Female Deceit and Gender Bias in Death

Female Deceit and Gender Bias in Death

Death is the end to the natural cycle of life and is represented as dark, melancholic and even menacing. The underworld is depicted as a murky and sinister realm where the dead are trapped in a world of eternal darkness. Ancient drama, however, defies the conventional perceptions and representations of death. Despite the foreboding associated with it, characters in ancient drama embrace death in its frightening glory, rather than face the repercussions of their actions, especially when their honor and pride are at stake. Deceit is also an integral part of ancient drama and characters, particularly women, fall prey to it and unwittingly unleash chaos that more often that, negatively impacts the lives of the characters. This paper demonstrates how gender biases can be interpreted from the depiction of death and the characters’ justifications of it in two of Sophocles’ plays – Ajax and Women of Trachis and also demonstrates how female deception leads to the death of the principal character(s).

Interestingly, the concepts of death and deceit are intertwined. Deceit often leads to death and illustrates gender bias in even the portrayal of death. The woman’s suicide is almost always portrayed as the coward’s way out of a difficult situation, whereas the man embraces death in order to keep intact his pride and glory, being even braver in death than in life. In both instances of male and female death, female deception plays a vital role and the woman is frequently responsible for creating the unsavory situation.

Warrior pride plays a vital role in Ajax, eventually propelling the hero to his death. Ajax is portrayed as an accomplished and mighty warrior, eulogized by even his worst enemy, Odysseus, as “The bravest man I ever saw / except for Achilles, the best and bravest who ever came to Troy” (Aj. 66, 83-85). Ajax’s whole sense of self is shattered in one swift moment of induced madness by Athena. She uses her divine powers and tricks him into confusing sheep as member of his army. Ajax seeking revenge on his army, slaughters the sheep, believing them to be the generals of his army and their followers, who had wronged him.