Binary Oppisition Essay

Within the play The Bacchae there are two different sides of human nature that are emphasized, which are the civilized and the primal sides. The primal side seems to be emphasized through Dionysus who is the god of wine and festival and very fond of the effect each has on the body. When Dionysus arrives at the city he causes all of the women to go mad and travel up to the mountain to sing and dance in worship of him. Their behavior is described saying, “They’re gone—playing around in some meadow, calling out to Bromius, summoning their god.” (554-556). This shows that they seem to be reverting to their primal nature and acting savagely and out of character in the mountain. However, Pantheus is enraged at the behavior of the women and refuses to believe the divine powers that Dionysus has. He orders the women to be captured and punished for their actions. He believes that worshipping Dionysus is silly because he is not actually the son of Zeus so in his mind the whole ritual is crazy saying, “All the barbarians are dancing in these rites.” (600). Using the word barbarians displays his true belief because barbarians are remembered as savage and wild people who did not have any order in the way that they lived their life.

Another popular example of a binary opposition in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is the contrast of life and death. We encounter this binary opposition when Romeo utters “Do I live dead.” (Act 1 Scene 1 l 220). Again Shakespeare lures us into this opposition to read between the lines thus making sense of this statement. One would come to a realisation that to live does not mean you’re alive in other words – ‘live dead’, which tries to depict that one must live their life, enjoy it and feel alive rather than drowning in sorrow and misery. (Lori Shaller;

The gods are constantly involved with mortal women and are not shamed for it, Zeus’ being especially guilty of this. However, Calypso argues that when an immortal women such as herself sleeps with a mortal man she is berated and the man is whisked away. She refers to the gods as “scandalized” in result of her involvement with Odysseus, yet they are unimpeded to sleep with any women they desire. Calypso wishes the power to be held to the same standard as the gods, but the etiquette of a goddess is to not freely become involved with mortals, as it is of a god. Calypso angrily must give up Odysseus, and in book six he finally makes his way onto another island after a near death experience awash in the sea. On this island lives Princess Nausicaa who also must undergo gender roles. The goddess Athena, disguised as a friend of the princess, convinces Nausicaa that she should take a trip to the river to wash and bathe her clothes as a plan to get her and Odysseus to meet up. Odysseus finds Nausicaa at the stream, and first she is scared because he is dirty and very fatigued. He then talks to her, and she offers him help. She asks that he accompany her back to the palace where he can get help of her parents, the king and queen. He is about to ride in the Nausicaa's wagon, but then she asks that Odysseus must follow behind, telling him about what would possibly happen if the were to ride

During the time of Euripides, approximately the second half of the fifth century B.C., it was a period of immense cultural crisis and political convulsion (Arrowsmith 350). Euripides, like many other of his contemporaries, used the whole machinery of the theater as a way of thinking about their world (Arrowsmith 349). His interest in particular was the analysis of culture and relationship between culture and the individual. Euripides used his characters as a function to shape the ideas of the play (Arrowsmith 359).

Artemis’ informative speech to Hippolytus not only displays the dramatic irony present throughout the play, but also solidifies many predominant themes present during the play. This passage summarizes the entire play as Artemis describes the plans of the characters, going on to blame Phaedra, the Nurse, Aphrodite, and Theseus. (Halleran, 276) Through Artemis’ passage (Euripides, 1283-1312), the truth about Phaedra and Hippolytus, unknown and misunderstood by Theseus, finally surfaces. As Artemis reveals the plot to Theseus in the passage, the themes of honour and relationship between man and god are evident. Hippolytus’ relationship with the goddesses Artemis and Aphrodite, along with his honour and pride, are

   Many different interpretations can be derived from themes in Euripides's The Bacchae, most of which assume that, in order to punish the women of Thebes for their impudence, the god Dionysus drove them mad. However, there is evidence to believe that another factor played into this confrontation. Because of the trend of male dominance in Greek society, women suffered in oppression and bore a social stigma which led to their own vulnerability in becoming Dionysus's target. In essence, the Thebian women practically fostered Dionysian insanity through their longing to rebel against social norms. Their debilitating conditions as women prompted them to search for a way to

