Who Is Sophocles 'Euripides' Electra

Ancient expectations for women include always putting the responsibilities of being a mother above all else, as shown in Euripides’ Medea and Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, as well as Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis. Both Clytemnestra and Medea exhibit motherly love and tend to those responsibilities, but commit atrocious, unladylike acts, which jeopardize the sympathy felt for them by an audience. The respective playwrights of each story use their character’s motivations and how they align with their roles as mothers first and women second to ultimately characterize each in either a negative or positive light. The motherly motivation that Clytemnestra and Medea exhibit excuses their vengeful and deceitful actions, however Medea’s final action,

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).

The Oresteia is a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus. It was originally performed at the Dionysia Festival in Athens where it won the first prize in 458 B.C. The play wants to reveal the idea of justice. Men and women are in conflict. This situation leads Clytemnestra to become not a wife and mother (which were the only appropriate roles for respectable women in ancient Greece), but a tyrant. Clytemnestra in ancient Greek, was the wife of Agamemnon. She is one of the main characters in the play and I can say that it is the most interesting one. By “interesting” I don’t mean that is a likable character because she is considered a murderer but it is important to analyze the reasons

The major theme of Aeschylus is one that emphasized the strong understanding of human’s weakness and how the quest of power can corrupt, but mostly he tried to emphasize that violence and vengeance only brings about more violence and vengeance. His work also shows the belief that good always wins and in order for people to learn from their mistakes they must first suffer from those mistakes. Aeschylus confided his message in three plays known as the trilogy, first one is “Agememnon”, and it tells a story of a powerful king Agamennon who returned from a successful battle. However, along the way he was given the choice to either forsake his quest of glory or sacrifice his daughter to gain safer passage and continue on his quest. Choosing to sacrifice his daughter he later returned home only to be murdered by his wife and her lover. Her motive to kill was revenge her daughter death, to replace her husband and make her new lover king.

A Tale of Two Cities, Romeo and Juliet. Names such as these bring to mind both plays and pieces of literature that are considered by many to be timeless classics. Perhaps the reason these stories are so popular is not just because they are well written. People are also able to relate to the characters who are often entangled in one of the many complexities within a given society. Authors such as Shakespeare or Charles Dickens are able to discuss some of the issues and problems that face people within society. The answers to the these issues are often left unclear. Providing the audience a chance to ponder these questions and decide for themselves if a certain view is right, wrong, or somewhere in between.

Euripides and Sophocles wrote powerful tragedies that remain influential to this day. The vast majority of work recovered from this time is by male authorship. What remains about women of this time is written through the lens of male authors’ perspective and beliefs about the role of women in Greek culture. The works of these two playwrights frequently characterize women as unstable and dangerous. Agave, Antigone, and Medea are all undoubtedly the driving force behind the tragic action in these plays. It is their choices that lead to the pain and death of the people around them. Through an examination of the evidence from three separate works, Antigone, The Bacchae, and The Medea, the role of women in ancient Greek tragedy becomes clear. The actions of Agave, Antigone, and Medea repeatedly prove their characters instability and danger.

Euripides Medea is a play that largely embodies themes of sex and gender within Greek life, marriage and society. Lars Von Trier, Danish Screen writer, controversially took on and altered Euripides' classic Medea in the form of film. Although complex and compelling, Von Trier's film fails to capture major themes and qualities presented in the text version of the infamous Medea and relay them to an audience. Through the use of close reading and comparison, it can be proved that Lars Von Trier's film depiction of Euripides' Medea does not allow an audience to see the complexity and major themes of gender and masculinity that Euripides originally portrays to his audience, but rather depicts a story of lost love and femininity within the protagonist.

The most memorable writers are often those who diverge from the status quo, bending the lines just enough so that the curve of disbelief still faintly hits the border of reality. Although not the prime example, Athenian playwright Euripides deviated tremendously from the typical standards of Greek tragedies in his famous work Medea. Albeit the characterization was majorly based off of an existing Greek myth, Euripides’s manipulation of the protagonist and storyline created a drama encompassed by aberration and eccentricity far more peculiar than that of the established legend. However, Euripides used his audience’s developed knowledge of Greek mythology to his advantage and was still able to convey a believable story to the citizens of ancient Greece, earning him the third place prize at the Dionysian Festival that year.

