Abstract

Grieving Alone? Representation of Women in Grief in Euripides' Alcestis

Chandima S. M. Wickramasinghe

Volume: 11 Issue: 1 2021

Abstract:

The plots of Greek tragedies are all about human suffering and their characters are affected by or are victims of a grieving situation central to the play, and they communicate grief in different proportions. Alcestis is a tragi-comedy, which contains two female characters, namely, the queen Alcestis and her faithful slave nurse. Alcestis has volunteered to die on behalf of her husband and is now scheduled to die. Alcestis dominates the play though she does not appear throughout. The double self of Alcestis is effectively revealed by her slave nurse, in form of reported speech, to the audience even before she appears on stage. It exposes Alcestis’ true psychological situation and sad prognostications as she grieves in private, without tarnishing her dignity, while presenting her calm and composed behaviour in public as if unaffected by her looming death. When Alcestis appears on stage, she is physically frail but is mentally strong and vigilant to propose resolutions to alleviate her worries, articulated in the reported speech of the slave nurse. The present study first focuses on the way Euripides depicts grief and the resultant suffering of female characters in Alcestis, secondly, how the dramatist provides some respite from suffering to his female characters with reference to the dynamics of engagement of a character with the others, their feelings, thoughts and intentions.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37648/ijrssh.v11i01.007

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