How Does Euripide Criticize Society

Euripides’s plays often featured uncanny insight into the human condition and the struggle that his characters bore due to their expected roles within society.

Medea written by Euripides portrays a prodigious revenge plotted by a lover due to the unforgivable betrayal demonstrated by her husband. In ancient Greece, with a male predominant culture, Medea has established herself as a character of true courage and bravery due to the massacre she executed at the end of the play. Love, marriage, betrayal, revenge, and cunningness are revealed in the play as Medea conspires against Jason. Euripides speaks about these different characteristics of human nature portrayed by Medea to show the readers that the cunningness and shrewdness of Medea, plays an important role in the main characters’ lives as she prepares to avenge her anger on her husband.

Theatre was an important aspect of Ancient Greece, as it honoured the gods in a festival called Dionysian. An example of a Greek play is Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles. Throughout this tragedy, the main character, Oedipus, possesses hubris, which eventually leads to his loss of power and downfall. In Robert Fagles’ translation of Oedipus Rex, powerful dialogue, characters, and motifs demonstrate that excessive pride leads to the protagonist’s tragic downfall.

Greek drama was performed in the late 6th century BCE in ancient Greece. Tragedians like Euripides wrote very influential and popular plays such as the Bacchae. Greek tragedies lead to Greek comedies such as Aristophanes’ Lysistrata. Many of the Greek dramas have similar concepts, one of being duality. Without duality, the nature of our lives and the environment around us remains unbalanced.

    In ancient Greece the females were considered to be conniving and deceiving whisperers, and men almost never trusted their wives.  The ideal woman was an obedient and placating wife.  They believed that the female should be strong but still yield to the power of the male in charge, whether it was older brother, father, or husband.  Euripides often used females in uncommon ways; he did not simply show them as complacent animals.  Women in Euripides' plays were used for social commentary.  They were not just simple characters; they could be both agathos and kakos.  The females in the works of Euripides were extremely strong and devious and they were loyal but at the same time

Our play was the tragedy Hecuba which was written by Euripides in 424 BC, 7 years after the beginning of the Peloponnesian and Archidamian War which was fought between Athens and Sparta. Euripides was an Athenian who was born around 485BC on the island of Salamis which is off the coast of Piraeus. He competed several times in Athens’ annual City Dionysia, which, as we know, was a dramatic festival held in honour of Dionysus. This means that the majority of his audience would have been Athenians, like himself.

Euripides' Medea Medea is the tragic tale of a woman scorned. It was written in 431 B.C. by the Greek playwright, Euripides. Eruipides was the first Greek poet to suffer the fate of so many of the great modern writers: rejected by most of his contemporaries (he rarely won first prize and was the favorite target for the scurrilous humor of the comic poets), he was universally admired and revered by the Greeks of the centuries that followed his death('Norton Anthology';). Euripides showed his interest in psychology in his many understanding portraits of women ('World Book';). Euripides choice of women support characters such as the nurse and the chorus is imperative to the magnification of Medea's emotions.

In Greek theatre many writers used the theatre to get their philosophies, and personal believes out into society, like Sophocles. Sophocles was a Greek tragedine who practically revolutionized the Greek theater. Using more large new innovations in the theatre, Sophocles added more than two characters into his plays, resulting in more in depth characters and intricate dialogue between the characters. Sophocles wrote 120 plays over the course of his life, but only seven of them exist in their complete form. One example of a play that shines light on Sophocles believes is the drama Antigone. In Antigone, Sophocles cleverly constructed this play to get his moral lessons, religious views, and the values of wisdom.

Greek Drama played an important civic role in ancient Greece. This is evident in the tragic drama, Oedipus the King by Sophocles. The people of ancient Greece religiously believed in prophecies and the fact that the Gods controlled their destiny. If something were to be wrong with their lands then they would think that it was because something angered the gods, and in return would try to sacrifice animals in an attempt to make the Gods happy. These are some of the key points on which the play, Oedipus the King is based on.

Plays from around the world have similar situations and characters; but what a play different are the cultures and regions the plays are performed and written in. This affects the structure and the stages of the plays; examples of this are Noh Theater and Ancient Greek Theater, both different but have some similarities. Euripides and Zeami both apply different techniques in their theater ways, but both help apply each theater practice a way to make the audience more reactant of the characters, the story, and the stage. In example, The Bacchae by Euripides and Atsumori by Zeami are similar in how both use influences of their belief system and integrate in the play, however they are different culturally and they both have distinct stages for

Oedipus, a play written by Sophocles, has become a staple in the study of a Tragic hero in classic literature. When this was written in the fifth century, theatre was more than a means of entertainment but almost a religious event. Robert Fagles goes even further by saying that”theatre was not only a religious festival; it was also an aspect of the city’s political life.” (Fagles) . Greek dramas were presented only twice a year during religious festivals that honored Dionysus, the god of wines and crops. The quality and message of the plays reflected the religious and social importance of the time. Sophocles, born around 496 B.C., was not only a very successful tragic playwright but also a priest, and for a short time, a general in the army. His unique and well rounded background gave him a perspective on life that other may not have seen. Out of the one hundred and twenty plays that Sophocles wrote only seven survived in their original full condition. Oedipus the King, and Oedipus at Colonus were two of the tragic works that survived. The fact that Oedipus survived allowed it to become one of the most important works that Sophocles produced. The plot and characterization of the main character have allowed it to stand the test of time. If one wants to study Greek, tragic literature, Oedipus is certainly a play that should be considered as a classic piece of work. . Perhaps that is because the main character of Oedipus clearly defines what a tragic hero is by his

Plays have been written by authors from hundreds of years ago. In there plays they allow people to learn from the characters mistakes. These dramatic tragedies have so many versions of sadness and fear. The two tragedies Antigone and Othello show us how they were victims of the monarchy despite what there wrong doings were.

In the ancient world of the Greeks the everyday sculptors and play writers were focused on sculpting and plays; they would never be able to fathom the effect that they would have on the future of the world. The philosophers of the time maybe had a glimpse of the possibility. The Greek art made a standard for the future. The Greeks created drama. Ancient Greek art and drama is the foundation for today’s art and theatre has influenced it in numerous methods.

The historical period that the play is set in is that of ancient Greece post war that was caused by two brothers, the brothers of Antigone and Ismene. This time was of one under the tyrannical rule of Creon who came into position after the hero Oedipus’ death, Antigone and Ismene’s father. While this time period is far from that what modern audiences would recognize, the ideas and themes are still relatable to contemporary times. The aspect of the plot that a modern audience may have difficulty in understanding would be the suicides that happen as a result of Creon’s tyranny and how that would have been seen as revered where it is often seen as a repulsive response today. The concept as mentioned before would help to counter this, because by relating the play to another time when this sacrifice was deemed reasonable and more recognizable should lessen the focus on the suicide and more

In ancient Greece, plays were more then simply a form of entertainment. "Athenian drama was supported and financed by the state. (...)Greek theater was directed at the moral and political education of the community." (Kennedy and Gioia, pgs 1357-1363) Sophocles understood this, and dissipated any pollyanic view of society by presenting us with plays that were intended to teach. Sophocles's Oedipus the King issued a warning for those who foolishly believed that they could challenge the forces of nature. Sophocles was known for presenting characters that are fluid not static. So it should come as no surprise that the Oedipus the reader encounters at the outset of the play, an extraordinary leader, but