the Just and Unjust speech. In this debate, Just speech represents the old traditions and mores of Greece while the contrasting Unjust speech is considered to be newfangled and cynical towards the old. While the defeat of Just speech by Unjust speech does not render Pheidippides the ability to overcome Strepsiades, it is a parallel that may be compared with many other instances in Mythology and real life.
A twenty-first century reading of the Iliad and the Odyssey will highlight a seeming lack of justice: hundreds of men die because of an adulteress, the most honorable characters are killed, the cowards survive, and everyone eventually goes to hell. Due to the difference in the time period, culture, prominent religions and values, the modern idea of justice is much different than that of Greece around 750 B.C. The idea of justice in Virgil’s the Aeneid is easier for us to recognize. As in our own culture, “justice” in the epic is based on a system of punishment for wrongs and rewards for honorable acts. Time and time again, Virgil provides his readers with examples of justice in the lives of his characters. Interestingly, the meaning of justice in the Aeneid transforms when applied to Fate and the actions of the gods. Unlike our modern (American) idea of blind, immutable Justice, the meanings and effects of justice shift, depending on whether its subject is mortal or immortal.
At first glance, the picture of justice found in the Oresteia appears very different from that found in Heraclitus. And indeed, at the surface level there are a number of things which are distinctly un-Heraclitean. However, I believe that a close reading reveals more similarities than differences; and that there is a deep undercurrent of the Heraclitean world view running throughout the trilogy. In order to demonstrate this, I will first describe those ways in which the views of justice in Aeschylus' Oresteia and in Heraclitus appear dissimilar. Then I will examine how these dissimilarities are problematized by other information in the Oresteia; information which expresses views of justice very akin to Heraclitus. Of course, how similar or dissimilar they are will depend not only on one's reading of the Oresteia, but also on how one interprets Heraclitus. Therefore, when I identify a way in which justice in the Oresteia seems different from that in Heraclitus, I will also identify the interpretation of Heraclitus with which I am contrasting it. Defending my interpretation of Heraclitean justice as such is beyond the scope of this essay. However I will always refer to the particular fragments on which I am basing my interpretation, and I think that the views I will attribute to him are fairly non-controversial. It will be my contention that, after a thorough examination of both the apparent discrepancies and the similarities, the nature of justice portrayed in the Oresteia will appear more deeply Heraclitean than otherwise. I will not argue, however, that there are therefore no differences at all between Aeschylus and Heraclitus on the issue of justice. Clearly there are some real ones and I will point out any differences which I feel remain despite the many deep similarities.
Justice is generally thought to be part of one system; equally affecting all involved. We define justice as being fair or reasonable. The complications fall into the mix when an act of heroism occurs or morals are written or when fear becomes to great a force. These complications lead to the division of justice onto levels. In Aeschylus’ Oresteia and Plato’s Republic and Apology, both Plato and Aeschylus examine the views of justice and the morality of the justice system on two levels: in the city-state and the individual.
Euripides shows his views on female power through Medea. As a writer of the marginalized in society, Medea is the prime example of minorities of the age. She is a single mother, with 2 illegitimate children, in a foreign place. Despite all these disadvantages, Medea is the cleverest character in the story. Medea is a warning to the consequences that follow when society underestimates the
One of the most popular and enduring dramas of all time, Sophocles’ Antigone has intrigued and provoked audiences for nearly 2500 years through its heartbreaking story of a tragedy that could have been avoided if it were not for the inalterable wills of its two main characters. Even in light of its absorbing tale, however, it might be said that what keeps us coming back to this great work is that its central theme is one of mankind’s oldest and greatest struggles—the conflict between man’s law and divine law.
Despite the contrast in the characters of Euripedes' Medea and Aristophanes' Lysistrata, the two playwrights depicted how gender inequality can start a fire. As with Medea and Jason, the battle between the two lead to former's madness, leading to the death of the enemies she considered, and, unfortunately, leading as well to the death of her own children. Medea felt betrayed and left behind by her husband Jason, as well as continuously aggravated by Creon despite the fact that i...
In Aristophanes’ Clouds, the character Socrates is clearly intended to be a subversive member of Athenian society. He runs the school, the Thinkery, which takes in young Athenians and teaches them what Aristophanes portrays as bizarre concepts and ideas, “whether the hum of a gnat is generated via its mouth o...
In Ancient Greece the existence of gods and fate prevailed. In the Greek tragedy King Oedipus by the playwright Sophocles these topics are heavily involved. We receive a clear insight into their roles in the play such as they both control man's actions and that challenging their authority leads to a fall.