Everyone would like to know what the future holds. Even today amid a weak economy and an increasingly violent society, the uncertainly of the future drives millions of people to turn to astrology and fortune telling to find security. The desire to know the future is a deep human emotional need and has been a part of philosophical and religious thinking since the Ancient Greeks. Sophocles, for example, emphasized the belief that most people lack insight and that truth only presents itself when it collides with ignorance ("Sophocles"). Thus, the gods and their oracles represented the divine order of the universe where humans were the unwilling subjects. These oracles were used to give advice and insight to men whose minds were full of fear. This fear contributes to the term Aristotle established as hamartia. In Aristotle 's conception, a tragic hero is a distinguished person occupying a high position, living in prosperous circumstances, and falling into misfortune because of an error in judgment, indicating the protagonist 's tragic weakness (T. C. W.). Sophocles, through his character Oedipus Rex, demonstrates how a man can end up a tragic hero even if he is in a state of ignorance. He doesn 't necessarily have to be making his “mistakes” intentionally. Oedipus’ downfall was within his own determination to find out the truth and his irrational reactions to what he heard that ironically brought disaster upon himself and his family.

Amongst Euripides' most famous plays, Medea went against the audience's expectations at his time. Indeed, the main character of the play is Medea, a strong independent female who neglected moral and . She was therefore in all ways different to how women were perceived in Ancient Greece. This essay will explore how Euripides' controversial characters demonstrate that his views were ahead of his time.

The poetic tone of Aristophanes' Lysistrata differs greatly from the poetic tone of the Greek tragedies we have read in class. However, after analyzing this Greek comedy, it seems to share some of the main characteristics of Euripides' Medea. Within these plays, we meet shrewd, powerful masculine women who use the art of manipulation to get what they want from others and to accomplish their goals. This theme of manipulation is employed through various means and techniques. The women of these plays also seem to contradict the stereotypical woman and have characteristics similar to the Homeric Greek warrior.

As the quote mentions Euripides was advanced for his time period as a result of this his plays were not as popular in comparison to other play writers such as Aeschylus and Sophocles. Although Euripides brought contemporary and complexed characters and dramatic plots to his time period he was greatly influenced by the society he lived in, which was the Dramatist of age and the Peloponnesian war, where there were a revolution throughout Greece which resulted in the society drifting away from old traditions and religious beliefs, this had an effect on his writing as many of his plays play on adultery, the killing and betrayal within families and the dynamics of

Aristotle cites that, "A man cannot become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall." Consistent to Aristotle’s characteristics of a tragic hero, the tragic hero must fit the requirements of being noble and employed in a high standing position of society. There should be a tragic flaw that ultimately leads to his downfall, and those reading the play must feel pity for this character as he goes through necessary changes as a result of his flaw. Aristotle illustrates a tragic hero as one who falls from grace into a state of acute misery. In Euripides’ Medea, the tragic hero is Jason, a man of noble birth who falls from being honored and respected due to a flaw in his character, that flaw being adultery. His adultery leads to terrible outcomes, the deaths of many people, and his loss of all the things he loved.His character is an excellent example of the heroes who rise high, then ultimately fail due to their own nature. By the end of the play he realizes his errors and becomes negligible. Some may argue that Medea is the tragic hero in the play, but this reasoning is flawed because Medea has no single flaw, she has exuded a sadistic nature from the start, from her actions involving the Golden Fleece to her killing her own offspring. Jason suffers from the fatal flaw of adultery that ultimately destines him for ruin, making it is clear that he serves as the tragic hero in Euripides '

Agamemnon returns from Troy, a victorious general, bringing home spoils, riches and fame. He is murdered on the same day as he returns. Clytemnestra, his adulterous wife, has laid in wait for her husband's homecoming and kills him whilst he is being bathed after his long journey. During the Agamemnon, large proportions of the Queen's words are justifications for her action, which is very much concerned with the sacrifice of Iphigenia to the gods, in order for the fleet to set sail for Troy. Aegisthus, the new husband of the Queen Clytemnestra, and partner in the conspiracy to murder the war hero, had reasons, which stemmed from the dispute between the Houses of Atreus and Thyestes. Was the

In our lives, we are surrounded by moments of tragedy that drives our will to keep moving forward. Our daily lifestyles are no different from the famous stories that playwrights have written throughout history. Playwrights are masters at combining theatre elements of tragedy, religion, violence, and numerous relative elements that the audience embrace faithfully. Today, Greek and Roman influence is the main topic since they have inspired the famous plays Desire under the Elms and The Glass Menagerie.