Comedic Violence in The Medea, The Oresteia, and Antigone Essay

Comedic Violence in The Medea, The Oresteia, and Antigone Almost no Greek disaster escapes the use of violence. The Medea, The Oresteia, Antigone, and other classic works of Grecian tragoidia tout ensemble involve huge components of violence in many prominent places, and for alone of these stories, violent action is an integral part of the play. Medea, especially, is a character estimable of note in this regard her tumultuous life can be eyepatchted accurately along a path of aggression and concupiscent fits, and her bloody history lends tension and ascendance to the cathartic events of the gripping Medea. In contrast to this turbulent streak of brutality in Grecian tragedy stands the world of Greek comedy. Violence in comedy is just as much a part of the plot as it is in tragedy however, this superficial parallel ends the similarity between the two types of stories. Violence in a comedy has its own motives, its own consequences, and its own types of influence, and these dif ferences accumulate to take away a whole new, non-tragic light to the ideas of violence and action in the general storyline. Between Greek tragedy and comedy, every aspect of violence is different, and the ramifications of this divergency are far-reaching. A first comparison of violence between The Medea and Lysistrata leads to an Copernican and ironic conclusion. In The Medea, violence is a pivotal component of the storys message. Medea herself is considerably the most physically violent character in the story, and her methods in its plot resort to pain and death when there is conflict in contend of resolution. Despite this, the actual tension in the story is not innate(p) of violence rather, it is born of love and social strife. Jason, Medeas husband, is taking a n... ...akes something a comedy and what makes something tragic. Works Cited Aeschylus the Oresteia trans. Robert Fagles, New York Penguin Books, 1976. Antigone by Sophocles. Translated by R. C. Jebb. no pag. http//classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/antigone.html Euripedes. Medea, in Euripedes I. Ed. David Grene and Richmond Lattimore. Chicago University of Chicago Press, 1955. Goldhill, S. Reading Greek Tragedy, Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 1986. Heidegger, Martin. The Ode on gentlemans gentleman in Sophocles Antigone. In Sophocles A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Thomas Woodard. Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. Lucas, F.L. Euripides and His Influence. NY Cooper Square, 1963. McDermott, E A (1989) Euripides Medea The Incarnation of Disorder. papa State UniversityUSA