Medea’s illegitimate marriage and the betrayal of Jason drive Medea to extreme revenge. Medea chooses to act with her immortal self and commit inhumane acts of murder rather than rationalize the outcomes of her actions. Medea see’s this option as her only resort as she has been banished and has nowhere to go, “stripped of her place”. To create sympathy for Medea, Euripides plays down Medea’s supernatural powers until the end of the play. Throughout the play Medea represents all characteristics found in individual women put together, including; love, passion, betrayal and revenge. Medea’s portrayal of human flaws creates empathetic emotions from the audience. The audience commiserates with Medea’s human flaws as they recognize them in themselves. Medea plays the major role in this play as she demonstrates many behavioral and psychological patterns unlike any of the other Greek women in the play; this draws the audience’s attention to Medea for sympathy and respect.
Aristotle, a philosopher, scientist, spiritualist and passionate critic of the arts, spent many years studying human nature and its relevance to the stage. His rules of tragedy in fact made a deep imprint on the writing of tragic works, while he influenced the structure of theatre, with his analysis of human nature. Euripides 'Medea', a Greek tragedy written with partial adherence to the Aristotelian rules, explores the continuation of the ancient Greek tales surrounding the mythology of Medea, Princess of Colchis, and granddaughter of Helios, the sun god, with heartlessness to rival the infamous Circe. While the structure of this play undoubtedly perpetuates many of the Aristotelian rules, there are some dramatic structures which challenge its standing with relevance to Aristotle's guidelines, and the judgment of Medea as a dramatic success within the tragic genre.
This paper aims to study two significant playwrights, Sophocles and Euripides, and compare their respective attitudes by examining their plays in respect to plot and character structures. To achieve this goal, the paper is organized into two main sections. In the first section, we provide a brief biography of both Sophocles and Euripides. The second and last section includes summaries of Sophocles’ Electra and Euripides’ Electra which were based on same essentials and give an opportunity to observe the differences of the playwrights. This section also includes the comparisons that are made by our observations about the plays.
One of the best summarizes of Greeks’ gods attitude toward human is the claim of Aphrodite in Euripides’ Hippolytus that she will treat well the people who revere her power, but will “trip up” those who are proud towards her, and this pri...
In this essay, I hope to provide answers to how the actions of Hippolytus and Phaedra relate to the gods, whether or not the characters concern themselves with the reaction of the gods to their behavior, what the characters expect from the gods, how the gods treat the humans, and whether or not the gods gain anything from making the humans suffer. Before we can discuss the play, however, a few terms need to be defined. Most important would be the nature of the gods. They have divine powers, but what exactly makes the Greek gods unique should be explored. The Greek gods, since they are anthropomorphic, have many of the same characteristics as humans.
Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra is a play of revenge, sacrifice, and murder conveyed through visible references to Aeschylus' House of Atreus. O'Neill alludes to The House of Atreus in order to ground the play; attaching the plot to well-known aspects of history. As well, it brings a certain significance that otherwise would be neglected if their underlying manifestations went unnoticed. The most prominent of these allusions is that to Aeschylus' House of Atreus. O'Neill specifically modeled Mourning around Aeschylus' work, modernizing it, applying it to a new generation of readers. Agamemnon, a general in the Trojan War, becomes Ezra Mannon, a Civil War soldier of the same rank. Ezra "was a great man he was a power for good" (323). He was well respected within the community he was a Mannon. "They've been top dog around here for near on two hundred years and don't let folks ferget it" (265). A renowned man with a name that connotes wealth and power, comes home physically drained from battle, yet emotionally in touch with himself, to his wife, Christine, who shadows Aeschylus' Clytemnestra. The town perceived Christine negatively; "she ain't the Mannon kind" (265). She would come to conspire with Brant (Aegisthus), further tainting the Mannon name, in order to "bring you (Brant) my share of the Mannon estate" (294). Christine poisons her husband, both literally and figuratively, by not only disclosing her relationship with Adam Brant, but by administering poison in place of heart medicine to her enraged husband, thus killing him. Lavinia (Electra), rushes in when she hears her father's cries, only to have him say to her, "She's guilty not medicine," (316) as he falls limply back onto the bed. It is at this juncture in the story that Lavinia hereby begins a vendetta with her mother, by saying "You murdered him just the same by telling him! I suppose you think you'll be free to marry Adam now! But you wont'! Not while I'm alive! I'll make you pay for your crime! I'll find a way to punish you!" (317). Following the storyline of The House of Atreus, Orin, (Aeschylus' Orestes) arrives home from battle, finding a cold, dark house, one that he is not familiar with. In conversation with Peter, he asks, "Did the house always look so ghostly and dead?" (327), and continues to contrast it with a "tomb" (327).