The Bacchae Essays

In language there is a plurality in the meanings of most words. In order to determine the definition of the word that the author is using, context clues are used. In Euripides’, The Bacchae, and Plato’s The Symposium, the meaning of the words intoxication and madness are played with, giving further meaning to the story and also adding further meaning to the themes in their respective plots. The meanings they use are similar in the fact that they both strengthen a common theme in both texts; the power

power. Moreover, his futile attempts of stopping the maenads shows the false realities of patriarchal societies. In Pentheus’ eyes, “the violence of these bacchants now blazes at our doors like a fire: it shames us greatly in the eyes of Hellas (Bacchae,

Imagine being looked at and automatically being assumed in the most negative, narcissistic way possible; this was what Frankenstein's unnamed monster faced throughout his life. In Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the monster that Dr. Frankenstein made is experiencing this exact problem, even though he did nothing to deserve that treatment. The book Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, conveys a strong message of people always relying on their own experience and ideas before objectively seeing a situation

Homer uses the Gods and Goddesses impact on Odysseus to show how redemption can be earned which is illustrated through Foster's quest theory. Circe, Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, and Helios are gods that symbolize mythological ideas, whereas in the Odyssey they symbolize lessons Odysseus needs to learn. Odysseus is a man that the gods critique often. Odysseus is on a journey to get home to his family from the Trojan War. Odysseus does not always make the best decisions and it gets himself in big trouble

In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the two main characters that the book centers around are the scientist Victor Frankenstein and his creation, known as the monster. While these two characters share the bond of life, their connection is not as strong as it could have been. Due to a multitude of factors, including the reaction to the appearance of the monster, these two characters were pushed further within themselves until everyone around them was gone. This alienation drove many of the important

own Euripides’ depiction of Medea’s rampage of revenge, Greek mythology is terrified of powerful women. The Bacchae by Euripides makes no exception and continues stifling female empowerment; however, Euripides adds his own unique spin on terrifying female depiction. Instead of just representing women in power as monsters to fear, he instead blames femininity as the culprit. He uses the Bacchae, Dionysus, and Pentheus as examples of the danger in accessing one’s own femininity. The Bacchae’s own control

Within the Greek myths and mythos the gods and goddesses, although human, are all powerful and all knowing. Disobeying or angering these mighty beings always leads to a negative outcome. From Athena turning Arachne into a spider for boosting about being better. To Leto sending Apollo and Artemis to kill Niobe’s 12 children for boosting about bearing more children then her. Not even Oedipus in Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex is spared from the gods’ wrath. There are many symbols that reveal how a possible

In much of ancient Greek and Roman literature, the gods are important characters. They help to drive the plot along, either by being benevolent figures, helping the human main characters, or as vengeful monsters bent on obstructing the journey of the protagonist. The gods can have both human and divine qualities. Quite the same, the humans in these ancient texts can be portrayed as having divine qualities, especially protagonists. Virgil’s Aeneid and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, while different in styles

In the novel Frankenstein,by Mary Shelley, the mysterious and unnatural origins of the character of Frankenstein’s monster are an important element. The Monster, having been created unethically and haphazardly, is at odds throughout the novel, resulting in his alienation from society and prolonged feelings of anger, desertion, and loneliness. Shaping his character, his relationships with other characters, and the meaning of the work as a whole, the Monster’s origins are what define him. The Monster