Purposely difficult and intentionally obsessive, Plato’s Phaedrus is an exceedingly difficult read that defies all conventional logic as a piece of discourse. The text is extremely subjective, open to interpretation and individual creativity as to what or whom the narrative is about. Written by Plato, a close disciple of Socrates, this text is set along the Illissus river where Phaedrus and Socrates meet for a day of speech, debate, rhetoric and okay…flirting. Phaedrus leads of the day and recites a speech by his close friend Lysias, who Phaedrus considers to be a top speechmaker. Socrates then, after chiding by Phaedrus unleashes two speeches of his own that overshadow and refute Lysias claim so boldly that Phaedrus is so taken by the

He could not believe anything could harm him. (B270) Pentheus in his own conceit thinks he can do anything. He feels he is so powerful that no man is above him. (B476) He is not able to see that Dionysus is a god because he is in human form. Pentheus needs to see everything before he can accept it. (B255) By Pentheus agreeing to dress up like a woman, he is asking for a tragic ending. He now begins to listen to Dionysus who he had bound with chains before. He shows how gullible he is, to think Dionysus will now help him. He cannot see himself being set up to take a large fall. (B310) When Teiresias tells Pentheus "Do not be so certain that power is what matters in life," Pentheus still feels confident. Pentheus was doomed because he did not believe other peoples word about the power of Dionysus.

One of the most famous tragedy was The Bacchae from the Athenian playwright Euripides. The Bacchae won first prize when it premiered at the Theatre of Dionysus in 405 BC, and is known as Euripides greatest work. This tragedy represents the two opposite sides of a man's nature: the rational and civilized side, which is represented by the character of Pentheus, the King of Thebes, and then there is the instinctive side, which is represented by Dionysus. This side feels a connection between man and beast and it’s a potential source of divinity and spiritual power. It’s believed that The Bacchae implies that it’s dangerous to deny this instinctive human nature; those who accept it find spiritual power, and those who suppress the desire in themselves

In the play Romeo & Juliet, William Shakespeare utilizes opposites in both the thoughts and actions of the characters in Romeo and Juliet. Outlined are contrasts of crime and violence versus peace and law, love versus hate, and young versus old.

In Euripides’ The Bacchae and in the Medea, there are significant binary oppositions in both plays. Binary opposition is the two opposite terms, such as good versus bad. Binary opposition is used to present both sides of a contrast (Marvin, 1). In The Bacchae and the Medea, Euripides used binary opposition to highlight the central themes. The significant binary oppositions that are used are men versus women, foreigner versus citizen, and god versus man.

Bacchae is the story of King Pentheus and his mother Agave who were punished by the God Dionysus for failing to worship him because they refuse to believe that their relative can be the son of a God. It is made evident that it is hubris which makes Agave unable to see that her nephew is the son of Zeus. Dionysus states: "Well, now, Cadmus has given his rights as king / to Pentheus, the son of his daughter Agave, / and Pentheus wages war on the gods through me, / shoves me away from libations, pays no attention" (Euripides 43-46). Her refusal to accept Dionysus as divine condemns not only herself but her son as well. The god punishes both son and mother with utmost hostility, such as when Pentheus dies. "Mistaking him for a wild beast, [young women] tear him limb from limb, playing catch with pieces of him. His mother Agave, in the lead, carries off his mangled

Because he is a demi­god, he could come down to earth as a human without hurting anyone. He is disguised as a beautiful man that both genders actually find attractive. Though he is in disguise as “the strange man”, he does end up seeking out the attention of the King of Thebes as initially planned. Pentheus, the King of Thebes, desires to obtain this strange man, unaware that it is his cousin, Dionysus, in disguise. In the process of his revenge, everything that Dionysus does is intentionally done so that he could follow through with his plan to stay in control of himself, along with achieving ecstasy from his revenge.

In Antigone and Lysistrata the tension between the polis and oikos is reflected in different ways. Antigone prioritizes oikos over polis, while Creon prioritizes polis over oikos. The men in Lysistrata favor fighting for the state over being at home while the women want their husbands with them instead of being at the war. We find ample evidence of different conflicts and similarities in both plays, but the male's prioritizing polis over oikos and the female's prioritizing oikos over polis causes the central tension in Antigone and Lysistrata.

Satellite sensors send bits of binary data to ground stations on Earth for processing into useful meteorological and environmental information enabling enhanced decision making capabilities. Thereby, preventing injuries and fatalities, preserving assets, and reducing time delays. Binary data are comprised of zeroes and ones. One bit contains either a “0” or a “1”. A single bit, in and of itself, does not have a lot of value until it is used. The same is true of information. Information does not have value until it is utilized.