The story of the great artists of literature is glorified by history tells their tale. Homer is such one great poet. He is the author of the epic-tale of the Greek-Troy war entitled the Iliad. Homer immortalized it and its epic heroes .In this essay, I will examine the similes, that immortalize Homer as a poet, consider the canonization of his work, and end up offering a short poem as an example of how a literary work can become canonical. ( Scott.W, 2012) Homer’s similes characterized

many ancient texts reveal evidence of gender bending, such as during the story of ‘Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas’ when Perpetua faces death as a man. Furthermore, evidence of the breaking of gender roles can also be found within the Bacchae. To begin, the Bacchae is a story of Dionysus, the god of wine in Greek mythology and was written around 400 BC by Euripides. The story begins with the back-story of Dionysus and how his mother’s family believes he is not the son of Zeus. Pentheus, the cousin

be nice and do nice things and good deeds for other gods and mortals, but sometimes they can be fickle, and immoral in their decisions. Then we have this new, young god named Dionysus. He is the god of wine, partying and madness. In the play The Bacchae, by the playwright Euripides, we see what happens when the worship of Dionysus is mocked and shunned in the city of Thebes. The control of the king and the release provided by Dionysus are so contradictory that when they collide they produce disastrous

On Friday 23 of October, The Oswego theater presented The Bacchae, the play occurred at the Hewitt Union Ballroom. Before the event, I was aware of whom the characters were and the plot of the play, and also how long the play was going to take. When I arrived at the Hewitt center, I signed in and took a seat once I entered the ballroom, where the play was taking place. The play was being performed in an arena like theater, all the lighting equipment was around the audience. When the play began the

In Euripides’s The Bacchae and in William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, I found the gender roles in these particular plays to be very interesting because this was my first exposure to cross-dressing in works of literature. In The Bacchae, women play a huge role because women are often portrayed as feminine and inferior in many past works, however, in The Bacchae, the women of Thebes decide to rebel against the men and join the Greek God of grape harvesting, wine, fertility, and partying, in the woods

(1) In this play, the focus of attention is mainly on the Solders and not Jesus. It is this reason that the audience gets a fascinating view into the soldiers mind. Like in The Bacchae, there is no distinct line between good and evil. It is odd to see characters that one would usually view as evil, in the main character role. Most stories, will customarily use the ‘good guy’ as its main focus. People can relate and use these characters as role models. Thus, the playwright can showcase the moral of

In the tragedies of Euripedes takes a more symbolic status however should not be considered fundamental truths, but rather stories that deal with important aspects of humanity. Plots in Euripedes’ Bacchae attempt to inform their society through didactic stories of duality, rather than to be represented as expositions of historical truth. Euripedes observed the incursion of Near Eastern and Asian influences on religious and cultic practices, with Dionysus

character of Dionysos assumes itself in many ways throughout Euripides’ Bacchae, the god’s actions and intentions within the text are open to interpretation, due to the tragic nature of the play. Dionysos can be understood as a psychological force within the work but he is, to a greater degree, better understood to be a petty and vindictive god when considering the nature of his relationships to humans in the play. The Bacchae is commentary on this very topic as Gods play cosmic forces in the realm

In both the Metamorphoses and The Bacchae, there is an emphasis on the relationship between god and man. First, in the Metamorphoses, each story describes a transformation. In many of the stories, the gods are involved in the transformations of humans to animals as the result of an obstruction of power between the two (Ovid 194). Likewise, The Bacchae also exhibits physical transformations as one of its main themes. Again, this involves the power of a god being inserted over humans (Euripides 56)

Comparative Analysis: Don’t Mess with a Women In Susan Glaspell’s one-act play “Trifles” and Euripides ancient Greek tragedy “The Bacchae” the treatment of women can be said to be enslaved by men. In 405 B.C. (The Bacchae) and the early 1900’s (Trifles) was dominated merely by men. Joan Connelly, author of Portrait of a Priestess, described women of little or no importance and lacked the influence over political, religious or cultural views in the Greek period. Glaspell and Euripides brings awareness

in Corey Marvin’s Understanding Binary Oppositions in Literature, he simplifies this seemingly complex idea as this, “It simply describes a pair of theoretical opposites or thematic contrasts,” (Marvin, page 1). In Euripides’ plays Medea and The Bacchae, several key binary oppositions can be seen. The two major oppositions are that of morality and immorality, and piety against impiety which can both be interpreted as wronging and rectification. So, binary oppositions can be thought of as differing